Steven Pressfield's Blog, page 91

Inner Wars and Outer Wars

One of the questions I get asked all the time is “Why do you write about war?”
It’s a good question, and for years I didn’t have an answer.
I didn’t start out writing about war. For almost thirty years I wrote screenplays and novels and none of them were war-themed. In 1996, Gates of Fire (about
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“Remember Who You Are. Remember Why You Are Here”

["The Book I've Been Avoiding Writing" (a.k.a. "Three Years of Writing and 40+ Years of Thinking About The Lion's Gate") is a mini-series about the writing of my new book, The Lion's Gate. Thanks for tuning in as it runs Mondays and Fridays over the next few weeks.]
I am visiting the 101 Squadron at Hatzor
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The Western Wall, Part Two

["The Book I've Been Avoiding Writing" (a.k.a. "Three Years of Writing and 40+ Years of Thinking About The Lion's Gate") is a mini-series about the writing of my new book, The Lion's Gate. Thanks for tuning in as it runs Mondays and Fridays over the next few weeks.]
How does the Western Wall fit into my
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The Universe is Self-Ordering

[Today's post is an updated version of one of the first to run on this blog. It's one I've always wanted to bring back.]
Chaos. The Big Bang. Crap flying everywhere.
Imagine yourself back at the beginning of time. The universe is raw energy, blasting faster than light-speed in all directions. (Stay with me, this is going
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Pages from a Book Proposal

["The Book I've Been Avoiding Writing" (a.k.a. "Three Years of Writing and 40+ Years of Thinking About The Lion's Gate") is a mini-series about the writing of my new book, The Lion's Gate. Thanks for tuning in as it runs Mondays and Fridays over the next few weeks.]
Steve, there are three questions you have to
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The Western Wall, Part One

["The Book I've Been Avoiding Writing" (a.k.a. "Three Years of Writing and 40+ Years of Thinking About The Lion's Gate") is a mini-series about the writing of my new book, The Lion's Gate. Thanks for tuning in as it runs Mondays and Fridays over the next few weeks.]
Day Nine in Israel. Danny is taking me
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When You Publish a Book

The Lion’s Gate has been out for about a week now.
The book represents, for me, three years of 24/7 work and an untold tonnage of emotion. Now it’s out there in the real world, on its own. Nothing I think or say or do will have more than the most negligible influence on the way
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I Can’t Interview Moshe Dayan

I was saying in the last post that a writer needs help. I don’t care who you are; you can’t do it alone. You need smart friends.
One of mine is Randall Wallace, who wrote Braveheart. Here’s how he saved The Lion’s Gate, long before I left for Israel, long before I had talked to a
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Foolscapping “The Lion’s Gate”

Why am I here in Israel, interviewing veterans of the Six Day War in-person? Why not write the book based entirely on research? That’s how I wrote Gates of Fire and six other novels.
It worked then. Why won’t it work now?
That is a great question and the answer is absolutely critical.
I have a trick for
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What Paul Learned, Part Two

Continuing from last week’s post: How did my friend Paul change via the process of writing and completing his first novel?
I offer the following thoughts to Paul as well as to our readers, not as “lessons learned” of “the right way” or “the wrong way.” What follows are only observations. They’re subjective. I may be
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