In the start of this mini series, I mentioned the immense value I’ve received from writing daily and frequently.

I’ve mentioned before how journaling can be a cheaper alternative to therapy, and there has been proven science-backed value in writing.

I experienced this through my own journaling routines like morning pages and interstitial journaling, and through communities like Roam Book Club, where we are encouraged to brain dump all our thoughts — the well thought out ones and the fleeting ones.

Writing has become my way out.

A way out of my head — to transfer thoughts into clear ideas, process knowledge, process emotions, to connect with others, to think out loud.

It’s helped me become a better thinker.

Through writing, I remove all the ideas and thoughts in my head out of my working memory, and can begin to piece my ideas together.

It’s been my way to achieve inner peace and manage anxiety or feelings of overwhelm. When a problem is too complex to be solved in my head, the best resolution I’ve found is to bring the problem down on paper.

Writing helps me untangle many things when it comes to problem solving: the open questions I have, possible tasks I need to manage, insights, emotions, etc. The variables related to a single problem can be difficult to piece together in our heads alone.

But I finally grasped something in the past few months: sometimes, writing alone is not enough.

Writing is only one side of the coin.

Writing is text — it can appear in many forms: a scrawl on the back of a notebook, email bullet points, assorted text or notes, post-it note messages, or even emojis.

It can be fully processed idea, or it can be a fragmented and messy brain dump.

Both constitute as writing. But at times, writing is not enough.

Through my experience with Ship30for30, I learned there is a stylistic nuance between writing and publishing.

When it comes to formulating a concept or trying to solve a problem, writing is often times only the first step. If you want to formulate a compelling argument, a cohesive idea, or explain a concept, more often than not you will need a start, middle, and finish.

In essence, you need a cohesive piece of writing.

Writing is the foundation of  idea, but often, without the accountability of a published piece, the idea is only half finished.

This is where publishing comes into play.

This is a mini essay series called ‘Revelations of Writing’. I’ll be writing a daily essay every weekday focused on unpacking my thoughts on writing, and how it relates to thinking. You’ll find them in the category labelled ‘Atomic.’