| There are also the hard facts here, the cold equations
that have no answers--like dealing with agents who won't return your phone
calls.
The book is based on Palumbo's monthly column "The
Writer's Life," which has appeared in the Writers Guild of America magazine,
Written By. A career writer, Palumbo was nominated for the WGA Award for
best screenplay for "My Favorite Year." He has also served as a staff writer
on several sitcoms.
With the kinds of insights available to a professional
writer and the thoughtful study that turns a layman into a therapist, Palumbo
offers keys to dealing with the thousand or more doubts and frustrations
that a writer's spirit is prone to suffer. The book offers tons of inspiration
that can actually drive hope into creative writers.
On writer's block: "Maybe we should stop banging
our heads against the wall long enough to see if it really is a wall.
"What if, instead, 'writer's block' is a signpost,
a harbinger of an impending transition or passage...the balled-up tension
presaging another growth spurt?"
On envy: "The reality is, every writer can't be
Robert Towne, or John Updike. ... No matter how successful you are, no
matter your level of talent, your true competition is yourself."
It's in the final chapters that Palumbo covers
the ultimate challenges of the career writer's life: dealing with ageism
and hanging on despite adversity.
In terms of ageism, there's commiseration but no
solution. After all, how does one buck an entire marketplace? (Other than
slogging ahead and doing the work?)
Palumbo writes: "It's not a problem to be solved.
...It's an experience to be had, a set of circumstances to be endured."
After all, points out Palumbo, most artists do
their best work during their middle-age years: "The more mature, confident
and self-trusting an artist is, the more likely he or she is to break with
convention, to explore more deeply."
Hollywood
Reporter review, November
27, 2000. More reviews...
New Book Battles Dreaded
"Writers Block"
Psychotherapist Dennis Palumbo, "the Writers
Guru," Debuts Latest Tome
Sherman Oaks, CA -- Psychotherapist and author
Dennis Palumbo, the psychological "guru" to some of the country's most
famous creative people, has written the ultimate book on battling the age
old demon "writers block." Palumbo exposes the myth of the "writers block"
by showing the reader how to turn that block into an ally. "Writing from
the Inside Out: Transforming Your Psychological Blocks to Release the Writer
Within," published by John Wiley & Sons, includes a step by step approach
to unlocking creativity.
"Writing from the Inside Out" is based on Dennis
Palumbo's monthly column, "The Writer's Life," which appears in the magazine
Written
By, published by the Writers Guild of America. Palumbo gives the reader
priceless tools for overcoming the obstacles that impede achievement; namely,
how to translate your feelings and life's stumbling blocks into great writing.
In his private practice, Palumbo has helped shed
light on many Emmy and Academy Award winning dilemmas. He also counsels
well-known CEO's and VIP's. A retired screenwriter himself, Palumbo has
also been nominated for the WGA Award for Best Screenplay for "My Favorite
Year," which starred Peter O'Toole. He was also a staff writer on several
major tv sitcoms.
"As a practicing psychotherapist and working writer,
I try to bring the strengths of both disciplines to this book. I strive
to show that inner struggles are, paradoxically, the building blocks of
true personal growth which in turn results in great writing," says Dennis
Palumbo. Palumbo believes his book is applicable to anyone, not just writers.
Palumbo has also written the novel, City Wars,
and his short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queens' Mystery Magazine.
Palumbo also contributes articles and reviews to a variety of magazines
and journals, and has been a columnist for both the Los Angeles Times and
Emmy Magazine and has been profiled in Premiere magazine and on CNN.
Copyright 2001, Celebrity News Magazine, December
2000.
Reprinted with permission.
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