“Just Show Up”

Five stars and two Thumbs Up

Five stars and two Thumbs Up

Patricia Madson taught Improv in the Drama Department at Stanford for years. Students would kill to get into her class. My friend Victoria Labalme has told me of racing across campus more than once, frantic not to be late. Once the door closed, it stayed closed. Professionals only!

Now Patricia has written a terrific book called Improv Wisdom. I love it. It’s short and crammed with great stuff that we writers, artists and entrepreneurs can use, not just in our professional lives but in the real world too. Patricia’s first maxim is Say Yes. Her second is Don’t Prepare. (There are thirteen maxims and they’re all pithy and powerful.) But my fave is Number Three: Just Show Up.

Just show up. Move your body toward your dreams. Go to where they’re happening–the gym, the office, the yoga class. Be there physically.

I love this maxim because it’s so simple, it’s primal. When a dog wants to go outside, it stands by the door. When a cat wants to be fed, it puts its face right up in ours. What happens? We take the dog out. We feed the cat.

There’s tremendous power is putting your ass where your heart wants to be.

Just go there. Players step onto the stage because that is where things are happening. They show up. Then the magic begins.

The Muse likes it when we show up. Even if we’re terrified. Even if we’ve got nothing to say, if we have no idea what we’re doing. The goddess doesn’t mind. She sees our butt standing before the easel and she approves. Our actions have demonstrated respect for her. We have shown guts, will, determination. We are not candy-asses, we are warriors. The Muse likes that.

When Patricia Madson says “the magic begins,” what she means is that the simple act of putting our physical body in a specific physical space (with the proper intention) sets in motion a chain of events that cannot be seen or measured or quantified but that unfailingly produces immersion or “flow.” By our physical motion, we have crossed an invisible frontier or threshold. On the far side of that threshold lies magic.

We’re Airborne Rangers humping our weapons and gear aboard the chopper. We’re going to war. It doesn’t feel like it though. It feels like a drill. The bird takes off. Every one of us is thinking, “This is just practice. An exercise. The order to stand down will come. Saddam Hussein will hand over his WMD. We’ll be back on base drinking beer in an hour.”

But the formation keeps flying north. We peer below. There’s the berm that separates Kuwait from Iraq. We’ve crossed the border. Holy shit, this is real! We look around the interior of the chopper. Our buddies are armed and trained and ready; they’re real Rangers. So are we. The helicopter lowers; the steel ramp drops. “Go! Go!” We stand up and charge out into the night. Now we’re making history.

Make a list of places that are “hot spots” for you, places where important things happen. Go there. Show up.

Our writing desk. Our rehearsal hall, our studio. If we’re painters and Resistance has stopped us in our tracks, Patricia Madson’s wisdom will break the jam. Put on our shoes. Squeeze into our studio pants. Get out, catch the subway, climb the stairs. It’s so prosaic, isn’t it? But it’s working. The Muse is watching. We’re in the studio now. Lock the door, nuke the coffee, cross to the easel. That tube of paint that we put down last night. Arrrgggh, we hate it. Pick it up! We squeeze a dollop onto our board, mix it, blend it. There’s the canvas. The brush. Our fingers pick it up, smoosh its bristles into the paint, lift it toward the easel …

Now we’re making history.

[This week’s winner is Dana Detrick-Clark for her quote, ” … when we sit down day after day and keep grinding, something mysterious starts to happen.” Thanks, Dana. You’ll get a signed Improv Wisdom and a signed War of Art. And thanks, Patricia Ryan Madson, for writing this wonderful book.]

 

DO THE WORK

Steve shows you the predictable Resistance points that every writer hits in a work-in-progress and then shows you how to deal with each one of these sticking points. This book shows you how to keep going with your work.

do the work book banner 1

THE AUTHENTIC SWING

A short book about the writing of a first novel: for Steve, The Legend of Bagger Vance. Having failed with three earlier attempts at novels, here's how Steve finally succeeded.

The-Authentic-Swing

NOBODY WANTS TO READ YOUR SH*T

Steve shares his "lessons learned" from the trenches of the five different writing careers—advertising, screenwriting, fiction, nonfiction, and self-help. This is tradecraft. An MFA in Writing in 197 pages.

noboybookcover

TURNING PRO

Amateurs have amateur habits. Pros have pro habits. When we turn pro, we give up the comfortable life but we find our power. Steve answers the question, "How do we overcome Resistance?"

Turning-Pro

8 Comments

  1. Karen Good on September 23, 2009 at 4:52 am

    Greetings Mr. Pressfield, and thank you. You may never know how invaluable this Writing Wednesdays is for me and many of my writing peers. I am up before my 10 to 6 job getting and hour or so in for the book I’m writing. I languished with this project for seven years and finally I am trusting myself more, on the right track, properly respecting the muse. The War of Art (I have the bulletproof advance version!) is a wonderful work; I have bought it time and again for friends and made certain it was front and center at McNally Jackson bookstore in Soho (when I worked there; it’s still front and center and selling out. that’s the secret to that gem. Keep it front and center where folks can see it. The bookstore owner says when she sees the book she thinks of me, lol). In any case, my friend, my compatriot, countless thanks.

    Karen R. Good



  2. Kath Thompson on September 23, 2009 at 5:41 am

    You rock. I am buying this book immediately and sending this link to all my yoga peeps. Thanks!



  3. Jenny on September 23, 2009 at 5:54 am

    I’m absolutely loving my RSS subscription to your blog. I just bought a little gem to read yesterday, but this book will be next on the list. Also love knowing that there are so many others out there with creative aspirations who are trying to squeeze those aspirations into the limited time of productivity after the 9-5, work out and dinner.



  4. Helen Ginger on September 23, 2009 at 6:16 am

    A very true post. If you don’t attempt to write, you’ll never get words on the page. Stories and characters can bounce around in your head, but readers can only discover them when you put them on paper and allow readers into that world.

    Acting has a lot of parallels to writing. This book, Improv Wisdom, shows that. I have a book called “The Audition Process: A Guide for Actors” by Bob Funk, which has information that can be applied to writers querying their work, establishing their resume, and basically creating their bio.

    Helen
    Straight From Hel



  5. Petar on September 23, 2009 at 8:12 am

    Pressfield, you are like a life guru.



  6. Julie Tallard Johnso on September 23, 2009 at 1:56 pm

    Write on. For me this is what the ethical, spiritual and writing path have in common — we show up. And when what we find is some difficulty, hindrance or slap in the face (instead of applause), WE USE THAT TOO. Gold or doggie-do, all the same for the committed (professional) writer. We show up and use everything. Everything is material to practice our spiritual principles or to use in our story.

    Happy righting, Julie



  7. Mitch Green on September 25, 2009 at 12:45 pm

    Mr. Pressfield,
    This little quote of mine keeps me going.
    “Doing your work is like piling boxes or bricks against a door. At first it just seems repetitive without much happening, but eventually the weight of those boxes against the door forces the door to collapse. That’s your breakthrough. Great! Now start piling more boxes because the next breakthrough is on the other side of the new door.”



  8. […] Ryan Madison in one sitting.  And no, it wasn’t just because one of the chapter titles is Just Show Up which is a bit of a family motto.  And no, it wasn’t because it is a guide to the specific […]



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