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# The Sponge Theory of Writing
- URL: https://www.philsimon.com/the-sponge-theory-of-writing/
- Published: 2013-04-11T12:28:53.000Z
- Updated: 2025-06-20T00:15:31.000Z
- Description: Answering the question, "What's your writing process?"
- Author: Phil Simon
- Tags: Communication, Faves, Creativity, Message Not Received, Writing

What's your writing process?"

It's one of the questions that I'm most frequently asked. I explain to people that my writing process best described as sponge-like.

Let me explain.

I'm constantly absorbing material, whether it's blog posts, videos, podcasts, books, or actual [in-person conversations](https://www.philsimon.com/pick-up-the-phone/). (Remember those?) More often than not, that material tends involve data, management, technology, and people. (See tagline of this site.) It's not as if I read a great deal about 17th-century French poetry, reality television, or life in Madagascar. There's a high degree of overlap between what I read and what I write. Finally, it doesn't hurt that I speak about these topics.

Let's just say that the contents of my brain are not equally distributed.

> The contents of my brain are not equally distributed.

Eventually, the sponge gets full. It can't hold any more water and I have to squeeze it. Keeping with the metaphor, out comes a book in a relatively short period of time. It's not that I sit down to do research; it's that I have been been doing the research for awhile.

## Simon Says: Embrace The Sponge Theory of Writing

Different writers follow different processes, and one way is not fundamentally better than any other. [Steven Johnson](https://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/?ref=philsimon.com) writes 500 words per day, every day. It works for him and I enjoy his books.

For me, though, the sponge method feels right. It's natural and intuitive and I can't see setting arbitrary floors and ceilings on how much I write per day.