Steven Pressfield Blog
The Ozzy Osbourne – Stephen Hawking Connection
I went to an Ozzy Osbourne concert with my son. Zakk Wylde was on stage tapping. I know about tapping because my son plays guitar. He knows about tapping because he loves Led Zeppelin.
“I Believe in America . . . “
“I believe in America. America has made my fortune. And I raised my daughter in the American fashion … “ These are the opening lines of The Godfather. They’re spoken in extreme closeup by the undertaker Bonasera in a heavy Italian accent. Bonasera speaks out of deep shadow. He recounts with painful emotion how his…
Cheat Sheet
(From the archives: This one is brought to you straight from December 18, 2015) Not that long ago I asked an acquaintance to cut an hour out of his day so that I could “run something by him.” It’s important to point out that this acquaintance had a laundry list of accomplishments parallel to my…
Lawrence of Arabia’s Motorcycle
We’ve been talking in this series about Ins and Outs—Opening and Closing Images in books and movies. We declared that the first rule of Ins and Outs Club is The Opening and Closing Images of our story should resonate with each other. They should look as alike as reasonably possible. An example we cited…
One Leg at a Time
Early 2000s, a Big Five publisher bought an indie publisher. I had a contract with the indie publisher. It was a large contract and I was less than a year into launching my business. I needed the work. Unlike the indie publishing house, the Big Five publishing house had its own PR/Marketing team. It didn’t need…
Self-doubt is Good
Last night for some reason I found myself thinking about my darkest hours as a writer. The period lasted about ten years, more if I include a contiguous stretch where I was too paralyzed to write at all. Was it Resistance? Was that the foe? No. The enemy was self-doubt. Or put another way,…
Getting to Your “Out”
I have a friend who is always the first to test new tech. For example, when Google glasses were announced, she was tapped to give them a test run—and I got to hear the stories about strangers staring at her and random in-the-know techies asking if they could try on her glasses. So, when she…
Blake Snyder on Ins and Outs
Here’s a quick In and Out from Good Will Hunting, i.e. the opening and closing images from the film. The In: Chuckie (Ben Affleck) drives his beat-up sedan down a residential alley and pulls up behind the ramshackle South Boston house where his buddy Will Hunting (Matt Damon) lives. Chuckie is picking up Will to…
George Peper, Bill Murray and Broderick Crawford
[This is another one from the archives, this time from January 6, 2012. A classic story.] For quite a while now (almost two years), Steve Pressfield and I have been tossing drafts of one of his manuscripts back and forth. It’s just about ready to share. I think we’re on draft nine or ten, not…
Ins and Outs, Part Two
The first rule of Ins and Outs Club is The Opening and Closing Images of our story should look as alike as reasonably possible. The second rule of Ins and Outs Club is
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.