I had a terrific Introductory Genetics professor at McGill, Dr. John Southin, who extolled the virtues of “pure cerebration.” He talked about how often scientific progress was made through the power of thinking. In the writing world, I think too much emphasis is placed on producing x number of words per day or x number of books or x number of whatever it is we insist upon quantifying. Many writers (and I definitely fit in this category) don’t have massive output, but we do spend a lot of time thinking about the work. We may have nothing to show for our thinking on a given day. What we do have to show for it may not appear for quite a while. But that’s okay. Moreover, thinking has innate value. Doing a lot of it helps me become a better writer.