{"id":373,"date":"2011-05-01T08:04:54","date_gmt":"2011-05-01T15:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/?p=373"},"modified":"2011-08-13T17:28:03","modified_gmt":"2011-08-14T00:28:03","slug":"writing-is-re-writing-and-what-a-pencil-can-tell-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/writing-is-re-writing-and-what-a-pencil-can-tell-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing is ReWriting (and what a pencil can tell us)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>Writing is rewriting.\u00a0 It\u2019s not only about finding the errors, it\u2019s also about finding better words and phrasing to express what you want to say and make your story sing. \u00a0And it\u2019s about cutting out the crap\u2014the words that do nothing to move your story forward.<\/p>\n

Rewriting is a also good metaphor for life. When I was a clinical social worker in the 70s, I heard a lecture by William Glasser, who\u2019d just published his ground-breaking book, Reality Therapy<\/strong>. He presented a simple idea. He said, basically, if what you\u2019re doing isn\u2019t getting you what you want, then change what you\u2019re doing. <\/em>It was the doing<\/em> that was critical.<\/p>\n

Like most people, there were moments in my life, when I sat around day dreaming, wishing things could be different. By thinking change could come magically from the outside, I was overlooking the tremendous power I had to change my life for the better.\u00a0 Fortunately, I\u00a0 stumbled upon a book called What Color is Your Parachute? <\/strong>I began doing <\/em>the exercises in the book\u2014examining my work history, my likes, my dislikes, my wins, my losses, and what I could learn from them. What worked for me and what didn\u2019t. Instead of becoming immobilized, I looked at my past mistakes. I didn\u2019t dwell on them. I was able to move in a different direction, one that moved my life story forward.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Because so many people who came to see me for counseling were stuck on past mistakes\u2014and making the same ones over and over again\u2014I would start by telling them about the pencil. Why pencils have erasers. It\u2019s because we all make mistakes. We need to stop beating ourselves up, learn from them, and do<\/em> something different.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a wonderful moment in the book and film, Eat, Love, Pray<\/strong> <\/em>by Elizabeth Gilbert. Our protagonist finds herself at an ashram where one of the guests gives her a note to read while she\u2019s meditating. It has to do with forgiving herself.\u00a0 Forgiving her mistakes.<\/p>\n

Whenever I mess up now, I try and remember the pencil.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writing is rewriting.\u00a0 It\u2019s not only about finding the errors, it\u2019s also about finding better words and phrasing to express what you want to say and make your story sing.… <\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[88,86,4],"tags":[107,109,110,108,47,106,5],"class_list":["post-373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-therapy-2","category-writing","tag-clinical-social-worker","tag-eat-love-pray","tag-elizabeth-gilbert","tag-reality-therapy","tag-rewriting","tag-william-glasser","tag-writing-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LuVB-61","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1260,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2013\/uncategorized\/spinning-wheels-in-the-gun-debate\/","url_meta":{"origin":373,"position":0},"title":"Spinning Wheels in the Gun Debate","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"30 \u0421\u0456\u0447\u043d\u044f, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The gun debate in the USA reminds me of something a therapist once told me on a particularly cold and snowy day in Winnipeg, back in the 70s. I was working as a clinical social worker at the time, and was at an all day workshop with William Glasser, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"250px-Stuck-Car-3752","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/250px-Stuck-Car-3752.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6263,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2023\/writing\/finding-your-voice\/","url_meta":{"origin":373,"position":1},"title":"Finding Your Voice","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"13 \u041b\u0438\u043f\u043d\u044f, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Finding your voice is what our granddaughter Chloe Matamoros underlines in her one-woman show, VOICE: SONG and SCREAM for the Toronto Fringe Festival. Yesterday, she had a standing ovation. I\u2019ve done some acting in my time, but Chloe is something else. She sings selections from operas, a musical, and folk\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Theatre"","block_context":{"text":"Theatre","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/theatre-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Finding Your Voice","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_607932622.jpg?fit=539%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_607932622.jpg?fit=539%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_607932622.jpg?fit=539%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":417,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/revision-redux\/","url_meta":{"origin":373,"position":2},"title":"Revision Redux","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"24 \u0422\u0440\u0430\u0432\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Trust me to go over and over my work. I get some interest and I'm off again, rewriting the story I've written. In writing my novel, I went on an adventure with my protagonist to Ireland and its underwater surprises. Of course, I had to see everything but everything isn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/P10107993-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":353,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/like-a-clothes-closet\/","url_meta":{"origin":373,"position":3},"title":"Like a clothes closet","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"26 \u041a\u0432\u0456\u0442\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Since I've had some interest in my novel, I thought it wouldn't hurt to revisit what I've written and make sure it's as good as it can get. What stunned me--you'd think I'd know by now--is the number of edits I can still make. A first draft is often stuffed\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":411,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/uncategorized\/writing-a-guest-blog\/","url_meta":{"origin":373,"position":4},"title":"Writing a Guest Blog","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"18 \u0422\u0440\u0430\u0432\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I find the whole world of blogging fascinating. As a newbie, I've now met people from all parts of the world showing their colors through what they write. As I've worked many years as a clinical social worker, I was intrigued by Paula Renaye\\'s website. She's a life coach with\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/cid_sigimg1%40f765733703ecc61b79823bc163645fc1-205x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":296,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/more-thoughts-on-writing-rules-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":373,"position":5},"title":"More thoughts on writing rules","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"5 \u041a\u0432\u0456\u0442\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Paula Renaye, author of The Hardlines Self-Help Handbook www.hardlineselfhelp.com had an interesting response to my earlier post on writing rules. As she said I could post her thoughts, here they are: \"It's funny, we all approach a topic from our experiences and our own lens. When I first started writing,\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}