Why Does Writing Run Away With You?

When I started to write this post, my intention was to write something completely different from what came out! It was meant to be about a philosophical point, which will now have to wait until a later time. As I was writing it I noticed something happening which, for me at least, happens all the time. So I decided to go with it, and it became the post you see below. Not on the original philosophy subject, but it's still a philosophy post, I think...

This is (I hope) going to be only a short post! I know that sometimes I tend to ramble along in what seems like a bit of a random way, but I do actually have a plan. It's just that I don't always keep to it! I'll be writing about something, and while I'm in the act of writing, something else occurs to me and I think, yeah OK that's relevant, so I should put that in as well, and then before you know it, there's a couple of hundred words suddenly on the page that were not, repeat NOT part of the original plan!

There's also another thing that happens to me when I write. It's the tendency of words to somehow take on a life of their own and start running away with what you were wanting to say. Sometimes you actually find that it's become impossible to say some of the things you were wanting to say, because in some way, the words you've just put down somehow preclude the ones you want to say! By this I mean that to say them would involve back-tracking right to the beginning to make a kind of NEW preamble to what you want to say, and this would make the piece become too long, and maybe even a bit boring.

Writing is HARD to do!

I am actually quite pleased to find out that I'm not the only one who finds this happening to them. I've read a few other writings from people who, especially in blogs, notice a similar effect.

So then, my question is this:

To all writers, does this happen to you, or doesn't it? Any comments will be gratefully received...