In last week’s post I made a case for writing out of love. This week lemme dig into that idea a little deeper. The profession of writer (or musician or filmmaker or athlete) is not really a “job” like other jobs. It’s not like working in a coal mine or toiling in a cubicle as a telemarketer. It’s not something we do purely to put food on the table. We write or paint or dance out of love. We would do it even if nobody paid us. In the fields of the arts and entertainment, the principles that apply to…

Today’s post is a follow-up to last week’s Is Money Necessary?, which was inspired by Charles Rosasco’s recent note to me: Jack Lemmon won an Oscar for his performance in “Save the Tiger,” written by Steve Shagan I’m really sick of hearing famous actors/writers/musicians talk about how unimportant money and success are (that it is “just the work” that fulfills them). How do we keep expecting to get paid/make a living? Again, what I have to say here is not intended as “wisdom” or as any definitive statement. It’s just my own take on the subject. To me, the most valuable…

I’m stealing the title of today’s post from Maureen Dowd’s terrific book, Are Men Necessary? What got me thinking about this subject (money, I mean) is a note I received from a writer named Charles Rosasco. Thanks, Charles, for letting me use your real name: No problem: it’s just brain surgery Could you comment on money and writing? I’m really sick of hearing famous actors/writers/musicians talk about how unimportant money and success are (that it is “just the work” that fulfills them). I know what they are saying but I hardly think famously successful people are in the position to…

What follows is my own personal metaphysical model for how writing (and all art) works. You may think I’m crazy. I may indeed be crazy. Mt. Helikon in Greece, dwelling place of the nine Muses “The Muse,” as I imagine her, is the collective identity of the nine goddesses, sisters, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (Memory), whose charge it is to inspire artists. Other names for this mysterious force might be the Unconscious, the Self, the Quantum Soup. Whatever it is, it represents the unseen dimension of Potentiality that is either within us or beyond us. It’s where ideas come…

My hour-long interview on Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul Sunday aired four days ago. “And so we bid a fond farewell to beautiful Maui … “ I was wondering what the after-effects would be. Would there be a sudden surge in visibility for The War of Art? For this site? If so, would it change how I feel about what we’re trying to do here? The answers are yes, yes, and no (with an asterisk). The War of Art got a big bump. (Thank you, Oprah!) But it didn’t change the way I feel about this blog, except for evolutionary alterations…

[Before we get to this actual blog post, lemme say again thanks to everyone who signed up for First Look Access, and received an early look at the Foolscap videos and The Authentic Swing. Thank you for your comments, for taking part in the bundle offer and for your “ask me anything” questions. The Authentic Swing is up on the Black Irish Books store and Shawn and I are at work answering your questions. I’ll get the hour-long audio to your inbox ASAP. We had a great time on this one, despite the odd glitch here and there. Next time…

Does anyone beside me know who Jim Furyk is? Jim Furyk swinging his Authentic Swing Jim Furyk is a 16-time winner on the PGA tour, the 2003 U.S. Open champion—and possessor of the single weirdest, loopiest, most homemade swing on the planet. As I write this on Saturday, September 14th, Jim Furyk has just become the sixth golfer in history to shoot a 59 in PGA competition. He did it yesterday in the second round of the BMW Championship. Shooting a 59 in competition on the PGA tour is like Kobe Bryant scoring 81 points in an NBA game (which he…

First lemme thank everybody who has signed up for FIRST LOOK ACCESS and is following the Foolscap videos (#1 last week, #2 this week) and the introduction of The Authentic Swing (all only available through FIRST LOOK ACCESS). Wow, what a sentence. Totally incomprehensible to anyone who is not a regular reader of this blog. Thinking about this got me mulling how publishing has changed and how this blog has evolved over just the past four years. Here’s a bird’s-eye view: When I sit down to compose a Writing Wednesdays post, I open a folder in my MacBook titled “AFGHANISTAN.”…

It took me thirty years to get my first novel published. Along the way I wrote three other full-length novels (and about thirty screenplays), each of which took two years of full-time work and none of which made the cut. A few years ago I took those early book-attempts down from the shelf and looked them over, wondering if they might be worth resuscitating. Answer: arrrrggggh! They were not ready then, and they’re not ready now. What makes something ready for the Big Leagues? How long do we have to languish in the minors before we break through? What does it…

There was a great article in the L.A. Times of August 19 about the B-52 bomber. Remember Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove, straddling a hydrogen bomb in the bomb bay of a Strategic Air Command plane, then dropping into thin air while cutting loose a Rebel yell? That was a B-52. In real life the aircraft first saw service in the 1950s. It’s still flying today. With the latest upgrades, the B-52 is expected to remain as the Air Force’s #1 workhorse bomber into the 2040s. But here’s the sentence from the article that leapt out at me: Now the plane,…