Yes! Completely.

I think many of us get trapped by the image of the writer at the desk in the same way others get trapped by the image of the painter at the easel. As if the work only counts once it becomes visible in the approved posture.

I think writing is mostly thinking made artfully tangible, which means of course far more of it happens before the keyboard ever enters the picture.

Walking helps me enormously with this. Sometimes the mind needs movement. Sometimes it needs to stop staring at the sentence and go look at something alive for a while.

So do conversations with Misha, and strange little bits of tinkering when I’m stuck like arranging beachcombed treasures, reading something altogether unrelated, and letting the mind and body move indirectly.

I’ve also come to suspect that not every idea that passes through us is actually ours to fully develop. Some ideas are more like breadcrumbs. They lead us toward the one that really catches and stays.

And honestly, that takes so much pressure off.