Thursday October 17, 2019 4-6:50PM

How to Solve Absolutely Any Writer’s Block

Laura Scudder Conference Room, Roosevelt Hall 121

Writers have been struggling through one kind of writer’s block or another since writers started writing. If you’re a writer, you’ll have one—even if you haven’t yet had one and don’t have one at the moment. Why? Because writer’s blocks are a completely natural part of the writing process—and the writer’s career—and there are so many kinds. But it can take an inordinate amount of time you could better spend on writing to break through a block if you don’t know how to do it. The good news is, blocks reduce to one of two kinds:  psyche or craft…though psyche affects craft and craft psyche, obscuring the source and the solution often. More good news:  There isn’t a block that can’t be solved, and pretty quickly. And while some writer’s blocks are from “mis-definitions” or lack of experience with craft and process, some are wonderful and should be celebrated because they’re our deepest/highest Self speaking to us.

Bruce McAllister, Writing Coach, Writer, Consultant, Workshop Leader, and Agent Finder

Bruce McAllister is an award-winning West-Coast-based writing coach, writer in a wide range of genres, consultant in the fields of publishing and Hollywood, workshop leader and an "agent finder" for both new and established writers. As a writing coach, he specializes in all kinds of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and screenplays.

Bruce's literary and genre fiction has appeared in national magazines, literary quarterlies, college textbooks and 'year's best' anthologies. His second novel, Dream Baby, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship winner, and was called a "stunning tour de force" by Publishers Weekly. His most recent novel, the autobiographical The Village Sang to the Sea: A Memoir of Magic, was a Cibils and Locus nominee. His fiction has been translated widely and received national awards and notable mentions in the New York Times, other U.S. newspapers, U.S. and foreign magazines and journals, and reference works for major publishers and literary presses. His poetry and experimental work have appeared in literary quarterlies and anthologies; he has co-edited magazines and anthologies; and his articles on popular science, writing craft and sports have appeared in publications like Life, International Wildlife, The Writer and newspapers across the country.

Bruce has been a writing coach and consultant on a wide range of popular books for major and smaller publishers and scientific books published by scholarly presses, including Pulitzer and National Book Award nominees; and a facilitator of autobiography and memoir workshops. At a private university in southern California, where he taught writing for twenty-four years, he helped establish and direct the Creative Writing Program, directed both the Professional Writing Track of that program and its Communications Internship program, received various teaching and service awards, and was Distinguished Professor of Literature and Writing from l990 to l995

His interests include cultural anthropology, creativity theory, storytelling, popular culture and popular fiction, Early Man archeology, advertising and the media, science and multicultural education, theory and methodology in the social and natural sciences, the Vietnam War, U.S. foreign policy, oceanography. The son of a career Navy officer and an anthropologist mother, he grew up in Washington, D.C., Florida, California and Italy; attended middle school and art school in Italy; received degrees in English and writing from Claremont McKenna College and the University of California at Irvine; has three wonderful children (Annie, Ben and Liz); and is married to choreographer Amelie Hunter. He lives in Orange, California.