writing yet not writing

I am discovering that writing is not just writing.  It is reading publisher websites and writer's blogs.  It is searching for editors and their desires.  It is reading chapter books and middle grade books that are currently popular.  It is writing query letters that are written and then rewritten.  It is sending manuscripts.  It is revising, revising, revising.

writing's spokes of a wheel

I have been spending my time working on writing, which may involve actually pen to paper or not.  This writing world has more spokes than a bicycle wheel.  I have spent hours reading different writer's blogs; editor's submissions guides; author's websites; books on the craft; trends in electronic publication; self publications and agents.  I am tring to understand this world.

The one thing that stands out above all else is that it all begins with a great story.  And so I write.