Welcome, JABs Subscribers!
Thanks and welcome to everybody who leapt off the cliff with us and signed up to receive a year’s worth of Black Irish JABs. The response has been beyond our hopes. Thank you!
Click here to order a year of JABs
To anyone still teetering on the fence, lemme take today’s post to give you the old-fashioned hard sell. (Then I’ll stop, I promise.)
On second thought, let me just list the titles and premises of some of this year’s coming JABs:
JAB #1 (December): How Does a Story Start?
This one’s about the Inciting Incident of a novel or a movie. It talks about the hero acquiring in this moment his or her intention (the drive that will carry him or her through the story), about making the internal external, about the two “narrative poles” that are established here and how they keep the reader turning pages. Etc, etc.
JABS #7 and 8 (June and July): Bad Guys, Part One and Bad Guys, Part Two.
An in-depth look at villains. Why does our story need them, how to make them memorable, what characteristics do all the great villains possess?
I cite these three as a way of describing what JABs are and how they can help every writer—rookie or seasoned pro.
I know they helped the hell out of me, just writing them and getting my thoughts straight by doing so.
JAB #4 (March), The Professional Mindset.
This mini-book doesn’t talk about craft at all. It’s exclusively about you and me as professionals. What is the optimal mindset for a writer or an artist? How do we manage our emotions, contain our expectations for ourselves and others? How do we keep from being our own worst enemies?
JAB #5 (April), Learning to Say No.
Another aspect of professionalism. Becoming tough-minded, kicking the habit of being a “nice guy” or girl. How to stop saying yes to time-thieves, even well-intentioned and deserving ones.
JAB #9 (September), Dudeology.
An in-depth dive, for fun and profit, into The Big Lebowski. What does genre mean, how did the Coen brothers use it (and subvert it to devastating effect) in this greatest of slacker comedies? What does the Dude have in common with Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe and J.J. Gittes? Why, in the end, does he abide?
I know it’s daunting to plunk down a serious chunk of change on a subscription. But by the end of the year you’ll have twelve of these mini-books, a regular library of wisdom from the writing trenches . . . with more coming in Season Two. And if don’t wanna continue, bail then with no hard feelings.
Have I convinced you? If so, here’s the link to sign up now.
One last sales point:
Each subscription comes with a gift code so you can give a digital subscription of the JABs (eBook and audiobook) to a friend.
I love these little books and I hope you will too.
Thanks again to everyone who leapt into the pool with us.
Back, next week, to our regular posts.
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?"
Digging in.
I am so happy (and scared) receiving an opportunity learning at the feet of a master writer. It’s a dream come true for me, especially since I gave up my dream job (read shadow career) in 2017 for the sake of pursuing full-time writing. This subscription will provide clear, practical instruction, as well as, regular encouragement for me as a writer. Thank you so much Black Irish Entertainment, Steven Pressfield, and Shawn Coyne for providing powerful tools for a GREAT price, making it more likely for me as a writer to overcome the wiles of Resistance and achieving writing success.
I am really excited about this series. I already dug into the e-books and am working on clearing a special space on my shelf for these little guys. In an interesting twist of fate, I met a young writer the day before the series launched and actually had someone to share my coupon with! Perfect timing. 🙂
I have picked up nearly every writing-related book suggested in The Artist’s Journey, Do The Work etc and am excited to now get the distillation of wisdom from JABS! ( I have The Writers Journey, Save the Cat, The Hero With A Thousand Faces, Three Uses of The Knife etc stacked on my desk next to me. And The Last of the Amazons but that one is just for fun haha)
Thanks for being such an inspiring “writer for writers” Steven and generously sharing your wisdom & journey with us. It has drastically improved my storytelling and is greatly appreciated!
This will perfectly compliment my copy of The Story Grid.
I wanted the cap too! But I’m in Australia.
Insert pout emoji.
I read everything you write. I think these jab books are a great idea. One huge improvement would be to allow us binge readers to read them all in far less time than a year! Waiting until June to get to part one is way too long of a wait. Please let those of us who would enjoy the bundle to be able to purchase the entire set all at once.
Mr. Pressfield, you are such a great writer and I am very fond of your masterpieces. We never met but still, beating an aspiring writer I learned a lot of things from your writings. It would be easy to click for more info before hiring an online essay writer to complete my assignments on time.
Nice article, thanks for sharing.
شركة تعقيم بالرياض
I would really like to become your subsciber, but I can’t see the subscription form. Secondly I am not sure the activation email will arrive. Gmail seems to send all letters like that to spam.
Spam? Not necessarily. Their spam filters are really good, but they are really intellectual at the same time. So most likely there are other problems with your Gmail. I found this https://www.auslogics.com/en/articles/fix-gmail-not-loading-in-chrome/ online record that you can read and see whether their methods will help you revive your mailbox and hope for subscrip
In getting ready the world Report of AR in Education market, secondary sources documented by analysts embrace company website statistics, company annual reports, SEC filings
It was quite valuable to both me and the other commenters! Play Retro games.