Steven Pressfield's Blog, page 97

Traditional vs. Self-Publishing

Our questions today is from Jason K:
Twenty years ago, if you had access to the current generation of self-publishing options, how would you have used them?
This is the last question from our session we recorded a few weeks ago. Stay tuned for our next podcast, Organizing a Day, Organizing a Year. We’ll be sending it
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Never Hold Your Best Stuff

In a conversation with one of his many protégés (Philip Weiss) the late Peter Kaplan boiled down what it takes to create unforgettable characters. He called it “The Reveal.”
Figure out the reveal and you’ve got the turning point of a story. Once you have that…the thing practically writes itself.
The reveal is when a character makes
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“Leave Your Problems Outside”

I studied ballet at the old Metropolitan Opera when Antony Tudor, the famous choreographer, was the head of the ballet school. In fact, Margaret Craske was the teacher most students considered to be more important. She had danced with Pavlova in the ’20s.
Miss Craske instructed us: “Leave your problems outside the classroom.”
This excerpt comes from
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The Free E-book Giveaway: A Play-by-Play

Last week, Steve, Shawn, Jeff, and I e-mailed a free ebook giveaway to First Access Subscribers and previous Black Irish Books customers, valid through December 31.
It was Black Irish’s first online e-book giveaway and provided valuable lessons that will be incorporated into future giveaways and promotions.
As usual, we’re sharing what we learned here, with hope that
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Organizing a Year

Shawn, Jeff and I just did an hour-long “Ask Me Anything” podcast called Organizing a Day, Organizing a Year. We’ll be e-mailing it on New Year’s Day to everyone who has signed up for First Look Access. Our aim is to help get 2014 off to a productive start.
One of the subjects that came up
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The Industry

This week’s question comes from Jason Kraus. He asks …
What is the most challenging part of dealing with the publishing industry (besides actually getting published)?


Podcast Transcript
Shawn: I’ve got a question here Steve. It’s from Jason Kraus. “What is the most challenging part of with the publishing industry besides actually getting published? So what is the
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The Math

Here’s another chunk from The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know (thanks for the subtitle Seth!)
Creating a foolscap page for a complete work is all well and good, but then what?
How do you begin to actually map out the rest?
How long will it take you to write the first draft?
Is there a way to take
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Your Personal Culture

Several of the streets I normally drive are blocked these days by construction for a new light rail line. As I was detouring around one blockage yesterday I thought, “Mass transit is a great idea but it’ll never work here in Los Angeles.”
The reason it won’t work is that it runs counter to the culture
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Unpublished Authors’ Mistakes

[A few technical notes before we get into this Monday's podcast. We are currently offering four ways to get your podcast fix. You can stream the podcast directly here on the blog, you can download the file to your computer (see the little download button on the bottom left of the player), you can read
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Don’t Major in the Minor

“Don’t major in the minor.”
Mellody Hobson said it, but I’ve thought it these last few days, since watching Jeff Bezos on 60 Minutes this past Sunday.

In case you haven’t heard, Bezos unveiled a prototype for package-delivering drones at the end of the interview. Without missing a beat, the character-bashing, Jeff-Bezos hating, Amazon-vilifying tribes descended,
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