Cat Tales: Miscellany and Mischief

January 2 (30DBC)

30DBC January 2 Prompt: Isaac Asimov, born on this day in 1920, once said "Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers." What are your thoughts on this quote? Is writing simply a brain-to-hand exercise, or is there more involved?

I can very much relate to this quote. For me, I write to process my own thoughts, to solve problems, to think through plans, and to organize basically my entire existence. I think that a very great part of writing is exactly as Asimov describes: "thinking through my fingers." However, there is also an art to writing, even if it's writing something that no one else will ever see. Especially with handwriting, there's a certain way that you put together a string of words that's unique to you and your style. The way you form each 'c' or cross each 't' is also an aesthetic thing, deeply physical and psychological. It combines the left brain (which I think of as more of the 'brain-to-hand exercise' described above) and right brain, which takes the raw data of your thoughts and puts it into a form that's pleasing to the eye and the mental ear when read either aloud or mentally. That process takes some creativity and careful crafting, even if you're simply scribbling in your journal or testing some new story ideas in the raw.

AlyCatAuthor