Writing definition

As it all runs together, I need to think about what writing is.

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Writing as marks on a screen or a page:

The scribble on paper or the seemingly meaningless assortment of marks isn't really writing, but more the evidence of writing. The proof that some sort of writing took place. So writing must predate the documentation of writing, which is confusing to me, but I'm going to keep going with it.

So if the marks on a computer screen, paper, rock tablet, aren't writing, just the evidence of writing, then writing itself must be some sort of internal process. Even an oral pronunciation of writing is still just an account of the process of writing.
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Writing as an internal process:

So maybe writing is a dialogue that occurs within a person's mind. A sequencing of ideas put in an order cohesive with their own understanding. In this way, we make writing something that happens solely in the mind. An author composing a story in her mind. A poet swirling lines together to form a poem. An article shaping up in imaginary columns.

There's a problem with this. Writing also seems to need some sort of communication. It needs an audience, and perhaps a possible external audience. But if we require an external audience, diary writing can't count as writing. Note taking can't count as writing. So there must be some sort of audience, and writing must include a communication with that audience.

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So writing can't be simply be thought, nor can it simply be markings / audible proof. But it has to include both of those things. So maybe we can think of writing as a relationship between writer and audience, even if the audience is the writer in the future.

Ok. Let's take a shot.

Working definition:

Writing is the relationship and communication between a writer and his or her audience. In this definition, the writer is one who produces a text and the audience is the person or persons who consume the text. Writing is the means that text is transported from the mind of the writer to the minds of the audience. Note that text does not need to be on paper, stone, sheepskin, cardboard, or any tangible material. It can be auditory, communicated through sign language, or experienced by touch. Maybe we can throw smell and balance in there somehow.

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Shortened definition: Writing is the means that a text is transported from the mind of the composer to the mind/minds of the audience.