Steven Pressfield's Blog, page 135

The Empty Chair

So there we were…
On Wednesday December 1, 2010 at 10:37 a.m. Steve and I took the two seats at the head of the 14th floor conference table at the Random House building in midtown New York. Steve was in the left chair. I was on the right. Counterclockwise from me sat the head of Crown's
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Horror Stories

[Continuing our "What It Takes" series, an inside look at the process of publishing and promoting a book in 2010-11 ... here's Post #3:]
The first book signing I ever did was for The Legend of Bagger Vance. It was at a Books-a-Million store in Lakeland, Florida. I flew 3000 miles from Los Angeles.
Nobody showed. Not
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Getting the Meeting

[Two days ago--Wednesday--I put up a post titled "What It Takes," which promised an insider's look over the next few months at the campaign to market and publicize my upcoming novel, The Profession. Response was so enthusiastic that we decided not to wait till next Wednesday to follow up, but to plunge in right away.
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What It Takes

I'm going to try something new over the next few months. Remember, a few weeks ago, we commandeered this Writing Wednesdays space to post a series called, with apologies to John Steinbeck, a "A Writer's Journal of (Finishing) a Novel?" I was, then, in the final writing throes of a book I'd been working on
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The Amnesiac's Story

[The blog is on vacation this week. Happy Thanksgiving to all! Here's one of my fave posts from a little while ago:]
Two of the most popular movies of the past few years are The Hangover and The Bourne Identity. What do they have in common? They're both amnesia stories.
I love amnesia stories. What could be more fun?
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The Opposite of Resistance

Here's a subtle but crucial point for us to hold in mind as we slog through the trench warfare of the artist's journey, battling Resistance every step of the way.
Remember: Resistance arises second.
What comes first is the idea, the passion, the work we are so excited to create that it scares the shit out of
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Rosanne Cash's Dream

[The following excerpt from Rosanne Cash's Composed hit me like a two-by-four between the eyes. Thanks to Ms. Cash for permission to run it.  The book is brand-new and it's keeping me up nights. It should be required reading, in my opinion, for all serious writers, artists and musicians, particularly women. But judge for yourself.
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What To Keep and What To Cut

[First, huge thanks to everybody who wrote in in response to last week's When It Works. Wonderful stuff, from the heart. It's tremendously gratifying to me, I must say, to see this site evolving into a real peer-to-peer meeting ground--and I include myself as one of those peers.

I picked four "winners" instead of three, but
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When It Works

I want to try something different this week. I'd like to ask our readers to write in. What I'm looking for is mini-posts about a moment in your writing or painting or filmmaking or any artistic or entrepreneurial career "when it worked." When your stuff actually connected person-to-person. Here's the kind of moment I mean:
When It
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My Life As A Mad Man

[First, many thanks to everyone who made our two-day $1.99 special on the eBook version of The War of Art so successful. The switchboards were lighting up like the Fourth of July. Even if you just browsed and didn't pull the trigger, thanks for the thought. Your interest and attention are very much appreciated.

[As of
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