Writing is surely an art, a spiritual journey, an emotional odyssey, but how is it a science? I asked myself that question a few years ago when a friend who taught in the UCLA Extension Writers' Program asked me to give a guest lecture.

After interviewing countless successful writers and other creative people and pouring over endless studies, Maurer found that the one ingredient that is nearly indispensable to the creative process is fear.

If you've ever tried setting goals to get to the next level in your career ... a budget to save money ... a diet plan to lose weight ... or going cold turkey to quit a bad habit — and it DIDN'T help you achieve the life change you were aiming for — then you've ALREADY experienced it! But if you have just 30 spare seconds a day, you can make ANY change, transform ANY behavior, and achieve ANY goal you can think of — using a potent yet little-known Japanese technique

Article by Karen Kondazian, BackStage West: "After working with creative people for years, psychologist Dr. Robert Maurer advises actors to remember the grandeur of their calling and enjoy their everyday triumphs."

Newspaper article about Dr. Maurer, "a clinical psychologist whose specialties include helping writers create characters that ring true and engage audiences. Writers often come to him with a troublesome script in hand, then ask for help with other areas of their lives."

An interview with Dr. Maurer - "We hunger for information about how successful people operate," explains Maurer. "Each of us is looking for examples, models or maps to follow. But we don't go about it in a deliberate way."