Steven Pressfield's Blog, page 99

Resistance and Self-Loathing

Hang on while I make the case that self-loathing is a good thing. I don’t mean only within the comedic-material sphere, within which self-loathing has been mined for years by Woody Allen, Howard Stern, Richard Lewis, and the godfather of them all, Philip Roth in Portnoy’s Complaint.
What exactly is self-loathing? It appears almost always as
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Portrait of a Launch

The launch of Steve’s new book, The Authentic Swing, was unlike those preceding it. Steve, Shawn, Jeff and I (a.k.a. The Black Irish team) charted a new course after benefiting from the advice of a launch pro. Just as his personal experiences proved valuable to us, our hope is that some of ours will be
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Writing and Money, Part 3

In last week’s post I made a case for writing out of love. This week lemme dig into that idea a little deeper.
The profession of writer (or musician or filmmaker or athlete) is not really a “job” like other jobs. It’s not like working in a coal mine or toiling in a cubicle as a
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Conventions and Obligatory Scenes

Here’s some more from “The Story Grid.”
If I hand you my novel and tell you it’s a murder mystery, what would you expect from the book before you even turned the title page?

You’d expect that someone will be killed early in the telling, if not on the very first page.
You’d expect that there will be
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Writing and Money, Part 2

Today’s post is a follow-up to last week’s Is Money Necessary?, which was inspired by Charles Rosasco’s recent note to me:

Jack Lemmon won an Oscar for his performance in “Save the Tiger,” written by Steve Shagan

I’m really sick of hearing famous actors/writers/musicians talk about how unimportant money and success are (that it is “just the work”
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The Metrics of a Bestseller and the “Oprah Effect”

New York Times “Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous” Bestseller list, October 20, 2013

What makes a bestseller?

What is the “Oprah Effect” on books?
I’ve thought about these two questions on repeat through the years—and finally have a set of answers.
Let’s start with the bestseller question.
What Makes a Bestseller?
The War of Art will debut at lucky #13
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Is Money Necessary?

I’m stealing the title of today’s post from Maureen Dowd’s terrific book, Are Men Necessary? What got me thinking about this subject (money, I mean) is a note I received from a writer named Charles Rosasco. Thanks, Charles, for letting me use your real name:

No problem: it’s just brain surgery

Could you comment on money and
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The Hierarchy of Needs

I’ve been working on a doorstop of a book called The Story Grid. It’s about long form storytelling from the editor’s point of view. It’s my answer to “what do you do…literally…step-by-step…from the moment you’re handed a manuscript to the moment you hand it back to the writer to revise.” As I’m nearing the finish
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You, as the Muse Sees You

What follows is my own personal metaphysical model for how writing (and all art) works. You may think I’m crazy. I may indeed be crazy.

Mt. Helikon in Greece, dwelling place of the nine Muses

“The Muse,” as I imagine her, is the collective identity of the nine goddesses, sisters, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (Memory), whose
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Post-Oprah Shock Waves

My hour-long interview on Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul Sunday aired four days ago.

“And so we bid a fond farewell to beautiful Maui … “

I was wondering what the after-effects would be. Would there be a sudden surge in visibility for The War of Art? For this site? If so, would it change how I feel
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