The problems I had/have with writing kind of feel the same as the problems I have with art.

(Which are: I can see how lines and shading suggest 3D objects. I can also see lines etc. as 2D areas of color on a page. I find it really hard to switch back and forth between the two views and figure out exactly how the suggestion of 3D shapes happens.)

I can understand what I’m writing in the spontaneous order that it comes to me.

Or I can try to organize it in a top-down sort of way that will work as a straightforward explanation for people who don’t have all the context in my head.

But it’s hard to get everything from one state into the other. I’ve gotten a lot better at dealing with this– at juggling points around and deciding what order they should go in, at rephrasing things to be more straightforward.

I can even write with an eye to things that will sound good, sometimes, things that would flow smoothly when spoken aloud.

But actually trying to imagine other people reading my writing, and what they might think of it, is a whole other (mind-boggling) thing.