“It may not be everything you want, but the ultimate goal for a writer is to develop a healthy relationship with his or her own writing process. Agents come and go, publishers come and go, trends come and go, but having a profound, intimate relationship with process is the best protection there is. It’s the only thing that sustains.”
– Dennis Palumbo, novelist, screenwriter, and psychotherapist, in “The Enemy Within,” on The Writing Life, an Authors Guild blog
Struggling with your story or your screenplay? Not sure you know how to develop a credible motive or build a suspenseful plot? Dennis Palumbo, who became a therapist after a career as a screenwriter and now writes mysteries, writes a regular column, Hollywood on the Couch, for Psychology Today’s online edition. In Taking the Mystery Out of Writing Mysteries, he says the answer lies in the characters–and gives good, practical advice for solving the mystery of writing a mystery.
Dennis’s book Fever Dream (Poisoned Pen Press), second in a series featuring psychologist Daniel Rinaldi, a trauma expert who consults with the Pittsburgh Police, has just been released. For more, visit his website.
Thanks, Dennis!