Writing begins at the point where speech becomes impossible

Interesting.

Roland Barthes -- Writing begins at the point where speech becomes impossible . . . when the very idea is subject to recursive shaping by language, then speech becomes inadequate.

Barthes' ideas here highlight the major difference between students' ideas about language and revision and experienced writers' idea: for students, writing is a matter of representing what's already been thought, what's in their head, while experienced writers see language use, writing, and revision as a process in which one creates and shapes meaning, in a sense, something from nothing.

For Barthes, writing becomes a necessity when we have nothing left to say, because, the ideas, the words, are no longer preformed within our brains, and through the process of writing we are able to formulate new ideas. Writing . . . powerful stuff.