Post-partum
Signed copies and gift boxes of The Daily Pressfield are flying out the door and I’m depressed.
It’s weird. In the hours when you’d think you’d be most gratified, you sometimes only feel deflated. I’ve had moviemakers tell me they feel the same after their film comes out … and painters and photographers and dancers. And let’s not forget mothers!
This is what Seth Godin calls “the Dip” and it is a mo-fo.
In The War of Art, I told the story of the first time I finished a manuscript. This was back in the days of typewriters so I actually had a pile of pages (and a second pile of “carbon copies,” if anyone remembers those) that I could lift in my two hands. Victory! I had finally finished something! I went down the street to my friend Paul Rink’s camper (he was a writer, about thirty years older than I, who had mentored me all the way through the book). I told him I had just typed THE END. I had slain the dragon.
“Good for you,” Paul said without looking up. “Start the next one tomorrow.”
That was twenty-something books ago, and the only cure I’ve found for post-partum depression is to do just what Paul said. In fact, I’ve gone him one better in the intervening years. My theory now is that I want to be at least a third of the way through the first draft of the next book when I finish the one I’m working on now.
There should never be a “between books.” The Dip is too gruesome. We can’t fall into that pit. Our own Resistance will destroy us.
So it’s back to the grind, brothers and sisters. We gotta get another bun in the oven!
Seriously, thanks again to everyone who has pre-ordered The Daily Pressfield. I know we’ve had issues shipping to Europe, Australia, and especially Canada. And there’s no audiobook yet. My apologies! We are working full-tilt on both.
Signed hardbacks and Special Edition Gift Boxes are still available (in time for Christmas).
“Start the next one tomorrow!”
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?"
Any update on shipping to Australia yet? Thanks!
“Start the next one tomorrow!” I’d buy the t-shirt! Great coaching. Thank you!
Yes! I needed this exact coaching today.
And I’ll take a medium, thanks! 😉
Thank you so much dear Steve.
The first thing I can attach to your post is this: I have read in psychology that when we feel good, what actually happens is the negative/repelled emotions that are gathered inside us come to the surface to be cured. That is a so wrong time for them! But behold; I can vaguely remember equal situations when I would go to my parent’s home for christmas –the very atmosphere of warmth and magic would bring this sadness, which thankfully I could feel somewhat safe in, so it wasn’t only negative but also strangely beautiful. This brings me the memory of another thing I’ve read, which I consider also important: when we are frustrated etc. we may think that it is other people or circumstances that make us so, but the major cause is not them; it is the practical fact that we are *tired/stressed*. When we are not tired/stressed, even the big problems can be beautiful opportunities for development and philosophy! Can you relate to that? It won’t be easy –we almost always are a bit or more tired. Can that factor alone bring us the darkness that we then attach to the external circumstances and mess our thoughts and lives? Maybe.
I feel I am a bit done with that “ending melancholy” now, after working on my emotions as good as I could those past years with my limited powers.
Maybe moderation in all things is a way we should consider. A powerful moderation, not a neutral one.
To war dear friends and Steve! I’m in Iliad now, starting chapter 4 <3 Let us see what the others 3000 years ago did when they faced tiredness, stress, fear and awe.
By the way, I can tell (and I read that from that great writer who also wrote about shit-detector –was it Hemmingway?) that stress is also cunning. Because tiredness may not reveal itself althoug it may be gathering inside us. So the only way to stop it before mounting to emotional explosions may be the power of Logic: to see our past days, to know when Logically we must be tired although we don’t feel it. Hmm.
“Let us see what the others 3000 years ago did when they faced tiredness, stress, fear and awe.”
Share with us your newfound wisdom, Tolis!!
I believe the “high” I feel while being in a flow state with creativity is met with the equal “low” I feel while editing the song. Resistance hits me hardest when I am editing a song that I thought was so great during the creative state. I call it re-entry into the atmosphere. I am hit with gravity after floating through space. There are bills to pay. People depending on me. I can’t daydream my way out of this. Moderation is key, Tolis. I’ve always loved this quote by Gustave Flaubert:
“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work”.
Kate, I love that quote. Thanks for sharing. Wishing all a productive week in the things that matter.
Thank you Kate, Jackie! You are now two of the flames of Steve’s community. The gravity you speak of, the atmosphere, the matching of “highs” and “lows”, objective reality, are indeed so heavy. And I am glad that you face Resistance -because it means that you face creation.
Ah, the heroes of antiquity –they would even destroy cities in the name of Resistance but also in the name of pudency and glory. But perhaps they also guided Plato and the philosophers to doubt the very divinities which were so humane. So maybe throught their highs and lows they opened the path to science, to greater logic. Who can tell <3 In every verse there is something for the seeker, something of humanity in its' whole dimension -you will be impressed by their intelligence although it is a war story yet, not a story like the ones we seek today full of ideas for the most positive meanings of life.
But the most important thing was that Iliad -and all other works of art- was created. Then the law of accumulation created the rest.
So let's accumulate our deeds -even the hard ones, the granites. Who knows what that law may bring to the gatherer and humanity?
Thank you <3
No fooling on the Resistance…I’m almost 70 and just started formally teaching for the first time…3 months in and the beast is after me.
Thnx for the heads up!!!
Back to it….
Good morning, Steve! I received my book yesterday. WOW! Few books are truly beautiful. This is one of them. I seldom treat myself to signed copies, but so happy I chose this book. It is a treat.
As for that dip, it sucks. I employ a similar strategy. Before I finish a painting, I have another set up on canvas. I’ll work on a book and short stories at the same time. I give myself no excuse to sit out any blockage. Sometimes this works. Thanks for the book and backup.
“Start the Next One Tomorrow!” Wow! What a mic drop quote and amazing mantra to live our creative life.
Just received the signed “The Daily Pressfield”. Wow! So impressive!
Thank you for helping all of use kick the hell out of the resistance.
Appreciate you Steve!
Don’t Stop.
Got the book…GOOD INE!!!
…GOOD ONE!!!
My signed Daily Pressfield has pride of place on the end table next to my reading chair. It is exactly the kind of book you want to keep handy, so you can dip into it when needed for motivation and guidance. And I agree with Jackie — this book is *beautiful*! The format, the wonderful (and even hilarious) illustrations, the thoughtful intermingling of Steven’s many texts–even the dust jacket–makes this book an integrated whole, and a pleasure to curl up with. It represents a body of work that Steven has given us.
It must be from that Muse – who overlooks. She says
come on, get up
I’m not finished with you yet.
💛
Again Pressfield touches on a universal truth. Just ordered my own book of daily truth bombs, cannot wait.
I remember this feeling of emptiness way back in high school. There must be a formula to explain it. Something like:
effort expended + length of time + meaning associated with effort = post partum when completed.
If we are born ‘In His image’, we’ve only got the 7th day to rest, then back at it. We are beasts of burden, only truly happy when under a load.
The irony is that we talk about retirement, rest, life of ease as if there is happiness without effort. Probably why so many of our population are on prescription drugs and/or using weed/alcohol to numb the pain that comes from lives filled with comfort and ease.
bsn
Great advice, Steve. “Drink half a warm beer and get on to the next one,” you’ve said.
Agreed Jackie, this “Gustave” quote of Kate’s is one to tape to the computer screen– “Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”
Looking forward to “The Daily Pressfield” landing on my porch stoop. Best to you all.
Post-book depression is real. Really really real.
If I can put my finger on it, you just ended a relationship. You had all the torture, ahem, romance of highs and lows that brought you in and emotionally tied you.
You, giving it away, was a breakup in a matter of speaking. Well, ok, you got a couple of bucks but it’s not a direct replacement.
At 18, I was bummed about a girl. My older friend told me all you have to do is fall back into love with another and your bummed head will be fixed. I was like “But I can’t do that.” He said, “Come on let’s go out…”
(“Start the next one tomorrow!”)
I am very grateful that I belong to this club. I am right smack in the middle of my creative mo-fo. It is like a car stuck in the mud with the rear wheels spinning for days and then some Pressfield friends come by and in a second push you out of the mud and you are sailing down the road again. Thank you club members for the push.
Congratulations. 🍃🌸🍃
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. For your honesty and encouragement in every post. And I can hardly wait to get a copy! And waiting patiently for the great news…a big fan in Australia
Postpartum is the perfect adjective!
My first book was the memoir of former marathon champion Dick Beardsley. This is what I noted when I held it in my hands for the first time…
I’m looking through the book, remembering this or that passage — how much fun it was to write, how much fun it is to see it in the book exactly as I wrote it. And I get to the part where Dick’s about to take the lead in the New York City Marathon. They’re running across a bridge at that point: “All you could hear was the wind blowing through steel and the footsteps of a dozen runners. Slap, slap, slap.” I wrote that!
I’ve been in labor for more than four years. Now the baby’s born, it has all ten fingers and toes, and all I want to do is look at it.
That’s what it felt like to have a dream come true.
Strong work marine. Back to work. DOC ENZ, Robert W. Enzenauer, MD, MPH, BG Retired
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Thankfully, Paul didn’t say ‘start the next one now!!’ and perhaps that’s the only pause artists can take to celebrate and feel relieved before the drill starts again.
You can unleash your creativity to play geometry dash world according to your flying style. There are many avatars with different abilities in many situations of the levels. Try to overcome the pitfalls intelligently.
Thanks for the info!!
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I can imagine the mixed emotions you’re experiencing with the success of The Daily Pressfield. It’s incredible to see signed copies and gift boxes flying out the door! Yet, it’s completely normal to feel a bit deflated in moments that should be the most gratifying. It reminds me of the varied emotions artists, filmmakers, and even mothers share post-milestone achievements. It might be helpful to acknowledge and embrace this part of the process. On a different note, if you ever need a break from the whirlwind and want to focus on something else, perhaps exploring some Law Dissertation Help could provide a refreshing change of pace. Let me know if you’re interested, and I can share some great resources. Cheers to your continued success!”
Jackie, thank you, Kate! Now, you two are among Steve’s community’s flames. It’s true that the gravity you mention, the atmosphere, the harmony of “highs” and “lows,” and actual reality are quite weighty. Furthermore, I’m happy that you encounter resistance since it signals the beginning of creation.
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