things that feel like Writing but aren’t Writing:
making a mood board
making a playlist for each character
engaging with writing accounts on social media
whining about how hard writing is
making/selecting character art
making a fancy family tree for your characters
watching a movie that reminds you of your story
writing ‘character interviews’
describing the plot of the book you’re for sure going to write to others in writing groups on FB or Discord
cleaning/organizing your desk (I’m so sorry)
there are others and it’s not like these things cannot be useful, but they are NOT writing.
Things that are writing:
outlining
drafting
editing
thinking/talking through a plot or character problem (an edge case but I’ll allow it)
NECESSARY research
NECESSARY worldbuilding
there may some others, based on the type of project you are working on, but these are also edge cases.
I’m sorry to be the one to tell you all this but I think a few people could find the reminder helpful.