Steven Pressfield Blog
A Man At Arms
My favorite character, the solitary mercenary Telamon of Arcadia, finally gets his own book. A Man at Arms is his story, told in the time of Paul the Apostle, with the Romans as the bad guys and the clash between empire and faith as the center of the tale.
36 Righteous Men
New York homicide detectives pursue a serial killer in this apocalyptic thriller. When James Manning and Covina “Dewey” Duwai are called in to investigate a string of murders, their investigations take them from the headquarters of the Russian mafia… Read More >
The Knowledge
The only fictional piece I’ve ever written that has “me” as the protagonist. The story is set in New York in the 70’s, when I was driving a cab and struggling to find my voice as a writer.
The Virtues of War
The career of Alexander the Great from boyhood to death, told in the first person by Alexander. The ‘virtues of war’—courage, patience, selflessness, camaraderie, the willing embrace of adversity, killer instinct, etc.—are, I believe, also the indispensable virtues of the writer and the artist.
Tides Of War
My own favorite of everything I’ve done. Long, complex, confusing, very hard to read. It’s the story of democracies coming unpeeled and the collapse of civilized order during the 27-year “world war” between Athens and Sparta, 431 to 404 BCE.
The Profession
The only novel I’ve written (so far) that’s set in the future. “The Profession” is the profession of arms, i.e. mercenary armies, which, in this story set in the Persian Gulf about twenty years from now, have largely replaced the forces of nation-states.
Killing Rommel
As soon as I heard the real-life name, the Long Range Desert Group, I knew I had to write about it. These were British commandos (mostly New Zealanders actually) who fought behind the lines against Gen. Erwin Rommel and the Afrika Korps during the North Africa campaign (1940-1943) of World War II.
Last of the Amazons
The only book I’ve written (so far) in which the narrator is a woman. A story of the legendary female warriors who fought on horseback with the bow and the pelekus, the double-bladed throwing axe. Their war cry, it was said, turned men’s knees to jelly.
Gates of Fire
The story of the 300 Spartans and the battle of Thermopylae, 480 BCE. Gates of Fire is required reading at West Point and Annapolis and for all officers in the U.S. Marine Corps. On the Commandant’s Reading List for all ranks since 2002. No, it is not the source material for the movie 300.
The Legend of Bagger Vance
A mystical golf novel. Sounds terrible, doesn’t it? Trust me, it’s not.
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.