Steven Pressfield's Blog, page 101

Return of the Foolscap Method

My apologies to everyone who got psyched up, a few weeks ago, to learn more about the Foolscap Method (which I wrote about then in this space and promised to write about again), only to have me drop the ball completely. Sorry!
There’s a reason. We’ve been working feverishly over the past few weeks to re-jigger
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Bob Dylan Revisited

Because something is happening here.
But you don’t know what it is.
Do you, Mr. Jones?
—Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan has a Twitter account, but I’m about as certain as death and taxes that it isn’t him banging out tweets on a keyboard.
Under 400 tweets, it’s a short stream of concert updates and other announcements.
To the point. Nothing
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The 10,000 Hour Rule

This post first ran November 9, 2011. We’re revisiting it today as I approach another deadline and am reminded of those 10,000 hours.
I’m not sure whether Malcolm Gladwell was the first to identify this principle or was simply responsible for popularizing it. But his name is definitely associated with it.
The rule says that in order for
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Stories Are About Change

In his wonderful book The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves, psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz tells the story of Marissa Panigrosso, who worked on the 98th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. She recalled that when the first plane hit the North Tower on September 11, 2001, a wave of
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Why (And How) Creative People Say No

[I never do this---pull a post from another site---but this one is so good (and I am in such passionate agreement with it) that I couldn't resist.
[Thank you, Tim Ferriss, from whose blog this came, and thank you, Kevin Ashton, for writing it. Kevin is the co-founder of the MIT Auto-ID Center, which created a
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Pitching Like A Cy Young Award-Winner

Before your read this post, watch the video below (and then stick with me as I circle back around to why it is being shared).

Early in my career I was rooted to the mound, on the throwing end of the pitch.
Some appreciated the pitches and replied with thanks when I followed-up, while others said the
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Suing Neil Young

Do you remember the infamous incident from the 80s when David Geffen sued Neil Young for recording music that was “not representative” of Neil Young?
I’m thinking of this in connection with recent posts by me and Shawn about commercial-versus-artistic, publishable-versus-unpublishable. Specifically this comment sent in by Susanna Plotnick:
If we are working on our own, creating
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Genre Management

Like you, I look forward to Steve’s “Writing Wednesday” posts. I don’t ask to see anything early or cheat and read his stuff before it goes live.  I like to read them at the same time as the rest of the tribe. The truth is that if I didn’t know Steve, I’d still be on
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“This Might Not Work”

The phrase above is one of Seth Godin’s trademarks. I love it because, like all of Seth’s stuff, it crams a ton of wisdom into very few words.
What does Seth mean by “This might not work”?
Here’s what I think:
There’s a concept in marketing called “the Avatar.” Are you familiar with this? An avatar is the
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Beyond the Blockbuster

A couple of weeks back, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas caught the film world’s attention by pointing to a trend within the industry.
From Spielberg:
“You’re at the point right now, where a studio would rather invest $250 million in one film for a shot at the brass ring than make a whole bunch of really interesting,
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