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I can write a poem in my head without ever writing it down on paper. I still wrote a poem, even if I just pass it along orally. If I write a song for my girl,
by stronglikedan 3mo ago
I can write a poem in my head without ever writing it down on paper. I still wrote a poem, even if I just pass it along orally.
If I write a song for my girl, I'm not going to hand her a piece of paper with sheet music and lyrics, I'm going to perform it for her. I may write it down, or I may not.
Of course, composed is a more precise word, but everyone still knows what I mean if I replace it with write.
- furyofantares 3mo agoAre you also calling it literature if it's not written down?
- JumpCrisscross 3mo ago> I can write a poem in my head without ever writing it down on paper. I still wrote a poem, even if I just pass it along orally This is generalising the term writing to the point of uselessness. In your example, you thought of a poem and spoke it. You didn't write it.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 3mo agoI don’t think so. The colloquial usage exists as grandparent commenter describes. I can be a “songwriter” without literally writing the lyrics to my song down.
- ben_w 3mo agoDisagree, I think it's analogous to how we today use "fire" to describe the action of loosing an arrow or whatever the technical term is for a trebuchet, even though neither has gunpowder.
- aforwardslash 3mo agoYou can take note. Writing is a physical action, e.g. performing output. Writing is an action. You can memorize, take a mental note, but you are not writing. (Someone else mentioned Camōes, a portuguese who famously/allegedly saved his writings from a shipwreck by swimming with one arm and using the other to keep the book above water; your interpretation of "writing" is an insult)