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One Continuous Mistake: Four Noble Truths for Writers
Based on the Zen philosophy that we learn more from our failures than from our successes, One Continuous Mistake teaches a refreshing new method for writing as spiritual practice. In this unique guide for writers of all levels, Gail Sher—a poet who is also a widely respected teacher of creative writing—combines the inspirational value of Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way with the spiritual focus of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. Here she introduces a method of discipline that applies specific Zen practices to enhance and clarify creative work. She also discusses bodily postures that support writing, how to set up the appropriate writing regimen, and how to discover one's own "learning personality."
In the tradition of such classics as Writing Down the Bones and If You Want to Write, One Continuous Mistake will help beginning writers gain access to their creative capabilities while serving as a perennial reference that working writers can turn to again and again for inspiration and direction.
224 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
October 6, 2011
I can play chess nonstop for twenty-four straight hours without rest or sleep. My sparring partner in this insane activity is a court sheriff named Arnold. We have done this several times already and even if we are really no longer young, we have managed to survive. So far.
We start playing on a Saturday noon, before or after lunch. Time control is usually twenty or fifteen minutes per player per game using a digital chess clock. I cannot speak for him but I guess our experience is the same: I cease to be conscious of the usual "time." All I'd notice, and only very briefly each occasion, would be these succession of events: 1. it's beginning to get dark outside and food is being placed beside our chess board by my househelps; 2. it's dark and there are sounds being made by living beings (talk, tv channels being replaced, cars coming and going, etc.); 3. relative silence, then the cock crows; 4. it's getting bright; 5. househelps come with coffee and food; 6. it's really bright outside; 7. lunch, again beside the chess board. We then eat and call it a day. I stand up, knees shaking. After the sheriff leaves, I lay down and try to sleep but I wouldn't be able to, until about an hour. Once I fall asleep, however, I won't wake up until after twelve hours.
I used to explain this phenomenon by citing drug addicts as examples. I'd say chess is addictive so when you're playing you become "high" and you're transported to another level of existence where "time" is faster or more ephemeral. In this book, however, I found a more plausible explanation:
"Mihaly Cskiszentmihalyi, a psychologist at the University of Chicago, has developed a theory of optimal inner experience based on the concept of 'flow,' which he defines as a state of utter engrossment. In this state, a person becomes so deeply absorbed in an activity that nothing else matters. Contrary to what we usually believe, our best moments occur when our body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile, Cskiszentmihalyi contends. Happiness, therefore, is something we can MAKE happen by becoming one with whatever we are doing.
"Suzuki-roshi says, '...if you limit your activity to what you can do just now, in this moment, then you can express fully your true nature, which is the universal Buddha nature.'
"'Limiting your activity to what you can do just now' includes both contracting and intensifying. Painter Walter Sickert was admired for living 'at such a pitch of awareness (it was) as if he remembered death at all times.' Monks routinely meditate in cemeteries to instill the same lesson. Why would that make you happy? Because both body and mind are fully engaged, stretched to their limits of understanding.
"(Thomas) Hardy's work--and her (Virginia Woolf's) meeting with him--confirmed her sense that in fiction, as in autobiography and biography, it was the 'moments of great intensity,' which counted and told all.'
"Thoreau based his life on this principle. A few days before he died, a visitor asked, 'You seem so near the brink of the dark river that I almost wonder how the opposite shore may appear to you.' His answer: 'One world at a time.'"
Despite its chess-sounding main title, however, this book is not about chess but about the writing craft. The author is also a Zen practitioner. (Not that I really know what Zen is--mention that word and what comes to my mind is a Japanese in a lotus position, meditating, occasionally mumbling enigmatic phrases like 'the sound of one hand clapping.').
Is this a good guide book for writing? For me, even if I cannot claim to have understood it all, there are truly some eye-openers here like that part where Gail Sher, huge round eyeglasses with closely-cropped hair like a convict, with her language still Zen-like, expounds on the fear of writing and how to overcome this fear. This got my loudest applause, using only one hand.
What, then, are the "four noble truths for writers" the book's subtitle refers to? Here they are:
1. Writers write
2. Writing is a process
3. You don't know what your writing will be until the end of the process
4. If writing is your practice, the only way to fail is not to write.
The question now, therefore, is this: in writing this review, did I fail or did I succeed? If the smiling Buddha reads this, would the "like" button on the right hand portion below attract or repel him?
We start playing on a Saturday noon, before or after lunch. Time control is usually twenty or fifteen minutes per player per game using a digital chess clock. I cannot speak for him but I guess our experience is the same: I cease to be conscious of the usual "time." All I'd notice, and only very briefly each occasion, would be these succession of events: 1. it's beginning to get dark outside and food is being placed beside our chess board by my househelps; 2. it's dark and there are sounds being made by living beings (talk, tv channels being replaced, cars coming and going, etc.); 3. relative silence, then the cock crows; 4. it's getting bright; 5. househelps come with coffee and food; 6. it's really bright outside; 7. lunch, again beside the chess board. We then eat and call it a day. I stand up, knees shaking. After the sheriff leaves, I lay down and try to sleep but I wouldn't be able to, until about an hour. Once I fall asleep, however, I won't wake up until after twelve hours.
I used to explain this phenomenon by citing drug addicts as examples. I'd say chess is addictive so when you're playing you become "high" and you're transported to another level of existence where "time" is faster or more ephemeral. In this book, however, I found a more plausible explanation:
"Mihaly Cskiszentmihalyi, a psychologist at the University of Chicago, has developed a theory of optimal inner experience based on the concept of 'flow,' which he defines as a state of utter engrossment. In this state, a person becomes so deeply absorbed in an activity that nothing else matters. Contrary to what we usually believe, our best moments occur when our body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile, Cskiszentmihalyi contends. Happiness, therefore, is something we can MAKE happen by becoming one with whatever we are doing.
"Suzuki-roshi says, '...if you limit your activity to what you can do just now, in this moment, then you can express fully your true nature, which is the universal Buddha nature.'
"'Limiting your activity to what you can do just now' includes both contracting and intensifying. Painter Walter Sickert was admired for living 'at such a pitch of awareness (it was) as if he remembered death at all times.' Monks routinely meditate in cemeteries to instill the same lesson. Why would that make you happy? Because both body and mind are fully engaged, stretched to their limits of understanding.
"(Thomas) Hardy's work--and her (Virginia Woolf's) meeting with him--confirmed her sense that in fiction, as in autobiography and biography, it was the 'moments of great intensity,' which counted and told all.'
"Thoreau based his life on this principle. A few days before he died, a visitor asked, 'You seem so near the brink of the dark river that I almost wonder how the opposite shore may appear to you.' His answer: 'One world at a time.'"
Despite its chess-sounding main title, however, this book is not about chess but about the writing craft. The author is also a Zen practitioner. (Not that I really know what Zen is--mention that word and what comes to my mind is a Japanese in a lotus position, meditating, occasionally mumbling enigmatic phrases like 'the sound of one hand clapping.').
Is this a good guide book for writing? For me, even if I cannot claim to have understood it all, there are truly some eye-openers here like that part where Gail Sher, huge round eyeglasses with closely-cropped hair like a convict, with her language still Zen-like, expounds on the fear of writing and how to overcome this fear. This got my loudest applause, using only one hand.
What, then, are the "four noble truths for writers" the book's subtitle refers to? Here they are:
1. Writers write
2. Writing is a process
3. You don't know what your writing will be until the end of the process
4. If writing is your practice, the only way to fail is not to write.
The question now, therefore, is this: in writing this review, did I fail or did I succeed? If the smiling Buddha reads this, would the "like" button on the right hand portion below attract or repel him?
December 15, 2013
"Writing saved my life. Before I found writing I had exhausted all the other ways of being in the world that I knew about. But, as with anything that one makes entirely ones own, I had to reinvent writing. I had to unravel everything I had been taught and wind it back up again, my way.
Before I found writing, I longed for writing. In my earliest memory I am four and frustrated with my inability to have my words all gathered together on a piece of paper. Over the years frustration endlessly reinvented itself."
So begins Sher's almost-meditative book of truths for the writer.
I loved that first chapter, & highlighted basically the whole darn thing. Like all truths, Sher's are simple but they aren't necessarily easy (I don't see myself dedicating a year to haiku, for example).
But on some fundamental truths, I do agree. For example, most of writing is about showing up. And, writing is a practice. Like all practices--like human nature--its form, content, process and results are changeable.
Sher's four noble truths are:
1. Writers write
2. Writing is a process
3. You don't know what your writing will be until the end of the process
4. If writing is your practice, the only way to fail is not to write.
I love Sher's voice: there's something calming about it. The Buddhist influences are easy to spot. For a fuller taste, Sher provides that first, powerful chapter free on her website:
http://www.gailsher.com/images/one_co...
Before I found writing, I longed for writing. In my earliest memory I am four and frustrated with my inability to have my words all gathered together on a piece of paper. Over the years frustration endlessly reinvented itself."
So begins Sher's almost-meditative book of truths for the writer.
I loved that first chapter, & highlighted basically the whole darn thing. Like all truths, Sher's are simple but they aren't necessarily easy (I don't see myself dedicating a year to haiku, for example).
But on some fundamental truths, I do agree. For example, most of writing is about showing up. And, writing is a practice. Like all practices--like human nature--its form, content, process and results are changeable.
Sher's four noble truths are:
1. Writers write
2. Writing is a process
3. You don't know what your writing will be until the end of the process
4. If writing is your practice, the only way to fail is not to write.
I love Sher's voice: there's something calming about it. The Buddhist influences are easy to spot. For a fuller taste, Sher provides that first, powerful chapter free on her website:
http://www.gailsher.com/images/one_co...
April 21, 2012
This book offers some very useful perspectives on the act of writing. Although possibly more applicable toward creative writing, I found it useful for some of the more technical writing that I engage in (I know how boring technical writing can be, and it certainly would hurt for it to be influenced a bit by creative writing techniques). As indicated by the title, the basic idea is to borrow from the valued zen philosophies which have been universally applied by mankind, and direct them toward how we think about writing. I enjoyed how this approach frames writing as a nearly spiritual endeavor. This book will make you want to become both a better writer, and a better person. Some of my favorite advice includes the following.
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit" -Aristotle (in order to become an excellent writer, you need to do it all the time)
"As you begin to edit out the nonessential, ambivalent, and wasteful, your writing style will glow with inherent virtue and lovliness." (it is hard to find your voice when you bog down your writing with too much clutter).
"Writing teaches writing. No one can tell you your own secret." (writing is an form of artistic expression, and by nature it is an individual thing. You can only learn to perfect it by spending lots of time alone practicing it)
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit" -Aristotle (in order to become an excellent writer, you need to do it all the time)
"As you begin to edit out the nonessential, ambivalent, and wasteful, your writing style will glow with inherent virtue and lovliness." (it is hard to find your voice when you bog down your writing with too much clutter).
"Writing teaches writing. No one can tell you your own secret." (writing is an form of artistic expression, and by nature it is an individual thing. You can only learn to perfect it by spending lots of time alone practicing it)
February 27, 2014
I've been reading a chapter or two of this brilliant little book every day for the past several months. (This is actually my second read through.) Kind of zen-like and New Agey and not every chapter is helpful, but most have a glimmer you can use when you start your day's writing. My favorite quote--which I keep taped to my laptop-- is this:
Four Noble Truths for writing
1. Writers write.
2. Writing is a process.
3. You don't know what your writing will be until the end of the process.
4. If writing is your practice, the only was to fail is not to write.
Four Noble Truths for writing
1. Writers write.
2. Writing is a process.
3. You don't know what your writing will be until the end of the process.
4. If writing is your practice, the only was to fail is not to write.
January 12, 2012
This book had great little bites of inspiration for writers working at establishing a daily practice. I especially loved all of the quotations she brought in from other poets and authors. It's the kind of thing you can pick up and get something off of any page. I'll certainly keep it around to leaf through for occasional re-inspiration.
April 8, 2011
Zen philosophy interests me but not when applied to writing. I liked a few of the exercises scattered throughout, but the only part I'll definitely remember is this: "If writing is your practice, the only way to fail is to not write."
June 14, 2020
One Continuous Mistake is a short book about the art of writing inspired by Zen practice. Some of it was insightful for me, it made connections that I previously only intuited. Other parts were quite obscure, but I have a feeling that when I reread the book, which I will soon, they will make more sense.
I do have to say there was a paragraph that disturbed me, as it was victim blaming rape survivors.
The four noble truths about the art of writing, according to Gail Sher, are:
1. Writers write
2. Writing is a process
3. You don't know what your writing will be until the end of the process
4. If writing is your practice, the only way to fail is not to write.
The book is divided into six short parts, each part beginning with a writing exercise.
I love reading books on the process of writing. In fact, I have two whole shelves dedicated to such books. What are your favorite books on the art and process of writing?
I do have to say there was a paragraph that disturbed me, as it was victim blaming rape survivors.
The four noble truths about the art of writing, according to Gail Sher, are:
1. Writers write
2. Writing is a process
3. You don't know what your writing will be until the end of the process
4. If writing is your practice, the only way to fail is not to write.
The book is divided into six short parts, each part beginning with a writing exercise.
I love reading books on the process of writing. In fact, I have two whole shelves dedicated to such books. What are your favorite books on the art and process of writing?
October 4, 2017
The exercises are useful. Aside from them this book didn't tell me anything I shouldn't have already known as a writer. Some chapters seemed "empty" to me. Stylistically okay, but nothing special. Sorry!
April 12, 2024
Show up for writing practice. Write. Or just sit there. But show up. Be aware follow your thoughts. Resist the to-do list. Resist rumination.
Some things annoyed me - her constantly quoting her Buddhist yogis- but mostly it was good to get another view on writing.
Some things annoyed me - her constantly quoting her Buddhist yogis- but mostly it was good to get another view on writing.
December 22, 2017
This book had some really solid points, especially the idea of creating a writing practice. However, it had a lot of fluff and unfocused moments. Would recommend for skim reading.
December 28, 2018
This work has had a place on my writer's shelf for nearly two decades. It is indispensable for everyone who wants to write or create a place in life for a writing practice.
July 29, 2019
Some real moments of beauty. Good advice, lovingly given, though I think my own style is less poetic than this book encourages!
September 12, 2021
4.5 stars. Lots of gems in here.
October 7, 2022
Definitely worth reading. Very interesting and philosophically engaging.
March 31, 2025
Just the book to make a writer feel seen and get back into gear.
December 31, 2012
"NOT KNOWING
There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen, Suzuki-roshi used to say. When you read Zen literature, you must read each sentence with a fresh mind. Writing is the same. The real work of writing is, day after day, to discover how to maintain freshness.
'Not knowing' is a way. It is very respectful. 'Not knowing' assumes that the object of your curiosity is always new and worthy of your entire attention.
For a writer, 'not knowing' means giving over the part of you that knows to the writing. The writing tells you what it is (you have to listen carefully). When a piece tells you it's finished you say, 'Oh!' (By this time all your 'great ideas' will probably have been obliterated.)
..the only meanings that are worth anything in a work of art are those that the artist himself knows nothing about. The moment the artist tries to express his ideas and his emotions he misses the great thing. [Lee, Virginia Woolf, 465]
Jorge Luis Borges agreed. Poetry springs from something deeper than intelligence. You can't nail writing down and use it as you want. You have to let it use you.
When John Barth was planning Sabbatical, he knew that something climactic had to happen in the next to last chapter but he head no idea what it would be until he found himself--whoops--at the next to last chapter.
T.S. Eliot, likewise, said 'I never think more than one step ahead.' A writer follows his writing like a blindfolded person thrashes the air before taking the next baby-step forward.
'...Theory organizes experience prematurely, thus giving it the theory's shape.' [Kim Chernin, A Different Kind of Listening, 64.]
A 'great idea' (by taking charge, preempting the spontaneous) can interfere with you connecting with a subtler and potentially more amazing part of yourself.
To avoid short-circuiting this connection, I recommend, 'unfocused listening,' a kind of musing whereby you become immersed in your interior life. To bypass preconceived ideas, consciously cultivate stillness, then notice what crystallizes out of your reverie.
But this is my only grumble, that we are afraid of the human heart (and with reason); and until we can write with all our faculties in action (even the big toe) but under water, submerged, then we must be clever, like the rest of the modern sticklebacks. [Lee, Virginia Woolf, 642.]
What is the best way to write? Each of us has to discover her own way of writing. Writing teaches writing. No one can tell you your own secret."
There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen, Suzuki-roshi used to say. When you read Zen literature, you must read each sentence with a fresh mind. Writing is the same. The real work of writing is, day after day, to discover how to maintain freshness.
'Not knowing' is a way. It is very respectful. 'Not knowing' assumes that the object of your curiosity is always new and worthy of your entire attention.
For a writer, 'not knowing' means giving over the part of you that knows to the writing. The writing tells you what it is (you have to listen carefully). When a piece tells you it's finished you say, 'Oh!' (By this time all your 'great ideas' will probably have been obliterated.)
..the only meanings that are worth anything in a work of art are those that the artist himself knows nothing about. The moment the artist tries to express his ideas and his emotions he misses the great thing. [Lee, Virginia Woolf, 465]
Jorge Luis Borges agreed. Poetry springs from something deeper than intelligence. You can't nail writing down and use it as you want. You have to let it use you.
When John Barth was planning Sabbatical, he knew that something climactic had to happen in the next to last chapter but he head no idea what it would be until he found himself--whoops--at the next to last chapter.
T.S. Eliot, likewise, said 'I never think more than one step ahead.' A writer follows his writing like a blindfolded person thrashes the air before taking the next baby-step forward.
'...Theory organizes experience prematurely, thus giving it the theory's shape.' [Kim Chernin, A Different Kind of Listening, 64.]
A 'great idea' (by taking charge, preempting the spontaneous) can interfere with you connecting with a subtler and potentially more amazing part of yourself.
To avoid short-circuiting this connection, I recommend, 'unfocused listening,' a kind of musing whereby you become immersed in your interior life. To bypass preconceived ideas, consciously cultivate stillness, then notice what crystallizes out of your reverie.
But this is my only grumble, that we are afraid of the human heart (and with reason); and until we can write with all our faculties in action (even the big toe) but under water, submerged, then we must be clever, like the rest of the modern sticklebacks. [Lee, Virginia Woolf, 642.]
What is the best way to write? Each of us has to discover her own way of writing. Writing teaches writing. No one can tell you your own secret."
September 7, 2012
One Continuous Mistake would be particularly useful to anyone who experiences a great deal of anxiety about writing, or perhaps feels unsure about pursuing that path. It is also very motivational at times. As she puts it, if you take on writing as your practice, the mentality must be "write or die."
I didn't consider myself a writer before reading this book, because I don't share most of my writing, and I certainly don't publish it. However, I have written every day since childhood. That's the first lesson. Writers write. That is all there is to it. There is no certain point of success or income that determines whether or not you are a writer. It is just the act of writing.
There were parts that didn't quite mesh with me on a spiritual level even though I practice Zen Buddhism, so I assume the book might seem a bit hokey to some. I also found it perplexing that despite how much I liked some of the advice in One Continuous Mistake, she almost always picked authors that I didn't particularly care for in her examples.
Overall, this is a good, informative, and interesting read for writers or artists in general, and I strongly recommend it.
I didn't consider myself a writer before reading this book, because I don't share most of my writing, and I certainly don't publish it. However, I have written every day since childhood. That's the first lesson. Writers write. That is all there is to it. There is no certain point of success or income that determines whether or not you are a writer. It is just the act of writing.
There were parts that didn't quite mesh with me on a spiritual level even though I practice Zen Buddhism, so I assume the book might seem a bit hokey to some. I also found it perplexing that despite how much I liked some of the advice in One Continuous Mistake, she almost always picked authors that I didn't particularly care for in her examples.
Overall, this is a good, informative, and interesting read for writers or artists in general, and I strongly recommend it.
January 30, 2013
"I wonder if these pieces couldn't be considered meditations or something like dharma talks, except, of course, about writing. They're too mystical for beginning writers and too simple for experienced ones. You'll only like these kinds of things if you like these kinds of things."
Excerpt from Original Content.
Excerpt from Original Content.
April 22, 2015
File under inspirational reading for writers. A Zen approach to writing with a focus on process. Especially good for perfectionist type writers (like myself). A couple favorite quotes: "The greater the depth at which you tap your own personal truth, the greater relevance your writing will have to humanity." and "What is the best way to write? Each of us has to discover her own way by writing. Writing teaches writing. No one can tell you your own secret."
March 15, 2016
The Four Truths briefly are these:
1) Writers write;
2) Writing is a process;
3) You don't know what your writing will be until the end of the process; and
4) If writing is your practice, the only way to fail is not to write.
What I liked about Sher's book is how she filled her pages with quotes, allusions, and samples from other writers. This made the reading informational as much as inspirational.
1) Writers write;
2) Writing is a process;
3) You don't know what your writing will be until the end of the process; and
4) If writing is your practice, the only way to fail is not to write.
What I liked about Sher's book is how she filled her pages with quotes, allusions, and samples from other writers. This made the reading informational as much as inspirational.
December 7, 2007
I love picking up this book and reading it in bits and pieces. A good companion for writers because Sher is thoughtful and encouraging and inspiring all at once. She writes: "Staying focused on who you are (with all your faults) requires maturity, perseverance and tremendous self-compassion." True, whatever your profession.
January 4, 2009
Easy and gentle. A good guide to writing haikus and the idea of haikus, if you're into that. Also good for mental health type item and the spiritual aspect of writing. If you're looking for someone to yell at you and give you mechanics and "do this" facism, this is not the book for you. Which I mean, duh, she's a zen buddhist.
September 17, 2009
I really enjoyed this book and found a lot of insightful information. Highly recommend it to those who want a more in depth experience of life.
Several weeks later: Just re-read a portion of this book and found it even more interesting and helpful.
Several weeks later: Just re-read a portion of this book and found it even more interesting and helpful.
February 10, 2010
VERY refreshing and an incredible beacon of truth in a world of "how-to" writer/self-help boox. A zennist bias only adds to the purity of the message that "writer's write". That's what they do. That's practice and it need only be. Highly recommended.
April 14, 2008
Good little 1-2 page "chapters" with greatly inspiring advice for writers.
July 3, 2023
A decent meditation on writing.
June 13, 2015
I read this book years ago, but I go back to it very often. It's not just a good book about writing, it brings writing and life together into the pulsing creative process we are all living.
March 23, 2016
Should be compulsory reading for anyone wanting to write anything. Subtle insights, ways of thinking and so much encouragement. Just wonderful.
December 21, 2016
I love Gail Sher's use of literary examples and religious metaphors as they pertain to the process of writing. Excellent book which I will be reading again. This is now one of my favorite books.
Want to read
September 13, 2012My friend introduced me to this book; I want to read it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews