Words are not just the pieces of speaking but of thinking
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I received a package from my old friend Serendipity yesterday. She has sent me a bunch of cool things over the years so I opened the box eagerly. It was a quote about the power of writing that, quite honestly, took my breath away.
I received a package from my old friend Serendipity yesterday. She has sent me a bunch of cool things over the years so I opened the box eagerly. I could immediately tell this was special. In fact, it took my breath away.
I love stumbling upon the interesting and the awesome. But what I really get a kick out of is the under appreciated and the arcane. Serendipity’s recent gift definitely qualifies.
Enough with the intro and the suspense. Someone tweeted a quote from an obscure 2013 Sci-Fi novella called “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling” by Ted Chiang. After a fair amount of googling I managed to buy the ebook which I’m now gobbling up.
What took my breath away is a quote about writing. Below is a lightly edited version:
As he practiced, he came to understand that writing wasn’t just a way to record what someone said; it could help you decide what you would say before you said it.
Words were not just the pieces of speaking; they were the pieces of thinking.
When you wrote them down, you could grasp your thoughts like bricks in your hands and push them into different arrangements. Writing let you look at your thoughts in a way you couldn’t if you were just talking, and having seen them, you could improve them, make them stronger & more elaborate.
I love stumbling upon the interesting and the awesome. But what I really get a kick out of is the under appreciated and the arcane. Serendipity’s recent gift definitely qualifies.
Enough with the intro and the suspense. Someone tweeted a quote from an obscure 2013 Sci-Fi novella called “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling” by Ted Chiang. After a fair amount of googling I managed to buy the ebook which I’m now gobbling up.
What took my breath away is a quote about writing. Below is a lightly edited version:
As he practiced, he came to understand that writing wasn’t just a way to record what someone said; it could help you decide what you would say before you said it.
Words were not just the pieces of speaking; they were the pieces of thinking.
When you wrote them down, you could grasp your thoughts like bricks in your hands and push them into different arrangements. Writing let you look at your thoughts in a way you couldn’t if you were just talking, and having seen them, you could improve them, make them stronger & more elaborate.