Steven Pressfield's Blog, page 105

The Best Bad Choice

We face two kinds of decisions in our lives.  These decisions define who we are as human beings.
Accomplished novelists/storytellers have a deep understanding of how to move their fictional characters to these two types of crossroads. It’s the same skill narrative nonfiction writers must have in their arsenal. Instead of creating events, the nonfiction storyteller
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A Natural Life

Being a writer is not a natural life. Of course it’s not natural working in a coal mine or a cubicle either.
What is a “natural life” anyway? Is it living in alignment with evolution? Is it the nomadic life, the hunter’s life, the farmer’s life? If we live in the city, have we cut ourselves
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How to Respond?

The past few days, I’ve followed the storm swirling around an article journalist David Wood wrote for The Huffington Post. As I read the responses in the comments section of the post, as well as full blog posts replying to David’s article—and then the many more comments to those posts—I was reminded of Steven Pressfield’s
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Giving Notes

Giving notes is the phrase used in the movie business to mean reviewing or critiquing a screenplay or treatment or even a short pitch. Getting notes is when you’re the one on the receiving end. Both positions are really hard.
I’ve lost friends. People have stopped talking to me. For a while I simply refused to
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The Difference Between Self-Discipline and Self-Flagellation

I have a difficult time determining whether or not my internal insistence that I bang out xxx number of words in a  day—no matter what!—falls within the realm of constructive self-discipline or destructive self-flagellation.

There’s no easy answer. The words don’t magically type themselves.
I asked Steve about this when I was in LA a couple
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The Difference Between Self-Discipline and Self-Flaggelation

I have a difficult time determining whether or not my internal insistence that I bang out xxx number of words in a  day—no matter what!—falls within the realm of constructive self-discipline or destructive self-flagellation.

There’s no easy answer. The words don’t magically type themselves.
I asked Steve about this when I was in LA a couple
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Principals and Profiles, Part Two

This is an edgy subject and maybe I should stay away from it, but I feel like I want to squeeze it a little more, so here goes.
To review quickly, we were saying a couple of weeks ago that sometimes a public figure or personality (the “principal”) will be stalked or cyber-stalked or just plain
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Everything That Rises Must Converge

The rain drops picked up speed as I headed west along the highway.
They hit the windshield, hesitated, and then sought each other out, going from individuals to a series of streams flowing upward— until the wipers arrested their development, cleared the deck, and new drops hit and started up again. A drop, a hesitant movement—Which
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Jackson Browne’s Piano coming through the Floor

Did you see that docu on TV the other night about the history of the Eagles?
I was watching it (enjoying it tremendously) when one moment leapt out at me. I’m paraphrasing from memory now, so forgive me if I get some of this wrong:
Glenn Frey was telling the story. He was talking about the early
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The Ron Popeil Promise

I went to Los Angeles for a couple of days.  Steve and I try to meet every three months or so face to face and it was my turn to schlep the 3000 miles.
While we have a standing Monday afternoon phone conference, we’ve found that we get exponentially more done when we can read each
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