While doing the pre-writing exercise, I realized that I am my toughest obstacle.  The biggest obstacle for me is getting started.

  I tend to think about what I’m going to write and how I can organize it for quite some time before I actually put pen to paper and even then I rethink and rewrite until I find my direction.  One of the techniques I have learned is to free write which allows me to write what comes to mind and then pick and choose what works for the point I’m trying to make.  I also procrastinate and spend too much time doing research.  I don’t like to write what I think; I’m more comfortable writing what I know and supporting it with good citations.

   This type of writing takes a whole lot of time and sometimes I would just like to be able to write.  Maybe I should become a professional free-writer.  Anyone know of job opportunities in that? 

The reading this week was about storytelling as a way to explain historical events.  I think it is interesting how a writer or reporter is able to retell history by telling a story and it is only according to the writer’s perspective as to how history may be retold.  To add to this, it is also the reader’s perspective as to how they perceive the story being told.  They may have an opinion already and so when they read this story they are already looking at it with a jaded eye.  

I find this interesting because this is similar to how our clients perceive situations they are faced with.  Some look at it one way and others in another way.  This can make it difficult when as a social worker you want to help a client understand they need to work with a service provider even though they have decided that person had judged them or doesn't like them and so your client decides they can’t work with this person.  It is your job to help them realize their biases and mediate between them and the service provider so that your client is able to receive the services necessary to help them overcome whatever problem they are facing.  

Men are disturbed not by the things that happen,

But by their opinion of the things that happen. 

~ Epictetus ~