Jerrold Mundis - Break Writers Block Now!

BREAK

WRITERS BLOCK

NOW!

Jerrold Mundis

Copyright 1995, 2011 by Jerrold Mundis

Published on Smashwords

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All rights reserved. Except as permittedunder the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publicationmay be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or byany means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without theprior written permission of the publisher.

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This e-book is licensed for your personalenjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away toother people. If you would like to share this book with anotherperson, please purchase an additional copy for each person youshare it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it,or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should returnto Smashwords and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respectingthe author's work.

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Publication History

Hardcover edition:

St. Martins Press, New York, 1995.

eBook edition, with additional material:

www.jerroldmundis.com ,New York, 2011.

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This was and is for my father, James M.Mundis,

who was a newspaper man and a good man

with love

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Table ofContents

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INTRODUCTION

Writer's blockwhether it's over a novel, adissertation, or a business reportis agony. And wanting to writebut not knowing how to fit that desire into the demands of the restof your life can be painful too. Both conditions are completelyunnecessary.

This book will free you from writer's blockimmediately, and forever: You will never fear or be crippled by itagain. Nor will you ever languish under an inability to find thetime to write, no matter what your life is like. I know thisunequivocally: I've been breaking block for myself for forty-fiveyears now, as of 2011, and for others while also creating for thema reliable and productive working schedulefor the past twenty-fiveyears. And in that time I have written and published:

Seventeen novels, including Gerhardt'sChildren and The Dogs.

Thirteen books of nonfiction, includingPrelude to Civil Warand How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Outof Debt and Live Prosperously.

Seven film novelizations, including TheDeer Hunter.

A number of ghostwritten novels and books ofnonfiction for others.

Some ninety short stories, essays, andarticles.

Among my publishers are Atheneum, ArborHouse, Delacorte, Bantam, Warner Books, Jove, Berkley, PocketBooks, and New American Library.

My short work has appeared in suchpublications as the New York Times Magazine, American Heritage,Harper's Weekly, the Magazine of Fantasy & ScienceFiction, Glamour, and New York magazine.

My books have been selections of: theBook-of-the-Month Club, Literary Guild, One Spirit Book Club,Doubleday Book Club, and Field & Stream Book Club.

My novels have been translated into more thana dozen foreign languages.

I have taught professional writing and been aconsultant editor for The New York Times.

I am as vulnerable to writer's block asanyone else, yet the worst I've ever suffered from it has been anoccasional afternoon in which I said to hell with it, it's too muchof a struggle, and went for a walk with the dog. The reason forthisfor not having stared at a blank page in torment or beenunable to work for days, weeks, even months, or yearshas been thesystem in this book. That is also the reason I have been able towrite steadily through periods of my life in which there were manyother demands and claims upon my time.

I developed these concepts and techniques inorder to survive: Writing was my sole source of income; I had awife and children; I couldn't afford to be blocked, or to govery long without writing for any other reason.

Early on I was only partly aware that I wasformulating and practicing specific techniques. Later I became moreconscious and deliberate. The point was, always, simply to be ableto continue writingno matter how I felt or what was happening inmy life. And I was. Along the way I occasionally helped others whowere blocked or who felt they couldn't begin or continue to writein the face of an increasingly full schedule. Usually that meant anevening going over with them the main points of what I eventuallyrefined into this system.

As time passed, I began to receive requestsfor this helpsometimes from people I didn't even know, who had gotto me through a chain of acquaintances. For a while I didn't mind.But eventually it became a burden, something that was at times evenexpected of me simply because I could do it. So Ibegan saying no, and continued saying no for about five years,until the fall of 1985.

I was at a weekend transformational seminarin New York then, the only professional writer among roughly onehundred people. In all, seven individuals approached me to discusstheir own writing: Three were blocked, one could find time to writeonly in fits and starts; of the others, one asked how to write,another was seeking an agent, and one wanted me to critique anovel. In as friendly a manner as I could, I told them each thatthere wasn't much I could do and referred them to a couple of booksand a magazine for writers.

One of these people, a woman named Elaine,was a charming, Mississippi-born professor of English at a collegein the city. Two years earlier she had been cured of a seriousdisease through a nontraditional method of healing. She had writtenabout half of a projected three-hundred-page book on theexperience, but had now been blocked for more than a year. Politelyshe asked why I wouldn't help, and was so disarming that Iexplained.

Why, darlin', she said, then why don't youlet me pay you?

I became embarrassed.

I pay my dentist, she said. I get paid.You got a hang-up about money, darlin'?

A month later I taught Elaine how to finishher bookin one three-hour session, for which she paid me. Becauseof Elaine, I have been breaking block and establishing reliable andproductive working schedules for professional and nonprofessionalwriters for the past twenty-five years.

Among the professionals I have helped are astaff writer for the New Yorker, a contributor toEsquire, Rolling Stone and other magazines, a playwright andscreenwriter, a widely published poet, an award-winning novelist,another who has had several books on The New York Timesbestseller list, and a nonfiction writer who had been unable towork on a nearly finished novel for eight years. Among thenonprofessionals are graduate and undergraduate students, apsychotherapist, a real-estate salesman, a housewife, an actress, asinger, and a grandmother who wanted to write her memoirs for herfamily.

It has been fun, and satisfying. But I wasastonished in the first few years to learn just how many peoplethere are who suffer from block or believe their lives are too busyto allow them to write. Several hundred thousand graduate studentsalone are unable, year after year, to write their theses ordissertations. As many as one in every three Americans will attemptto write something for publication at some pointand most willeither suffer block or give up because of other demands on theirtime. Many of my early clients urged me to put this service intobook form, for people with whom I couldnt work personally. Finallythat seemed to me a good idea: I got to write, I got paid, and Igot to helpall of which I enjoy.

If you are agonized over block or over nothaving the time to write, then this book is for you. If you spendabout an afternoon with me here, you will never fear or be crippledby writer's block again.

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A USERS GUIDE

This user's guide is designed to help yougain the maximum benefit from the book. Today read only to the endof this section. There are a few preparations it would be best tomake before you begin the text proper.