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    Break Writer's Block Now!
    Break Writer's Block Now!
    Break Writer's Block Now!
    Ebook93 pages1 hour

    Break Writer's Block Now!

    By Jerrold Mundis

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Break it instantly. Break it forever. 

    This short, clear, direct book will do that for you. 

    Just as it’s done for a great many writers already, from a Pulitzer Prize winner to a novelist with multiple books on The New York Times bestseller list. From hopeful beginners to fulltime professionals. From short-story writers, playwrights and screen-writers to biographers, journalists, and graduate students. From attorneys to architects, from corporate writers to medical doctors. 

    In short, for people at every level of experience and ability and from nearly every walk of life. 

    This is the only system for breaking writer’s block ever developed by a lifelong professional writer—and the only one ever proven and guaranteedto work. 

    This book will break writer’s block for you now, it will break it for you tomorrow, it will break it for you forever. 

    Here is what a few writers have to say about it: 

    “Jerry Mundis is the drug of choice for writer's block. If you want to get off your ass and onto the page, he can make it happen.” 
    — Lawrence Block, bestselling mystery and crime novelist, celebrated Grand Master Award winner from the Mystery Writers of America, 

    “Like many of Jerry’s published clients, I'd prefer to remain anonymous, but my conscience won't let me. Jerry is too good, and writer's block is too terrible to endure needlessly. Whether you're published or not, if you have writer's block, can't seem to get started, keep going, or finish, then working with Jerry's system could very well be the best single investment you could ever make in your career.” 
    — Judith McNaught, author of numerous New York Times bestsellers. 

    “Jerry, the block I had when I came to see you eighteen months ago is definitely gone. My novel is almost done. I am grateful to you for giving me the tools that I needed. Thank you again. You are a great teacher, with a gift of clarity and of gentleness and insight.” 
    — Judy Collins, Grammy Award winner, singer, songwriter, author. 

    “I was able to adapt Jerry’s techniques to my life and personality so that these practical foolproof methods are now intrinsic to my writing routine. I never worry about being blocked anymore.” 
    — Victoria Moran, author of Living a Charmed Life, Shelter for the Spirit & other books. 

    “I often refer to Jerry as my writing therapist.” 
    — Rick Fields, author of Chop Wood, Carry Water; How the Swans Came to the Lake & other books. 

    “My problem with writer's block was so severe that I had come to believe I would have to leave academia because of it. But Jerry demystified both the writing process and my struggle with it, and provided me with a clear path I could follow to achieve my goals. He literally changed my life.” 
    — Ellen Hyman-Browne, J.D., LL.M., Associate Professor of Law, CUNY Law School at Queens. 

    “Very simply, I would not be a writer today without Jerry Mundis.” 
    — Paul Wisenthal, contributor to The New York Times, USA Today, Parade, Newsday & other publications. 

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWolf River Press
    Release dateMar 5, 2015
    ISBN9781507068823
    Break Writer's Block Now!

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      Book preview

      Break Writer's Block Now! - Jerrold Mundis

      Cover, Break Writer's Block Now

      Books by Jerrold Mundis

      Novels

      (in The Shame & Glory Saga)

      Slave Ship

      Slave

      The Long Tattoo

      Hellbottom

      Running Dogs

      (Others)

      Gerhardt’s Children

      The Retreat

      Best Offer

      The Dogs

      Nonfiction

      (For Writers)

      Break Writer’s Block Now!

      (On Personal Money)

      How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt, and Live Prosperously

      Earn What You Deserve: How to Stop Underearning and Start Thriving

      Making Peace with Money

      How to Create Savings

      More to come, including:

      The Bite

      Murder, My Love

      Prelude to Civil War

      & others

      BREAK

      WRITER’S BLOCK

      NOW!

      Jerrold Mundis

      Copyright © 1995, 2011 by Jerrold Mundis

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the author.

      Publication History

      Hardcover edition:

      St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1995.

      Ebook edition, with additional material:

      Wolf River Press, New York, 2011.

      Ebook Design by QA Productions

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

      who was a newspaper man and a good man

      with love

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      A User’s Guide

      Part I: The Concepts

      Gently

      The Moving Pen

      Tell Me Why

      You and Everyone Else

      What It Is

      I Think, Therefore I Am

      Myths

      Big Killer #1

      Big Killer #2

      Big Killer #3

      Part II: The Techniques

      The Foundation

      Soft Techniques

      Firm Techniques

      Hardcore Techniques

      The Atom Bomb

      Mundis’s Personal Biggies

      Supplement

      About the Author

      Contact Information

      Other Formats

      INTRODUCTION

      Writer’s block—whether it’s over a novel, a dissertation, or a business report—is agony. And wanting to write but not knowing how to fit that desire into the demands of the rest of your life can be painful too. Both conditions are completely unnecessary.

      This book will free you from writer’s block immediately, and forever: You will never fear or be crippled by it again. Nor will you ever languish under an inability to find the time to write, no matter what your life is like. I know this unequivocally: I’ve been breaking block for myself for forty-five years now, as of 2011, and for others—while also creating for them a reliable and productive working schedule—for the past twenty-five years. And in that time I have written and published:

      Seventeen novels, including Gerhardt’s Children and The Dogs.

      Thirteen books of nonfiction, including Prelude to Civil War and How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt and Live Prosperously.

      Seven film novelizations, including The Deer Hunter.

      A number of ghostwritten novels and books of nonfiction for others.

      Some ninety short stories, essays, and articles.

      Among my publishers are Atheneum, Arbor House, Delacorte, Bantam, Warner Books, Jove, Berkley, Pocket Books, and New American Library.

      My short work has appeared in such publications as the New York Times Magazine, American Heritage, Harper’s Weekly, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Glamour, and New York magazine.

      My books have been selections of: the Book-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 than a dozen foreign languages.

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

      I am as vulnerable to writer’s block as anyone else, yet the worst I’ve ever suffered from it has been an occasional afternoon in which I said to hell with it, it’s too much of a struggle, and went for a walk with the dog. The reason for this—for not having stared at a blank page in torment or been unable to work for days, weeks, even months, or years—has been the system in this book. That is also the reason I have been able to write steadily through periods of my life in which there were many other demands and claims upon my time.

      I developed these concepts and techniques in order to survive: Writing was my sole source of income; I had a wife and children; I couldn’t afford to be blocked, or to go very long without writing for any other reason.

      Early on I was only partly aware that I was formulating and practicing specific techniques. Later I became more conscious and deliberate. The point was, always, simply to be able to continue writing—no matter how I felt or what was happening in my life. And I was. Along the way I occasionally helped others who were blocked or who felt they couldn’t begin or continue to write in the face of an increasingly full schedule. Usually that meant an evening going over with them the main points of what I eventually refined into this system.

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

      I was at a weekend transformational seminar in New York then, the only professional writer among roughly one hundred people. In all, seven individuals approached me to discuss their own writing: Three were blocked, one could find time to write only in fits and starts; of the others, one asked how to write, another was seeking an agent, and one wanted me to critique a novel. In as friendly a manner as I could, I told them each that there wasn’t much I could do and

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