Pausing for thought

I know only one authors joke. Two authors meet in the street and one says 'I'm  writing a novel.’ The other replies ’Neither am I.’
However, sometimes pausing, or the act of reflection during or before writing, is a useful step in the composing process. Good writers tend to pause longer and more often than poor writers, I find.
Writer Sharon Pianko, calls pausing "the single most significant act of the composing process and Lee Odell compares the thinking to a camera zooming in to let us see a character in relation to what surrounds him.
Sometimes, pausing for thought pays dividends.
John Dean