Steven Pressfield Blog
Episode Forty-Four: The Soldier and the Sage
The yogis of Alexander’s India sat in silence, naked in the sun.
Resistance and Mass Hysteria
One of the things a writer realizes when she first becomes aware of her own Resistance—her internal, diabolical pull toward self-sabotage—is that it’s a dangerous world … not just “out there,” but “in here.”
Episode Forty-Three: The Naked Wise Men
“I have conquered the need to conquer the world” means “I have defeated the dark side of the Warrior Archetype within me.”
Episode Forty-Two: A Servant of Strife
Some protest war. Others, like Telamon, embrace it even as they hate it.
Resistance and Dreams #2
Picking up from last week, the dream described in that post has helped a little. But I’m still being hammered by self-doubt about this new book.
Episode Forty-One: The Universal Soldier
Are warriors the same in all centuries, in all nations?
Episode Forty: The Archetypal Soldier
In this episode, we’ll go beyond the virtuous Spartans and the preeminent Alexander to a figure more like our own conflicted selves–my recurring fictional character, Telamon of Arcadia.
Resistance and Dreams
I’m starting a new book and Resistance is beating the hell out of me.
Episode Thirty-Nine: The Afghan Campaign
When a “civilized” army like Alexander’s confronts a primitive tribal foe (as Alexander did in the Afghan kingdoms in the 330s B.C.), it often sinks to the level of brutality and pitilessness of its enemy.
Episode Thirty-Eight: Limits of the Warrior Archetype
Alexander’s Macedonians–and even the Spartans themselves–saw their virtue crumble as they achieved preeminence over others.
The Warrior Archetype
A New Video Series from Steven Pressfield
Subscribe here for the full series.
FREE MINI COURSE
Start with this War of Art [27-minute] mini-course. It's free. The course's five audio lessons will ground you in the principles and characteristics of the artist's inner battle.
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.
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.
THE WAR OF ART
Read this one first.
It identifies the enemy—what I call Resistance with a capital “R,” i.e. fear, self-doubt, procrastination, perfectionism, all the forms of self-sabotage—that stop us from doing our work and realizing our dreams.
Start here.
Everything else proceeds from this.
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?"
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.
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.