It's not "doodling"

where we make forward progress by giving ourselves a hand

A big part of my writing process is what looks like doodling. I hate that word, doodling. It’s drawing, but its implications are meandering and mindless, just screwing around. But it’s what my writing often looks like, and it weighs on me. I’m hard on myself when it comes to getting stuff done, and often, at the end of the day, at the end of a week, or …