Steven Pressfield's Blog, page 142

Writing Wednesdays #34: My Kind of Barbarian

Where do ideas come from? (I don't mean the shower–or while we're driving on the Taconic Parkway.) What is the source of creativity? Where did the iPad come from, or the Eiffel Tower, or Nude Descending A Staircase?

Here's Robert E. Howard, who created the Conan the Barbarian series:

How did this guy pop into Robert E. Howard's head?

While I don't go as far as to believe that stories are inspired by actually existent spirits or powers (though I am rather opposed to flatly denying anything), I...

Writing Wednesdays #33: Having A Practice, Part Two

Over the past couple of weeks we've talked about Shame and Habit as allies in the struggle against Resistance. Shame motivates us to face our fears, and habit helps keep us in the groove once we've gotten started. Momentum is another powerful ally, along with ritual, love, enthusiasm, aspiration, patience, selflessness and greed (the good kind.) Put 'em all together and we can really get some mojo going. We can be working hard, having fun, contributing to the planet and actually getting...

Writing Wednesdays #32: Habit

Konrad Lorenz, the Nobel Prize-winning zoologist, had a pet goose that he allowed the run of the house. The first day when the goose waddled in the door, there happened to be a mirror near floor height; the goose mistook his own reflection for some rival bird and flew into attack mode.

Nobel laureate Konrad Lorenz and friend

He pecked the hell out of the mirror before moving on to the kitchen and the rest of his day. Next morning: same thing. After a few days, Mrs. Lorenz removed the mirror so ...

WRITING WEDNESDAYS #23: SPECKING IT

[The blog is on the road this week.  Herewith: a re-run of one of the best-received posts, "Specking It."  Back next week!]

I moved from New York to Hollywood in the mid-eighties. This was the era of the "spec script"–a concept that has been of great use to me on many fronts beyond screenwriting. It might help you too.

An endangered species

Today the spec script is beyond endangered; it's just about extinct. Tinseltown's bread and butter for most the past decade has been the pre-branded...

Writing Wednesdays #31: The Uses of Shame

Shame is good. Shame is a tremendous weapon against Resistance. Along with habit, momentum, aspiration, anger, eros and joy, shame can be a mighty ally in the never-ending guerrilla campaign against self-sabotage.

Our hero: Attorney Joseph Welch from the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954

What is shame? Shame is the emotion we feel when we are guilty of acts that are unworthy of us.

Resistance hates shame. Because Resistance knows that once we feel shame, we are likely (goaded by this extremely...

Downrange: An Informal Report of a trip to Afghanistan with Marine Gen. James N. Mattis

[Part Four of Four:]

COIN doctrine, counter-insurgency theory, says "protect the people" comes before "kill the enemy." In meeting after meeting we heard all the right things from officers and civilian leaders who were earnest, brave, well-intentioned, smart, sincere, hard-working and absolutely decent and ethical.  We heard about construction projects and rules of engagement and mitigating civilian casualties, about liaising with tribal elders and managing escalation of force and irrigation...

Downrange: An Informal Report on a trip to Afghanistan with Marine General James N. Mattis

[Part Three of Four:]

It's more than a little weird, participating in one of these PR walkarounds. Self-congratulation is the inevitable theme. The bubble can get pretty thick. For me, at least, it's almost impossible to grok the street reality. Are things going great or are we all lining up to drink our own Kool-Aid?  For all I can tell, the sullen, hood-eyed bandits eyeballing our procession have been cutting loose AK rounds at Marines twenty-four hours earlier—and may be doing it again...

Downrange: An Informal Report on a trip to Afghanistan with Marine Gen. James N. Mattis

[Part Two of Four:]

6. Kabul is a Third World city, squalid as mud and dirty as hell. Every building that's above the level of the people is built like a fortress; compounds with high walls topped with razor wire, AK-toting guards out front and security cameras atop Y-shaped posts. At the airport, guard towers are set in onion fields with police asleep or tending little vegetable gardens or heating tea over propane stoves. They're keeping watch, supposedly, over cyclone fences topped with...

Downrange: An Informal Report on a trip to Afghanistan with Marine Gen. James N. Mattis

Part One of Four

1. Jim Mattis is a four-star Marine general. He doesn't go out of his way to be quotable; he just can't help himself.  Here, from Iraq 2004, are his instructions to the Marines under his command on how to conduct themselves with the natives they will encounter.

Gen. Mattis in Marjah, Helmand province, 28 Feb 2010

Be polite.  Be professional.  But have a plan to kill everyone you meet.

In the first battle of Fallouja, Gen. Mattis commanded the Marines assigned to take the city...

Tribal Engagement Tutorial: The Jirga and the Shura

The following is another installment of the Tribal Engagement Tutorial series, written by Major Jim Gant and MAC McCallister. It is a long post, so stick with it. It describes key differences between a shura and a jirga, as well as guidance on when to call for one, how to prepare, how to act, what to say, and so on. Thank you to both of them for pulling this together.

According to NATO's military chief of intelligence in Afghanistan, the Taliban now maintain shadow governors in thirty-three...