That is absolutely true. Sometimes the words come quickly, other times it's 4 papers open and chewing at my fingers whilst the ideas percolate/ I'm trying to pull the word I'm looking for from thin air.
Exactly. Nit all the work appears in the document immediately. It’s still work. Thinking is work. It requires time and effort.
It also sometimes requires time to percolate in the background while you do other things. Load bearing bullshit tasks, maybe, or non-work things