Happy Christmas/Hannukah/New Year!
My wish is that our readers are taking this season off, just like I am. I do want to take this moment, though, to say special thanks to the friends and partners who helped get this blog off the ground six months ago and whose hard work has kept it aloft ever since.
Chief Ajmal Khan Zazai, right, greets Haji Marjan, Tribal Chief and member of the tribal council in Zazi
Extraordinary thanks to Amanda Tunnell, who started everything; to Jeff Simon and Printer Bowler, who designed everything; and to Callie Rucker Oettinger who has kept the whole package intact and advancing ever since. Special thanks to Maj. Jim Gant and to Chief Ajmal Khan Zazai, who have told it like it is in bold, incisive and provocative interviews, features and papers; to Mike McClellan, Mark Safranski, Glenn Reynolds who have contributed great stuff; to Nancy Roberts, who has provided wise counsel behind the scenes; and to our most recent contributors, embedded journalist Andrew Lubin and retired Army major/current tribal scholar William “Mac” McCallister, whose paper COIN and Irregular Warfare in a Tribal Society we will be excerpting, querying and presenting as a free .pdf very soon.
And thanks to all the new friends we’ve made and everyone who has tuned in, written in or just dropped in. Peace on Earth. Have a great Holiday Season!
THE WAR OF ART
Read this one first.
It identifies the enemy—what I call Resistance with a capital “R,” i.e. fear, self-doubt, procrastination, perfectionism, all the forms of self-sabotage—that stop us from doing our work and realizing our dreams.
Start here.
Everything else proceeds from this.
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.
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.
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.
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?"
Merry Christmas, Steve.
Steve,
Hold nothing back…
From somewhere on the border of South Carolina.
The Gants
Merry Christmas Steve and thanks to Jim Gant for his insights. I wish someone would listen…
Steve –
Thanks for doing this blog. Always interesting stuff. Best wishes to you for the 25th and the new year.
Steve,
It’s been a pleasure working with you this year. Hope there are many more to come! Happy Holidays.
-Jeff