Steven Pressfield's Blog, page 85

Click and Clack, the Crossover Brothers

I knew little about cars—yet I tuned into NPR’s “Car Talk” and then stuck around for years, clinging to “Click and Clack’s” words.
Tom and Ray Magliozzi (a.k.a. Click and Clack the Tappet brothers) were a mainstay in my life, introduced by my father, who was a fan of their humor, accents, alma mater, and car
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The Most Important Minutes of the Day

Continuing on our theme from two weeks ago, personal culture: What is the most important part of the artist’s or entrepreneur’s working day?
To me it’s the minutes right after the day is over. Why? Because that’s the time when it’s absolutely essential that you and I acknowledge our day’s efforts and give ourselves some props.
Self-validation.
Self-reinforcement.
Nobody
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Category Killer

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In honor of Halloween, here’s my favorite insider book publishing expression which represents the most desired property of any publisher, The Category Killer.
What it means is this:
When a book (or author) hits on all cylinders and is absolutely way above the standards of its genre—be it fiction
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Think Like a Studio

When I was first starting out in Hollywood, a screenwriter friend gave me some advice that has served me well in all subsequent incarnations.
“Steve, you and I, whether we realize it or not, are competing against Warners Bros. We’re competing against Twentieth-Century Fox and SONY and Paramount—and we have to think like they do. We
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Stick It To The Doorknob

My neighbor called yesterday. She was in the hospital and her husband’s cell phone wasn’t working. He’d forgotten to bring a few things with him and was on his way back home to pack another bag for her. Would I pop over and ask him to grab a few extra things to bring back to
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The Second Act Belongs to the Villain

I learned this from Randall Wallace (Braveheart), who learned it from Steve Cannell, the maestro of a million plotlines from The Rockford Files to Baretta to 21 Jump Street:
Keep the antagonist front-and-center in the middle of your story.
Why does this work? Because it energizes the narrative. Think about these all-time mega-hits—Jaws, Alien, the first Terminator.
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Go Dark

[Join www.storygrid.com to read more of Shawn’s Story Philosophy]
How do you choose what kind of story you want to tell?
Maybe you do it by thinking up a “What if” Event—what if terrorists attacked in the middle of the Super Bowl*?
Maybe you do it thinking of a “What if” Protagonist—what if the hero of my story
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Why the Raiders Suck

Readers who follow this blog will have already guessed what today’s post is going to be about:
Personal culture.
The Oakland Raiders are an example of an institutional culture. The Raiders are the poster child for a losing culture. No matter what players the Raiders draft or acquire in free agency, no matter what coach they hire
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Why Do Authors Still Approach Traditional Media Outlets?

Roger Sutton made waves this past week for writing “An open letter to the self-published author feeling dissed,” which begat “No, I don’t want to read your self-published books” by Ron Charles, itself a G-rated echo of Josh Olson’s “I will not read your fucking script.”
If you care about my thoughts on Sutton’s and Charles’
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Becoming Our Own Editors

Last Wednesday’s post ended with this:
The writer these days has to be her own editor. It’s tough, but true.
You and I have to learn the craft, whether we want to or not.
Writers today have to be their own editors because it’s so hard to find a real editor, meaning someone who understands story structure and
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