The Writer's Comfy Corner

Review - Writing from the Inside Out - Dennis Palumbo

In local bookstores, there are lots of "fix it fast" guides, from writing a screen play in thirty days or how to turn an idea into a best selling novel overnight.

Dennis Palumbo's Writing from the Inside Out is different.  He's going to tell you there's no magic formula for writing.  As a successful screen writer and a licensed psychotherapist, Palumbo has a unique perspective on what makes a writer tick, and what makes them shut themselves up in dark rooms and feel sorry for themselves.

Here is some of his wisdom in short form:  Writer's block is a signal that you're ready to write something deeper and more challenging, but you're stalling.  Find a buddy who understands what the highs and lows of the writing life really feel like.  Understand that many of the criteria for picking a writer for a job has almost NOTHING to do with you, so try not to take rejection personally.

I met Dennis Palumbo in Pittsburgh several years ago.  He's originally from Pittsburgh and was a guest speaker at the Creative Nonfiction conference.  He struck me as someone who knows the writing business, still has a sense of humor about the craft, and has a lot of wisdom he's passing along about how to live a meaningful writing life.

This book helped me through rough patches.  When I forgot how much I love to write, Palumbo's words kept me stringing words together.  The story he tells at the end never ceases to inspire me.  There are some books every writer simply has to read, and this is one of the best.

When Stories Don’t Work

You’ve read your poem over nine hundred times. You’ve changed every word at least twice. A new point of view doesn’t work, making it a comedy is useless, and combining two poems with similar topics just makes a poem wreck. You’re struck. Your idea isn’t working.

What do you do now?

This is my fifteen years of writing experience talking: if you have no deadline, PUT THE THING AWAY. Hide it in a drawer. Bury it in a “Do Later” folder on your computer. Give it to your mother for safekeeping. Whatever you do, take a break from your idea.

Why? Your perspective is gone. Serious roadblocks in writing cause frustration, wild changes, and, unfortunately, even guilt. I don’t write to torture myself, and I suspect that you don’t either. You are not a bad person if you take a vacation from your troubled idea. Go ahead, go write something that’s fun.

But what if I never pick it up again, I hear you wailing. My response is, so what? Your life is not going to end if you have one or even sixty-seven unfinished ideas floating around somewhere. If you can move on and finish other work that is good and makes you happy, then do it.

The only problem with putting stories on ice is if it becomes a crutch. If you find that you hardly ever finish a project, if you hide every poem, then you don’t have bad ideas, you have a fear of finishing things. This a totally different problem and will require many methods to help you stick to a project.

However, if you finish at least three quarters of your projects, and you have a few you’ve abandoned, that’s perfectly fine. You may love all your stories, but they can’t all be Pride and Prejudice. Even Jane Austen wrote things when she was young that hardly anyone ever reads.

So give yourself the freedom to move on, and get back to writing something that makes your heart beat with overflowing excitement. And if that abandoned story keeps swirling around in your head, pick it up again in a week or two. Absence may give you the key to an end you couldn’t see when you were beating yourself up before.

Review - Make the Impossible Possible - Bill Strickland

I had the opportunity to see Bill Strickland speak about his experiences and his ideas on how to live a full life.  The CEO of Manchester Bidwell in Pittsburgh, Bill has helped teach generations of people that they matter to the world, through job training programs, music, good food, and beautiful surroundings.

Bill went from a boy without hope to a man on the path to unbelievable success when he worked with his high school art teacher, Frank Ross, to learn the craft of making pottery.  He says art was a bridge.  It gave him a taste of what a good life should feel like.

Make the Impossible Possible is a book about how to really live.  Written with Vince Rause, the chapters remind me of a series of songs inspired by the same delightful sound.  The book's form is not so surprising when you learn how much Jazz has influenced his life.  Bill tells everyone to follow their passion, then he sets out one amazing example after another to show you how something as simple as loving a water fountain can change many lives, including your own.

If you have dreams, this book will convince you to follow them more often.  If you think there are no dreams left, Bill will get you fired up to find some new ones.  And in the end, if all you do is learn about a remarkable man from Pittsburgh, this book will still have done its job.  Bill Strickland's passion will touch you, and I doubt you will ever be quite the same again.