Foreword
by Larry Gelbart
Be warned. This is not a how-to book. It offers
nary a rule, formula, nor recipe that will allow you to turn out a best-selling
novel or a fabulous, million-dollar screenplay. Just as well. In the end,
most million-dollar screenplays turn out to be three million-dollar screenplays,
once the inevitable rewriting frenzy begins and other hands are called
in to rescue the formerly fabulous million-dollar screenplay.
It is not that handy-dandy kind of book and that
is just as well, as well. Never before have so many of the smugly expert
advised so many of the seemingly inexpert on how to write successfully
and on how to help them become rich and anonymous (screen and television
writers can reap sizable financial rewards, but they rarely get anything
like famous). The pages that lie ahead provide far more valuable insights
and practical tools for the working and/or would-be writer. Instead of
a how-to, what Dennis Palumbo has written is a how-come book.
A veteran of the writing wars himself, Palumbo
brings fresh insight into the whys and wherefores of the numerous dilemmas
each writer faces, or, at times, refuses to admit. He encourages the wannabes
and the alreadyares to confront their concerns, to recognize what lies
at the hear of them, to ultimately turn their demons into constructive,
liberating collaborators.
The dreaded writer's block? Dennis Palumbo's take
on the subject is as novel as it has proved successful for a good number
of those who have had the good sense to seek his counseling. What he offers
is not a one-size-fits-all cure, but rather an understanding of the sort
or writer's speed bump that can sometimes seem the size of a mountain.
By leading the sufferer to the underlying truth of his or her particular
form of this creative cramp, Palumbo lays out the groundwork for a way
not around the problem, but one that goes right straight through it.
Procrastination? Doubt? Fear of failure? Loneliness?
You name it; Palumbo's been there, done those--in his own writing career
and in his artful advice to others. (Even in the act of writing this brief
curtain-raiser, I have 1. doubted that I would make the deadline, 2. doubted
that I was the best choice for this assignment, 3. been dreading how awful
it would be to fail, not writing terribly well about this terribly well-written
book, and 4.how lonely it was today--as it is every working day--to sit
down in my solitary room without one person there to say "good morning"
to me.)
For years, I was convinced that I could not write
alone, that I needed a partner or to work as a member of a staff, surrounded
by multiple partners. I had no faith in my ability to produce material
on my own. What this wise, accessible volume makes crystal clear is that
no one writes alone, that our superficial appearance merely represents
the outer limits of the complex, teeming population that resides in each
of us: the brave, the fearful, the confident, the unsure--the braggart
worrier who sits not beside but within anyone with the temerity to pan
for the gold that lies hidden in the blank page or the monitor.
Early on, Palumbo promotes the concept idea of
the Buddy System, the idea that every writer needs someone who has gone
through what you're going through; someone who is happy to serve as an
ear, a shoulder, a kindred spirit. Someone who gets it: the work you're
doing, the town or medium in which or from who you're doing it, someone
who has been to the same meetings, been given the same notes by executives,
stars, directors, editors, whoever (probably word for word the very same
notes you were give by someone else about a totally different piece of
work). Most importantly, you need to get someone who gets you. Dennis Palumbo's
Writing from the Inside Out, with Dennis serving as a thoroughly knowledgeable,
compassionate companion, makes him not only a useful friend but one who
is user-friendly, as well. He is the buddy every writer dreams about--that
is, if writer's block isn't keeping you up all night.
Larry Gelbart
March 2, 2000
|
