Steven Pressfield Blog
The Truth is Out There
As writers we want a big theme. A theme with power and scale. But, even more, we want a theme with depth, a theme that has level after level of meaning. The theme in Jurassic World, we said last week, is “Don’t mess with Mother Nature.” Let’s examine how deep that theme goes. How many levels does it work on? On the surface, on Level #1, what Jurassic’s theme means is “Don’t resurrect and genetically mutate creatures with very large teeth and extremely aggressive carnivorous instincts—and, if you do, pen them up very, very securely.” Level #2 of the…
Chayefsky’s Rule
This is our third post in succession about Theme in movies, plays, and books. I’m probably gonna do another six or seven over the coming weeks, so brace yourself. This stuff is important. Let’s go back to that seminal quote from Paddy Chayefsky, cited two Wednesdays ago. As soon as I figure out what my play is about, I type it out in one line and Scotch tape it to the front of my typewriter. After that, nothing goes into the play that is not on-theme. Paddy might not approve if he knew I was about to…
Girl Scouts, Pot and Thinking Outside the Obvious
A Girl Scout in Los Angeles made the LA Times this week for setting up shop outside a pot dispensary. She sold 117 boxes within two hours, almost a box a minute. Let’s pretend for a second that there aren’t adults in favor and adults against this young lady’s location choice — and just look at the location. It’s an example of thinking outside the obvious. For decades Girl Scouts have been going door-to-door throughout their neighborhoods and camping out in front of local grocery stores, Walmarts and other “family friendly” locations. These are the obvious locations — sell where…
The Difference Between Subject and Theme
What do we mean when we say a book or a movie is “about something?” This question is a lot trickier than it seems. Did you see the movie The Break-up, starring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughan? A facile answer regarding this film would be, “It’s about a break-up.” Wrong. The subject is a break-up. The story theme is something else entirely. The subject of the Jurassic Park movies is dinosaurs. The theme is, Don’t mess with Mother Nature. The subject of Out of Africa is Karen Blixen’s experiences in Africa. The theme is possession. “Is it possible,” the movie…
What is Your Novel About?
I was talking to a friend who runs a successful Hollywood literary agency. She represents screenwriters. Before she opened her doors, she said, she spent a year doing nothing but reading scripts, searching for promising young writers. She read well over 500 screenplays. “How many,” she asked me, “do you think were worth representing?” Before I could reply, she answered. “None.” I believe her. I’ve read a boatload of screenplays and novel manuscripts myself. Many have interesting, even brilliant premises. Fascinating characters abound; there’s lots of clever dialogue, surprising plot twists, mind-blowing set-pieces. And a lot of what I…
Finding Atticus
After Atticus pulled Calpurnia away from Aunt Alexandra and the Maycomb missionary circle ladies, Aunt Alexandra asked Miss Maudie when it would stop. (Chapter 24, To Kill A Mockingbird) “I can’t say I approve of everything he does Maudie, but he’s my brother, and I just want to know when this will ever end.” Her voice rose: “It tears him to pieces. He doesn’t show it much, but it tears him to pieces. I’ve seen him when — what else do they want from him, Maudie, what else?” “What does who want, Alexandra?” Miss Maudie asked. “I mean this town….
Choreographing a Fight Scene
The first movie I ever got sole writing credit on was one of the worst pictures ever made. I’m not kidding. I won’t even tell you the title because if I do you’ll lose all respect for me. But … But I learned one enormous lesson on that movie. We were shooting a gunfight scene. The scene took place in a warehouse. It involved the hero and his girlfriend and about a dozen bad guys. Dudes were dropping from the rafters, plunging through skylights; cars were blowing up, the warehouse was going up in flames, not to mention gunfire was…
Make Your Hero Suffer, Part Four
We as writers have been admonished a thousand times that a character must have an arc. For sure, our hero has to have one. She must change through the story. The more she changes, the better. Yeah, that’s true. But change alone is not enough. That movement has to be (you’re ahead of me, I know) on-theme. The hero has to learn something through her suffering. But it’s more specific even than that. She has to advance and become more conscious not just in general or willy-nilly, but in line with what the story’s about. What is a character’s arc…
Bradbury and Bowie: Dancing, So As Not To Be Dead
In “Dancing, So As Not to Be Dead,” Ray Bradbury’s introduction to The Illustrated Man, he starts with a story about Laurent, a waiter in Paris, who spends his life between working and dancing. “I work from ten to twelve hours, sometimes fourteen,” he says, “and then at midnight I go dancing, dancing dancing until four or five in the morning and go to bed and sleep until ten and then up, up to work by eleven and another ten or twelve or sometimes fifteen hours of work.” When Bradbury asks how he can do that, Laurent replies: “Easily,” he…
Make Your Hero Suffer, Part Three
Continuing our exploration of the protagonist’s ordeal: Why, we might ask, does the hero have to suffer at all? Why can’t she just be happy? Wouldn’t that work just as well in a story? Answer: no. The hero has to suffer because: Suffering is part of the Hero’s Journey (as articulated by Joseph Campbell, C.G. Jung, and others) and virtually every story is a version of the Hero’s Journey. But more importantly … Suffering produces insight. Suffering leads to wisdom. Suffering forces the hero to change. Jack Nicholson changes in Chinatown, Julianne Moore changes in Far From Heaven, Alan Ladd…
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.