Writing is difficult partially because we don't always know what we are trying to

say. In fact, often we are just writing toward an idea, rather than conveying the
idea to someone else. It's during the revision process that we can take
whatever occurred to us as it occurred to us, and put it in an order the makes
the most sense to someone else. There's an exchange in a famous dialogue
by Plato, called Phaedrus, during which this idea is discussed. I've
paraphrased it below.

Soc. Lysias appears to have jumbled his sentences,

begun at the end instead of the beginning. Don't you
think, Phaedrus?

Phaedr. Yes, indeed, Socrates; he begins at the end.

Soc. There's no logical order to the sentences. He seems

to have written them down as they occurred to him. Every
discourse ought to be a living creature, having a body of
its own and a head and feet; there should be a beginning,
a middle, and an end, adapted to one another and to the
whole?

Phaedr. Certainly.

Soc. Consider the following poem: