Thinking about Your Writing—Constantly

There are many, many books and essays where writers talk about writing—how to get better, which craft moves to make, scheduling writing time, etc. These texts are usually rich and offer many ideas to consider for the novice or veteran writer.

However, there is one idea I haven’t seen explored in great depth, only briefly mentioned by some writers. It has to do with thinking about your writing even when you aren’t writing. Often, this thinking is all consuming, at least it has been in my case. Driving while thinking about revisions; at the grocery store with a mind on the next sentence; talking to friends and thinking about a new paragraph.

I think an essay exploring the consequences—perhaps to mental health, to social relationships—of this sort of thinking could be really interesting. I could maybe see an essay that shows the issues and potentially offers some helpful advice on how to move past these all consuming thoughts on writing.