There’s a story about the Oscar-winning actor Walter Matthau. A younger thespian is bemoaning his own struggle in show biz. “Mr. Matthau, I’m just looking for that one big break!” In the story Matthau laughs. “Kid,” he says. “It’s not the one big break. It’s the fifty big breaks.” Here’s what I wrote a few weeks ago, in the first post in this series about the writing of The Legend of Bagger Vance. I attempted to write my first novel when I was twenty-four. Bagger Vance [my first published book] came out when I was fifty-one. Twenty-seven years is a…

Continuing our examination of the idea that certain stories have conceptual premises. What is a conceptual premise? And how does it work in a dramatic narrative? [P.S. Don’t forget this year’s Black Irish Christmas Special, featuring the brand-new, leather-bound, signed and numbered (only 2500 available) 20th Anniversary edition of The Legend of Bagger Vance.] One fascinating aspect of premises is that they imply order. Start with any premise (say, in The Lord of the Rings, the idea that a certain ring commands the power of the universe) and when you dig to the next level, you get this: The universe…

[Continuing our look back at The Legend of Bagger Vance, seeking writers’ lessons and insights on the book’s 20th anniversary. P.S. Don’t forget this year’s Black Irish Christmas Special, featuring the brand-new, leather-bound, signed and numbered (only 2500 available) anniversary edition of Bagger Vance.] Sometimes a story—particularly fantasy, historical or sci-fi—needs a conceptual Premise. By that I mean a hypothetical truth that informs the drama the way, say, the airfoil-shaped wing informs the idea of an airplane. The conceptual premise of The Legend of Bagger Vance is “the Authentic Swing.” Premise is different from theme. It’s different from concept. It’s…

[Don’t forget to check out the Great Black Irish Christmas Sale, featuring the brand-new, leather-bound, signed and numbered edition of The Legend of Bagger Vance.] Continuing our 20th-anniversary look-back at the writing of The Legend of Bagger Vance: We were talking last week about stealing the structure of works we admire. I was confessing that, for Bagger, I had shamelessly ripped off the premise and spine of the Bhagavad-Gita. Now let me admit a further theft and an additional bonus: When you steal a great story’s structure you also get its characters. See Romeo and Juliet, Jesus of Nazareth, etc.…

Today marks (more or less) the 20th anniversary of The Legend of Bagger Vance, the first book I ever got published (after almost thirty years of trying)—and, in its brand-new, leather-bound incarnation, the centerpiece of this year’s Christmas Special at Black Irish Books. The video below is me telling all about this one-time-only Holiday Gift Special. Take a look. The video’s short. And trust me, we went all out for this Christmas. This Special is a good one!

Back again to the subject of Personal Culture. What are the aspects of this beast? First is Level of Aspiration. “How high are we aiming?” Last year’s NBA champs were the San Antonio Spurs. Two up-and-coming teams from that season are the L.A. Clippers and the Golden State Warriors. Both squads are young and loaded with stars. The Spurs, on the other hand, are old and creaking. A few days ago the Spurs played the Clippers and the Warriors in back-to-back games. The Spurs thrashed them both. For San Antonio entering this season, only one outcome is acceptable: they must…

Remember Jack Lord? He played Steve McGarrett on the original Hawaii Five-O. Jack Lord had a rule for himself as a character. The rule was: “I don’t ask questions. I answer them.” I learned this from my friend Ernie Pintoff, who directed a gaggle of Hawaii Five-Os back in the day. According to Ernie, every time a script called for Jack Lord’s character to ask a question, Jack would stop the scene and refuse to read the line. “I don’t ask questions,” he would say. “I answer them.” When I first heard this, I thought, “What an insufferable egomaniac! People…

Continuing on our theme from two weeks ago, personal culture: What is the most important part of the artist’s or entrepreneur’s working day? To me it’s the minutes right after the day is over. Why? Because that’s the time when it’s absolutely essential that you and I acknowledge our day’s efforts and give ourselves some props. Self-validation. Self-reinforcement. Nobody else is gonna do it for us. We have no boss; he’s not gonna come in and give us a high five. Our spouses have got their own problems. Our kids couldn’t care less. We have no coach, no teacher, no…

When I was first starting out in Hollywood, a screenwriter friend gave me some advice that has served me well in all subsequent incarnations. “Steve, you and I, whether we realize it or not, are competing against Warners Bros. We’re competing against Twentieth-Century Fox and SONY and Paramount—and we have to think like they do. We have to be as professional as they are, and we have to think of ourselves in the same terms that they do.” My friend showed me his “to do” list. It wasn’t a smudged-up scrap of cocktail napkin like mine; it was a full-on…

I learned this from Randall Wallace (Braveheart), who learned it from Steve Cannell, the maestro of a million plotlines from The Rockford Files to Baretta to 21 Jump Street: Keep the antagonist front-and-center in the middle of your story. Why does this work? Because it energizes the narrative. Think about these all-time mega-hits—Jaws, Alien, the first Terminator. The villains were everywhere in those movies and, more importantly, the protagonists were aware of and terrified of them at every moment. Still don’t believe me? Four words: Star Wars, Darth Vader. I was watching a movie called A Single Shot on TV…