We’re so deep into our project now that we can’t turn back … and yet the end is still so far away it seems impossible to conceive of reaching it.
We try to recharge our will by flashing back to our original commitment, our dream, our vision. But these are so far behind us we can barely remember them.
As David Mamet says, “It’s hard to remember that you set out to drain the swamp when you’re up to your ass in alligators.”
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.
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.
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?"
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Porno İzle Karılarını takas etmek isteyen elemanlar hep birlikte evde buluşuyor
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Comments seem to be closed on your previous post, concerning Christopher Columbus. I meant to post sooner, but resistance got the better of me! I wanted to mention that the whole story of Columbus is, apparently, bunkum. He did not set out to prove the world was round at all. Everyone knew the world was round. The ancient Greeks knew it, and even calculated how big it was. The Romans knew it, they learnt it from the Greeks. And the people of medieval Europe knew it too. There is, I’m told, virtually no evidence anywhere that people in the Middle Ages thought the world was flat. They knew it was round and how big it was. They knew it would be an immense and impossible journey from the shores of western Europe the lands of the far east, because as far as they knew it was all open, empty ocean. Columbus knew the world was round, but he was sure that the world was actually much smaller than everyone thought. That was the big idea he set out to prove. He was wrong, but he did find the American continents, so it wasn’t a complete disaster.
My source for all this? A book written by a quantum physicist called Carlo Rovelli, who also has a passionate interests in history and early philosophy. He wrote a biography on Anaximander , one of the pre-Socratic philosophers.
I’ve read lots of his books. Unfortunately, I can’t remember which one contains the story about Columbus.
I was under the impression Columbus had 4 shipts….three made it to the new world and the 4th fell of the flat edge. (Forgive me I couldn’t help myself LOL).
Thank you so much dear Steve.
We all, or many of us, pass through the hell before the dawn. It’s not dark, it’s horrible.
No, flash backs are useless. They try to give life taking it from the past, but the past is never alive, so they are fake zombies. The past is always dead, even the best of it. Socrates and Plato and those other crazy men -and women- back then are not the ones who create science today. Even the inspiration is not theirs, but of the living bodies which turn it on today. They created it while alive, but now they are none but shadows, no, no shadows, today they are nothing.
Today the scientists make science. And there is no tomorrow.
The end of the book can only be done today. It can’t be done tomorrow. And it’s not an end. It’s just a particle.
This entire post including the photo was spot on today. Exactly where I am in my book, my characters are in their journey, and the working title for now is The Forest. It’s spooky, Steve. Thanks.
Wishing all a great week. Don’t let the alligators stop you.
Loved this post! I laughed and laughed. So true!
Am I on a Journey? I was beginning to thing I was in love with the modes of travel. Destination? I’ll get off this train when the scenery looks inviting. Why am I here, where was I going? Been an inspirational trip so far…
A few months ago, I had a nightmare about an oversized alligator biting into a whale that was near a dock like a boat. It was so strange. The humpback was not only in fresh water, but it was just waiting like it was about to be boarded by strangers near the pond’s edge. There were lots of people surrounding the water watching a large alligator sneak up on the whale. It proceeded to attack the whale. People started to gasp, scream, and run. I remember feeling uncomfortable, looking away, but not running. I was one of the few far enough back that I could watch the entire thing. The blood filled the pond. The alligator then went to the fluke of this magnificent whale. Tore it to shreds. I woke up panicking, but realized this reptilian urge was destroying dreams that were nearly beached like beautiful whale song.
Resistance fights us even in our sleep.
Beautiful, Kate! And I learned another definition of fluke 🙂
Beautiful Kate thank you.
Call this the Mirkwood Moment. In THE HOBBIT, when Bilbo climbs a tree in Mirkwood and pushes through the canopy, he’s happily freed from the forest’s oppressive gloom, but he’s also discouraged that the forest seems to go on forever–not realizing that he’s actually at the bottom of a bowl in the land and really he and the dwarves are more than halfway through. So when you feel lost in the middle, remember you might be closer to Act III than you think.
When I feel stuck, and the writing is a slog, I have to step away from it for a time. Keep multiple projects in various stages of completion.
The first story will never see the light of day. The second story will be totally rewritten starting only with the premise. The third story will also be totally rewritten. I’ve been working on the fourth story for 3 years, and writing fiction everyday for 5. I believe I have a real shot at finishing and selling this thing by the end of the year. Connect with me on substack if you like. occamsraisor.substack.com
Oh my. Good one Steven –
““It’s hard to remember that you set out to drain the swamp when you’re up to your ass in alligators.””
The swamp is for me the doubt. The alligators, the many options. I say to myself – just BEGIN! Take another a stab at it! No apology required either. I forget that part.
In the moment, my ART has no feelings I can hurt.
That’s for me to manage, and my patrons to determine later.
Only thing I may try is to write something just one sentence today. I may be able to do that next day.
Curious choice of quotes. The phrase, Drain the Swamp, is loaded with implications and connections that didn’t exist When Bob Volk first said it in 1970. My observations are that those claiming to drain the swamp are filling it with quicksand.
As a Florida resident, we are up to our knees, waist, neck in alligators. We don’t drain swamps until as many alligators as possible have already been removed, preferably, turned into gator bites, and backpacks. If you don’t get rid of them in a permanent way, if you only relocate them, they will return, more vicious, more devious, smarter, than before. Gee, kind of like resistance, just waiting to pop back up and snatch the day’s plans out of our hands.
I’ve been working on a web project for over 5 year…more like 7. The first rush of enthusiasm and the thoughts of what this finished project may do for others has sobered over the years. I’m finished and gong through the learning hell of WorrdPress for my web site. Yes you are absolutely right about the time spent on a long term committment to ourselves.