Crossing Over
First things first: our Kindle and Nook winners from last week’s un-Contest. Congrats to Lou Sancio and Rachel Hope, who will get their new eReaders ASAP—and to the six other lucky devils listed below, who will each get a signed first edition of The Profession. Winners, I’ll e-mail you all personally and we can confer on personalized inscriptions, addresses etc.
Here’s how I picked the winners. We had a big long list on Excel; I scrolled down with my eyes closed, then stopped when I felt the vibes and opened my eyes. Whatever name was beneath the cursor … you won!
Thanks too today to our friend Jeff Sexton of copyblogger and jeffsextonwrites for the piece in today’s left-hand column. It’s an interview with me on the subject of “crossover,” which in this case refers to the two distinct groups of people who read my stuff—novel readers and War of Art/Do The Work readers—but who almost never cross over from one side to the other.
That’s one of the reasons we organized last week’s Kindle and Nook un-Contest (where the Kindle and Nook come loaded with my crossover, non-War of Art stuff) and why we’re offering the audios on this page this week: trying to get fans of The War of Art/Do The Work to take a deep breath, cinch up their bungee cords and leap off the bridge. Cross over to the other side of the Pressfield oeuvre.
I do understand the reluctance. It’s like mixing friends, which almost never works. A few years ago I worked on a movie project called Mister X, from the comic book series. One of the things I loved about the character of Mister X (a depressed, angst-ridden urban superhero who ran a constant fever of 106 degrees) was that he had three different girlfriends, each of whom knew him by a different name and each of whom saw him as a totally different person and had totally different boyfriend/girlfriend issues with him—even though he was the exact same depressed, angst-ridden urban superhero with all of them. It’s hard to mix friends.
In other words, my quest in this space may be folly. Perhaps the twain shall never meet. I promise, after this week, I’ll never try again. But think about it, War of Art friends. Crossing over might actually be fun! Buy two audio books for $9.95.
Congrats again to Rachel Hope and Lou Sancio, who will get their Nook and Kindle right away, and to our winners of signed Professions—Stacy Chambers, Katrina Samples, Alex Melli, Tristian Rivera, Larry Blumenthal and Jason Ford. I’ll be in touch by e-mail this week.
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?"
To anyone hesitating on that bridge, move your butt. If you aren’t plucking Steven’s books off fiction and non-fiction shelves, you’re missing out.
There’s the axiom about give a man a fish, teach a man to fish; with Steven’s works, he teaches you how to fish, prep, and cook, then offers up the amazing meals that result. Read up and dig in.
If anyone is thinking of crossing over, I really enjoyed Gates Of Fire as a great intro to Steve’s other books.
You may already know the story of the 300 spartans who defended the hot gates at Thermopylae but Gates of Fire is way better than the film/s and will have you up late at night wanting to finish it.
Congratulations to the winners!!
I second Andrew. Gates Of Fire is perhaps my favorite book of all time. I gave it to my husband to read, even though he professed to hate anything to do with history (bad school experience)! It’s now one of his top five favorites and he has become obsessed with ancient Greece. If you love being immersed in another time and place, don’t miss it.
Both the “War of Art” and “Do the Work” help all the rest of us “would be” writers to crossover…blessings and thanks, Steve!
Your literary works are the motivation for me to become a novel writer.