When I listen to Portuguese, I am submitting for my usual (English) internal monologue, an alternate track, installing, as it were, the language in my mind, bit by bit. It's a pleasant feeling most of the time, though sometimes I get tired of listening to Portuguese nonstop. At these points I usually just switch from speech to music, or vice versa.

Writing is hard, but in some ways it's easy. Just keep doing it. It doesn't necessarily get easier, at least with this kind of writing, but you do get used to some aspects of it. I'm sure creative writing is another animal altogether.