I used the phrase "thinking with my fingers" today.
Twice.
What I meant when I said that was that I find that I use my "editing" brain best when I have some text in front of me, and a can move it around and format it easily. I enjoy taking someone else's written ideas and working with it as plaintext. Mashing it and moving it around, rewriting bits and copy-pasting it. Fold, spindle and mutilate.
Because at the end of the day, its easy to believe that all you are is words. An expression of a jumbled pile of ideas brought into reality based on the arrangement of phonemic representations.
To that end, I think I understand my hostility toward overbearing word processors now.
Hell, many varieties of Christian have trouble differentiating the word of God from God Himself... You know what, I'm going to back away slowly from that. Nevermind. Forget I said anything.
Anyway, my best ideas come to me while my fingers are flipping around on the keyboard. When I have to stop to mouse, I lose focus and move along to other things. That's what I mean by "thinking with my fingers."