Writer/director Noam Baumbach thinks by doing

At his appearance along with Ben Stiller last night on Charlie Rose, writer/director Noam Baumbach explained the process of writing the screenplay for his upcoming film, Greenberg.

Never comfortable with making an outline first and then “filling it in,” Baumbach spoke of starting with the characters and letting the ideas and structure of the film flow outward from there.

This helps to confirm that the thinking is in the doing.

Rather than merely “flesh out” a predetermined concept or strategy, creative activity is the method by which we arrive at those larger organizing ideas.

The writing precedes the outline.   The doing precedes the thought.