Steven Pressfield's Blog, page 150

"Writing Wednesdays" #5: The Writer's Voice

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How do you find your writer's voice? A lot of humbug has been written on this subject. The myth is that in finding that voice, the writer achieves a kind of personal enlightenment. She discovers "who she really is."

Not in my experience.

This is not to say that voice is unimportant. It's crucial, make-or-break. Without it, we've got nothing. Let's examine this.

Movies versus books

The reason why books are often hard to translate into movies is that the very act of moviemaking destroys the writer's

The Writer's Voice

<!--StartFragment-->

How do you find your writer's voice? A lot of humbug has been written on this subject. The myth is that in finding that voice, the writer achieves a kind of personal enlightenment. She discovers "who she really is."

Not in my experience.

This is not to say that voice is unimportant. It's crucial, make-or-break. Without it, we've got nothing. Let's examine this.

Movies versus books

The reason why books are often hard to translate into movies is that the very act of moviemaking destroys the writer's

Tribes, the Taliban and the Death of Baitullah Mahsud

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I was very interested last week to see what would happen, in terms of leadership succession among the Pakistani Taliban, after the reputed death of Baitullah Mahsud. According to scores of press reports as well as Pakistani and Taliban spokesmen, the immediate aftermath was a shootout involving two rival successors, Hakimullah Mahsud and Wali ur-Rehman, that resulted in the death of Hakimullah Mahsud. Within two days however, Hakimullah was phoning in, according to the Economic Times, declaring

Returning Home: Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher

In the ancient Spartan tradition, there were only two cases when burial markers were permitted: for warriors killed in battle and for women who died in childbirth. The memorials were simple stones, often without inscriptions.

 

When inscriptions were allowed, they were terse and succinct. The most famous Spartan epitaph—for the Three Hundred who fell defending the pass at Thermopylae—was composed by Simonides the poet, a non-Spartan. It is known today in every corner of the globe:

  

Go tell the Spa

"Writing Wednesdays" #4: On Research, Or What I Learned from a Single Sheet of Fool's Cap

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I've been lucky in my career in having a few really terrific mentors–just guys who've taught me stuff about writing and work. The best is Norman Stahl, the cosmically brilliant documentarian, novelist and military historian. Do you know people who've got a lot of bullshit? Norm has the least of anybody I've ever known. In fact I would say Norm has absolutely NO bullshit. Here's one thing he told me:

"God created the single sheet of yellow fool's cap to be exactly the right length to hold the enti

Lessons From Ramadi: A Guest Post from Captain Thomas Daly

I'd like to thank Captain Thomas Daly for writing this guest post. He lived the experiences that so many of us have read about. 

 

Captain Daily joined the Marine Corps in 2004. During his military career, he has held a multitude of billets ranging from Forward Observer to Intelligence Cell Leader. His unique perception of the battlefield has been shaped while operating with units of the United States Army, Navy SEALs, ANGLICO (Air, Naval Gunfire Liaison Company), Iraqi Army and Police Units, and

Tribes in Afghanistan: A Guest Post from Michael Yon

The following is a guest post from Michael Yon, which we're really privileged to get and which I'm delighted to share. As I type this, Michael is reporting from Sangin, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Check out  Michael Yon Online Magazine to read his reports. Michael is a former Green Beret, who has reported from Iraq and Afghanistan since December 2004. No other reporter has spent as much time with combat troops in these two wars. It is also important to note that Michael is an independent comba

"Writing Wednesdays" #3: The Nature of Epiphanies

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[This is "Writing Wednesdays," #3. Our winner--of a signed copy of The War of Art--is David Cutshall. Here's the fave quote he sent in: "Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some idea of what we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it." Thanks, David! The following takes off from there.]

How do people change? How do they turn their lives around? An aspiring artist, for example, or a wannabe entrepreneur. What propels someone from sitting on the

The Nature of Epiphanies

<!--StartFragment-->

[This is "Writing Wednesdays," #3. Our winner--of a signed copy of The War of Art--is David Cutshall. Here's the fave quote he sent in: "Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some idea of what we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it." Thanks, David! The following takes off from there.]

How do people change? How do they turn their lives around? An aspiring artist, for example, or a wannabe entrepreneur. What propels someone from sitting on the

The Bizarro World of COIN in a Tribal Setting

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Remember the Bizarro World, from Seinfeld and Superman comics? Everything is its opposite in the Bizarro World. Up is down, black is white, in is out.

Students of Counterinsurgency (COIN) and Tribal Engagement tell us it's the same in their field. Who would have thought, for example, that killing bad guys would be a no-no? Or that a good old-fashioned grease-the-palm payoff would prove as effective as "winning hearts and minds?"

Here then, in no particular order, are a few other cherished maxims o