Writing as an Exercise in Wisdom

Learning what we think by reading what we say

An editor who was haranguing Flannery O’Connor to outline her work before she wrote her books received her sharp rebuttal:

I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.

There is a lot truth to her observation, truth that extends beyond writing in one’s personal journal—although that is often a great place to start writing. It is true of all kinds of writing: stories, poems, and essays. It’s one of the reasons teachers require students to write, especially essays.

Essay as a noun means a short literary composition on a subject. But the verb essay (Fr, essai) means to make an attempt or put one’s subject to the test. Writing essays help us discover the difference between what we think we know and what we actually know about a subject, topic, or position.

Honest writing frequently changes our own mind about our subject, or at least it tends to help refine our position on the subject we are considering. Writing reveals the nuances.

When we write, we discover not only what to think but we discover how to think more wisely (assuming we are virtuous people) because we can hold our words before us and evaluate them. Others can hold out our words and evaluate them too.

Writing can help us analyze the strengths and weaknesses of our arguments, see holes or fallacies in our logic, and learn how to hold multiple thoughts or competing arguments together, in tension.

Ultimately, writing helps us learn what we really think by reading what we really said.

Only then will we have the proper knowledge and understanding of our own thoughts to discover whether or not we agree with ourselves—and whether or not we would fare better if we changed our minds.

As my title posits, the process of writing is, itself, a kind of exercise in wisdom.

---

---