24 Awake in the Cosmic Dream Steven Pressfield 2023-09-09 | recommended a book called “Autobiography of a Yogi.” Today I’m not recommending a book, but a CD called “ An Informal Talk By Paramahansa Yogananda : Awake in the Cosmic Dream.” I’ve listened to it at least fifty times and don’t doubt that I’ll listen to it 50 more.Seeing a great guru or master is the ultimate. Nothing replaces their presence, it’s so powerful. The next best thing is hearing them. In this CD you get a real sense of Yogananda. You get a sense of how accessible he was and his stories continue to be. He had a great sense of humor and you hear people laughing in the audience. This particular talk was recorded in 1952 shortly before his death.This is talk that Paramahansa Yogananda gave at the Self-Realization Fellowship headquarters in Los Angeles, on his birthday. He talks about why he believes finding God is the only permanent solution to the problems of human existence.I know I said you can only order through Self Realization, but you can find copies online too. Otherwise you can order directly from the Self-Realization Fellowship and support the work they do. And if you haven’t been and are in the Los Angeles area check it out. A little information about the Fellowship. It is not a particular religious tradition, but honors Churches of All Religions. Services combine elements of Hinduism and Christianity and include meditation, lectures, and music.A final quote from Yogananda about religion: "The true basis of religion is not belief, but intuitive experience. Intuition is the soul's power of knowing God. To know what religion is really all about, one must know God."#yoganandaparamahansa#lakeshrinetemple#selfrealizationcenter#awakeinthecosmicdream#faithtraditions#artistsofinstagram#bookloversofinstagram
Week 23 Sailing Alone Around the Wowrld Steven Pressfield 2023-09-08 | This book, “Sailing Alone Around the World” by Joshua Slocum is the story of Slocum’s 3 year trip around the world. He was the first person to circumnavigate the world alone. He left Boston in 1985 in a boat he built called the Spray and returned in 1898. This is the hero’s journey in a great book. All of the beats I’ve been talking about in the video series The Hero’s Journey are found. It is great tale of adventures, encountering cultures, many lost or long forgotten. This is not a book that will teach you to sail, but it is a book that will teach you to keep moving forward and complete the journey.“Sailing Alone Around the World” was recommended to by a mentor of mine Paul Rink. I read this book for the first time when I was trying to finish a novel from start to finish. I’d started so many and always crapped out before the end. In many ways I felt like I was sailing alone around the world. Writing a book, any solitary creative endeavor is like sailing alone around the world. Slocum disappeared at sea in his ship The Spray somewhere near the West Indies. An excerpt from “Sailing Alone Around the World” – “IT was the 3d of March when the Spray sailed from Port Tamar direct for Cape Pillar, with the wind from the northeast, which I fervently hoped might hold till she cleared the land; but there was no such good luck in store. It soon began to rain and thicken in the northwest, boding no good. The Spray neared Cape Pillar rapidly, and, nothing loath, plunged into the Pacific Ocean at once, taking her first bath of it in the gathering storm. There was no turning back even had I wished to do so, for the land was now shut out by the darkness of night. »For anyone that’s on a solitary creative journey or entrepreneurial project I highly recommend this book. #travelingalone#sailingalonearoundtheworld#joshuaslocum#entrepreneursofinstagram#creativesofinstagram#writersofinstagram#musiciansofinstagram#songwritersofinstagram#readersofinstagram#bookloversofinstagram#adventurers#navigation#booksIlove#
22 Rebel without a Crew Steven Pressfield 2023-09-07 | This week’s book is a book I think every creative person needs to read. It’s called “Rebel Without a Crew” by Robert Rodriguez. This is straight from the back of the book “…how did this amateur filmmaker from Texas—with only one camera, no crew, and a budget largely raised by subjecting himself to medical experimentation – manage to complete a feature film for $7,000 and get himself winded and dined by Hollywood’s biggest movie moguls?This book walks you through his techniques where creativity not cash was what he used for problem solving. With excerpts from the journal he kept making his first feature film “El Mariachi” If you have a camera and want to make a film, if you have paper and want to write, if you have crayons, or pencils or paints and want to paint then do it. Get started. You get experience by doing – doing whatever it is you want to do. Your first try may not be a success, maybe not the second or third, but nothing will be if you don’t get started. We may not all have success with our first try, but I can guarantee you, you won’t have any if you don’t get started.
20 Inner Work by Robert Johnson Steven Pressfield 2023-09-05 | Do you pay attention to your dreams? Not the great aspirations that you have for your life, but the dreams you have at night? This week I’m recommending a book that I have turned to time and time again to help me interpret the dreams I have “Inner Work, Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth” by Robert A. Johnson.Johnson was a Jungian analyst and has a four step approach to connecting our conscious and unconscious selves. This book gives us some basis to begin to interpret symbols and images that we have in our dreams. If you have a dream and one of the people in your dream is your cousin, it isn’t really your cousin. Somewhere though that cousin represents something for you. I believe dreams can also be guides for us; a way the unconscious contacts us that is often trying to lead us somewhere. I try to write or record my dreams, and some of them have provided real insight and direction to me in life. If you’re interested in pursuing what your dreams might mean in your life and how to actively engage your imagination as two possible channels of communication with your unconscious, you may want to check this book out “Inner Work, Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth” by Robert A. Johnson.
19 “improv wisdom, Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up » by Patricia Ryan Madson Steven Pressfield 2023-08-31 | Patricia Ryan Madson has taught at Stanford for more than four decades. She founded the Stanford Improvisors in 1991. Her book “improv wisdom” is one of my favorites and one I often return to.You may be asking yourself what does improvisation have to do with writing, or for that matter, painting, choreographing, writing music, even starting a business. The truth is, engaging in any of these creative acts is in itself an act of improvisation. As a writer, we start with a story, and although we may have a general outline or idea, we make it up as we go along. Have you ever started something, a story, a painting, a dance, and it takes on a life of its own and leads you to a place you hadn’t anticipated. No matter how carefully we may formulate the plot, it can’t help but change as we interact with people and with the work itself. This is the art and practice of improvisation. This book lays out 13 “maxims” with exercises for For practice. For example the eleventh maxim is “act now”. “The essence of improvisation is action—doing it in real time. We act in order to discover what comes next. We act because we have a purpose or a question. Using action as our first response is not always easy, however.” One of the exercises with this maxim is “schedule that job you have been avoiding. Write it on your calendar or in. your date book. Set a specific time and show up. Focus on taking the first step. What action will begin the task?...” Can you think of anything this would not apply to . Each of us has to do this with any project creative or even something as simple as cleaning the bathroom.I’ve found this little book beyond helpful, and keep a copy around and pick it up from time to time when I need a reminder to jump on stage and give it a try. Remember don’t look down, don’t look back.@patryanmadson
18 Log of a Cowboy Steven Pressfield 2023-08-30 | I’ve got another somewhat obscure book for you. “The Log of a Cowboy, A Narrative of the Old Trail Days” by Andy Adams first published in 1903. I found this book when I was doing research for a western screenplay several years ago. The screenplay didn’t go anywhere, but the book became a favorite.Adams spent 12 years in the saddle on the trail. If you have a love for the old west and want to know what a cattle drive was really like, this is Andy Adams true story of a cattle drive in 1882 his first journey. He was 16 years old.Filled with true adventures of gunfights, buffalo stampedes and dangerous river crossings, it’s the kind of book I love. Told by a real guy in his own voice, and I promise you his voice is authentic. Anything but the stereotypical cowboy book. I’ve read he wrote it as a response to unrealistic cowboy stories that were being written at that time in American history.“Just why my father moved, at the close of the civil war, from Georgia to Texas, is to this good hour a mystery to me. While we did not exactly belong to the poor whites, we classed with them in poverty, being renters; but I am inclined to think my parents were intellectually superior to that common type of the South. Both were foreign born, my mother being Scotch and my father a north of Ireland man,--as I remember him, now, impulsive, hasty in action, and slow to confess a fault. It was his impulsiveness that led him to volunteer and serve four years in the Confederate army,--trying years to my mother, with a brood of seven children to feed, garb, and house. The war brought me my initiation as a cowboy, of which I have now, after the long lapse of years, the greater portion of which were spent with cattle, a distinct recollection. Sherman's army, in its march to the sea, passed through our county, devastating that section for miles in its passing.”If you decide to read this book, or have read it would love to hear what you think/thought.
17 Autobiography of a Yogi Steven Pressfield 2023-08-28 | Hopefully through your lifetime you encounter and read many books. Some you enjoy, some you forget and some change your life. “Autobiography of a Yogi” is one of those books that changed my life. In 1990 I’d been spending some time at a place called the Healing Light Center. I went into a bookstore, and the cover of this book leapt out at me. I don’t remember if I’d heard of it, but I knew I was meant to read it. That just happens with some books. Sometimes you find them, often they find you.Reading it, I got interested in finding out more about The Self Realization Fellowship and the Lake Shrine in Los Angeles, which was founded by Yogananda. It introduced me to the Bhagavad Gita which in turn led me to write “The Legend of Bagger Vance”.I’ve mentioned before that Bagger Vance came to me almost as a complete story. It was nothing I’d thought of before, and I’m still not 100% sure where it came from. I do believe that “Autobiography of a Yogi” helped me open the door to allow the muse in.You can never be sure where inspiration will come from, but you should always be ready. Even when it comes from the least likely place.If you’re interested in learning more check out lakeshrine.org @srf_lakeshrine. It’s a beautiful place open to all faiths and beliefs. It was founded as a spiritual oasis, a place for people of all cultures and religions to experience peace. If you’re in LA be sure to visit.
Gates of Fire in Ukraine Steven Pressfield 2023-08-27 | "Gates of Fire" will be published in the Ukraine. Available both in print and as an e-book.
16 Journal of a Novel Steven Pressfield 2023-08-26 | "East of Eden", "Grapes of Wrath", "Of Mice and Men", most of us have read at least one John Steinbeck novel. But few people have heard of his non ficton book "Journal of a Novel." From the end of January to the beginning of November 1951, Steinbeck wrote "East of Eden." "Jouurnal of a Novel" is in the form of a series of letters to his editor Pascal (Pat) Covici written each day as he was writing "East of Eden." It's an act of discipline and an example for anyone in any creative endeavor what it takes to keep going to completion. A passage from the book: "But sometimes in a man or a woman awareness takes place—not very often and always unexplainable. There are no words for it because there is no one ever to tell. This is a secret not kept a secret, but locked in wordlessness. The craft or art of writing is the clumsy attempt to find symbols for wordlessness." A great book from one of the world's greatest writers.
15 A Course in Miracles Steven Pressfield 2023-08-25 | So some may wonder why I have this book on the list and in my library. Truth is, there are some books that aren't easy to read, we may not finish, be we should know they exist and a little bit about what they're about. A Course in Miracles is one of these books. I double most people will pick it up, but it is definitely worth knowing about.It’s main premise is that the way to universal love and peace, referred to as remembering God, is by undoing guilt through forgiving others. Although it uses the language of traditional Christianity, it is meant to be non sectarian and considered as a universal spiritual teaching. This book, referred to as “The Course” has circled around since the 1960’s.Here's a little from the preface of the book:“A Course in Miracles began with the sudden decision of two people to join in a common goal. Their names were Helen Schucman and William Thetford, Professors of Medical Psychology at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. It does not matter who they were, except that the story shows that with God all things are possible. They were anything but spiritual. Their relationship with each other was difficult and often strained, and they were concerned with personal and professional acceptance and status. In general, they had considerable investment in the values of the world. Their lives were hardly in accord with anything that the Course advocates. Helen, the one who received the material, describes herself:“Psychologist, educator, conservative in theory and atheistic in belief, I was working in a prestigious and highly academic setting. And then something happened that triggered a chain of events I could never have predicted. The head of my department unexpectedly announced that he was tired of the angry and aggressive feelings our attitudes reflected, and concluded that “there must be another way.” As if on cue, I agreed to help him find it. Apparently this Course is the other way.”Any interest in looking at it or reading any parts, it is available free at acim.org.@LivingMiracles
14 Golf in the Kingdom Steven Pressfield 2023-08-24 | Have you ever heard the saying about sports writing – the smaller the ball, the better the story? What’s smaller than a golf ball? This week’s book is Michael Murphy’s homage to golf -- “Golf in the Kingdom. I remember the first time I read it I was blown away. This book influenced me greatly when I was writing “The Legend of Bagger Vance”. If you’re a golf fan and haven’t read it get it today. If you’re a sports fan I highly recommend it. Michael Murphy came from a family of doctors and attended Stanford following the family tradition starting in pre-med. A course in comparative religion changed the trajectory of his life forever. In addition to being a writer Michael Murphy also founded the Esalen Institute in Big Sur in the 1950’2 which continues to be a serve as a retreat center and education institute along with The Center for Theory & Research. You can learn more about Esalen at Esalen.orgThere’s a great article at golf.com/news/features/golf-in-the-kingdom-magical-power-michael-murphy Well worth the read.
13 The Moviegoer Steven Pressfield 2023-08-23 | "The Moviegoer" is probably my favorite novel although that wasn’t the case the first time I read it. The first time I walked away scratching my head. Years later at the suggestion of a dear friend and mentor I read it again and I got it. Have you ever read something and the first time it had no impact, but for some reason you picked it up again? Books grow as we do. Something we just don’t see at one point something that seems so obvious years later. Hope you’ll give it a try.
12 The Game of Numbers Steven Pressfield 2023-08-22 | You may not think this book is relevant to you but I'd have to disagree. The Game of Numbers by Nick Murray addresses many of the things we all have to do to keep going until we finally make a breakthrough. Nick says "this is not a how-to book. It's a "how-to-not-stop book." It's about fear of doing difficult things, and how to defeat this fear. Talking about Belief, Behavior, Endurance and Skill Nick offers great lessons and advice to keep you going even when it seems like you're not getting anywhere. This book has helped me in a lot of ways, and I'm sure you will also find gems in here.
11 Trust Me Im Lying Steven Pressfield 2023-08-21 | Today’s book I love is a book you may not have heard of by Ryan Holiday. I believe it may have been his first book –“Trust Me, I’m Lying, Confessions of a Media Maniipulator” – it may be my favorite. Robert Greene said it’s “a playbook for the dark art of exploiting the media.” Well written, easy to read it explains more than you might want to know about how anyone can use the media to manipulate an outcome. “Trust Me, I’m Lying” by @ryanholiday is one of the books I love. There's a new version out that revised and updated for the fake news era. Check it out. @RyanHolidayOfficial
10 Solitary Steven Pressfield 2023-08-18 | I originally posted this video about a year ago. The book is called “Solitary” by Giora Romm.As a 22-year-old lieutenant, Giora Romm became the first fighter pilot ace (shooting down five enemy planes) of the Israel Air Force during the Six Day War of 1967. It was my great good fortune and honor to have met Giora and interviewed him (and his wife Miriam) for The Lion’s Gate (Penguin Sentinel 2014). Giora passed away on August 11 after a long battle with cancer. He was 78.In honor of this great and good man, I’m excerpting below a part of one of “his” chapters in The Lion’s Gate. I cite this specific passage because, although Giora is speaking of the mindset of a fighter pilot, what he’s saying applies equally to you and me as writers and artists.The passage is Giora speaking:When I was fifteen, I applied for and was accepted into a new military boarding school associated with the Reali School in Haifa. The Reali School was the elite high school in Israel. The military school was a secondary school version of West Point. We attended classes at Reali in the morning and underwent our military training in the afternoon.I don’t believe there is an institution in Israel today that can measure up to the standards of that school. Why did I want to go there? I wanted to test myself. At that time in Israel the ideal to which an individual aspired was inclusion as part of a “serving elite.” The best of the best were not motivated by money or fame. Their aim was to serve the nation, to sacrifice their lives if necessary. At the military boarding school, it was assumed that every graduate would volunteer for a fighting unit, the more elite the better. We studied, we played sports, we trekked. We hiked all over Israel. We were unbelievably strong physically. But what was even more powerful were the precepts that the school hammered into our skulls.First: Complete the mission.The phrase in Hebrew is Dvekut baMesima.Mesima is “mission”; dvekut means “glued to.” The mission is everything. At all costs, it must be carried through to completion. I remember running up the Snake Trail at Masada one summer at 110 degrees Fahrenheit with two of my classmates. Each of us would sooner have died than be first to call, “Hey, slow down!”Second: Whatever you do, do it to your utmost. The way you tie your shoes. The way you navigate at night. Nothing is academic.Third: En brera. “No alternative.”We are Jews; we are surrounded by enemies who seek our extinction and the extinction of our people. There is no alternative to victory.Fourteen months after the Six Day War, over the Nile Delta, an Egyptian missile exploded beneath the tail of Giora’s Mirage IIIC. Within moments, Romm found himself hanging by the straps of his parachute, with a broken arm and a leg shattered in a dozen places, looking down from 10,000 feet. Streams of farmers and field workers converged below onto the spot toward which his chute was descending, with the intention, he was certain, of hacking him to death as soon as his feet touched the earth.No Israeli pilot had survived capture in Egypt or in any other Arab state. Giora was the first. His book, Solitary, (in Hebrew, “Tulip Four,” for his plane’s call sign), is his story of his imprisonment, torture, interrogation, release, and return to service.In my mind, Solitary is a classic of the literature of war. It was my privilege, and my publishing partner Shawn Coyne’s, to bring it out in English translation (by Anne Hartstein Pace) in 2014.But above and beyond Giora’s heroics in the air and in captivity, he was a great guy, funny, charming, not at all impressed with himself. He never hated the enemies outside his country or those of opposing agendas within, but always (he retired as a two-star general, having served as well as military attache to the Israeli consulate in the US) looked for common ground.I salute you, Giora.You were the best of the best.
9 The Little Prince Steven Pressfield 2023-08-17 | Have you ever read “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry? Many people see it and assume it’s a book for children. And although children love it, it is a really a charming story with many observations about adults, life and human nature. Exupéry talks about topics of love, loneliness, friendship and loss through the eyes of the little prince. I’ve read it over and over. Another great book of his is “Night Flight” as well as his memoir “Wind, Sand and Stars.” If you haven’t read it I hope you pick it up and read it. It’s also a great one to read with your kids.
8 Thucydides and The History of the Peloponnesian War Steven Pressfield 2023-08-16 | People have asked me sometimes if I had to recommend only one book that somebody should read to for citizenship and for just being a an awake, aware person in the 21st century. And this is the book “Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War.”this is an incredible story of one of the great wars in history that has absolutely bearing for what's going on in modern times. Thucydides was an Athenian general who very early in the Peloponnesian War, which was a 27 year civil war between Athens and Sparta very early, he commanded a battle against the great Spartan general, Brasidas and he lost, and he was relieved of his command in disgrace and sent home.So he said to himself, he had the sense that this war was going to be the greatest war in history. And he said, I'm going to record it. And he really is like the first real historian. He covered it all through all 27 years. And it was like s petri dish of of all the things that have happened in the modern world since then.what he did was, for instance, when they would have debates in the Athenian assembly over whether to do this or do that, Thucydides was present and he would record well, I don't know how he did it, but one way or another he would get down the actual speeches of Pericles. And you know, the other, you know, great orators.But the speeches, there are some where, you have just regular Athenian citizens who have no reference in history other than this appearance.They get up and they speak with such eloquence and intellectual grandeur. If I look back over American history, short of maybe Lincoln or Washington or Jefferson, we don't have anybody that was at the level of just these ordinary citizens. This is a great book. Really about human nature more than anything else.
7 King Warrior Magician Lover by Douglas Gillette and Robert Moore Steven Pressfield 2023-08-15 | First of all forgive the quality of this video - we were trying something new and it didn't work particularly well. Anyway today's book is "King, Warrior, Magician, Lover by Douglas Gillette and Robert Moore. If you never read much about it or are interested in delving more deeply into Jungian archetypes, this book is great.
6 The Desert Fox Steven Pressfield 2023-08-14 | These first books are some books on leadership that I love and often refer back to. This book, The weather fox is a great biography of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel written by Brigadier General Desmond Young who fought against him. Here's a story about Rommel. Rommel was from the old school of German generals who camebefore the rise of Nazism. In an event in the North African desert, a detachment of Germans had surrounded a British detachment and captured their commanding officer. And the German officer in charge was handing over, held a pistol to his head and demanded him to command his detachment to surrender. Listen to hear the rest of the story and check out the book.“Rommel, The Desert Fox" by Desmond Young
5 The Artists Journey Steven Pressfield 2023-08-13 | I have a theory about the Hero's Journey. We all have one. We have many, in fact. But our primary hero's journey is the passage we live out, in real life, before we find our calling. The hero's journey ends when, like Odysseus, we return home to Ithaca, to the place from which we started.What then?The passage that comes next is the Artist's Journey.
4 The Bhagaad Gita Part 4 Steven Pressfield 2023-08-12 | So much to say about this book - you may have gathered that I think it’s a pretty good one. One of the parts to he Bhagadvad Gita that I love is a section called The Field and the Knower. I loved it so much that I essentially stole the idea for my book "The Legend of Bagger Vance". It's spirituality combined with the quantum field. I can't say I completely understand it, but it moved me enough to write a book about it.I could spend the rest of the year talking about the Bhagavad Gita. I hope you're somewhat inspired to pick it up and read it.A couple of translations I really like: 1. Christopher Isherwood with Swami Prabhavanada2. Stephen Mitchell - he's also great
3 The Bhagavad Gita Part 3 Steven Pressfield 2023-08-11 | You can probably tell that I could talk about The Bhagavad-Gita forever. Every time I read it I find something that I missed or didn't recognized in earlier readings. This copy I have here is a translation from Paramahansa Yogananda. -But here's another aspect of the Gita that's really fascinating, and that really comes out of Yogananda's translation,If you remember when we first talked about this, the Gita is the story of the great warrior Arjuna on the eve of a battle where the two armiesare lined up across from each other and he looks across at the enemy that he's going to have to fight and he recognizes kinsmen And he says to Krishna,I don't see any good coming outof fighting these people. And Krishna says, No, no, no, no, no. You've got to fight these people. And the interesting thing and then the Gita names all of these warriors.What's interesting, particularly in Paramahansa Yogananda’s translation, is these names of the Warriors translate into terms like arrogance, laziness,self arrogance, contempt for others.In other words, Krishna is saying metaphorically that these enemies are not just physical enemies that you're going to slay with the bow or the sword, but they are enemies inside yourself.They are the vices that we all fall prey to. Proscastination, self-doubt, arrogance perfectionism, contempt for others, laziness, all those things.And so a big part of what the Bhagavad Gita is saying is we must slay these enemies in our self.That's the Bhagavad Gita, one of the great books of all time. one of the great
2 The Bhagavad Gita Part 2 Steven Pressfield 2023-08-10 | A deeper dive into the Gita - How does the Almighty appear when he/she shows up on earth? The Gita reflects the New Testament here in a very interesting way. Love hearing all your comments, keep ‘em coming!!
1 The Bhagavad Gita Part 1 Steven Pressfield 2023-08-09 | The next 4 weeks I'm going to be talking about the Bhagavad-Gita - truthfully I could spend the next four months. They say Gandhi freed India using the principles found in this book. The Gita talks about the nature of courage, the nature of conflict, the nature of human existence. The Bhagavad-Gita tells the story of a long treatise of self instruction, the spiritual life and the nature of reality. Look forward to hearing your thoughts. Here are three of my favorite translations:1. God Talks with Arjuna - The Bhagavad-Gita by Paramahansa Yogananda2. Bhagavad Gita by Stephen Mitchell3. Bhagavad Gita The Song of God translated by Swami Prabhavananda#stevenpressfield #booksonleadership #thelegendofbaggervance #leadership #spirituallife
Thank You & Keep Watching Steven Pressfield 2023-08-08 | Thanks to everyone who has been following this video series, I really appreciate it. In case you don't know, the actual book "Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be" is available at Amazon and other online booksellers in paperback, audiobook and e-book. Stay tuned for the next series - From My Library. I'll be talking about books I love and read over and over. I'm going to start with some books on leadership. Hope you like it.
Week 22 FINDING YOUR PASSION Steven Pressfield 2023-08-07 | ARE YOU LOOKING FOR YOUR PASSION?“How do you find your passion?” I get this question from a lot of people.It took me decades to arrive at my passion. Don’t miss where you are and where this point in your life might be leading you. Here’s a short story. The son of a friend of mine joined the Marine Corps – He wanted to make it a career. HE WANTED TO SERVE. After several deployment, seeing too many casualities and too much destruction he realized this wasn’t his passion.He went back to school and get a masters degree in hospital administration, HE WANTED TO SERVE. He was successful at his job, got promoted, but he realized that this was not his passion. He wanted to be closer to the people.He went back to school. He became a nurse. HE WANTED TO SERVE. This he still does, this he loves, I suppose he would call this his passion.None of those other things were a waste of time. In each job he was exploring the world. Discovering new things about himself – things he loved, things he didn’t like so much, things he was great at and things he might have thought he was great at but wasn’t. Without going through this however, he may never have arrived at this place.Be curious. Learn what you can where you are – you never know how it will serve you later. My guess is he learned things in the Marines and as an administrator that make him a better nurse today. If you’d told him when he enlisted – Fred – study nursing – he probably would have laughed at the idea. Some misconceptions about arriving at your passion.- Every day will not be blissful – it’s great to find what you love, but it still takes hard work and showing up every day. Resistance is real and will greet you fresh every day.- There will still be hard days. Everything doesn’t’ suddenly become easy. Keep at it. Keep Putting Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be. Be patient. It may not happen today, don’t worry about it. Follow the path you’re on, see where it’s leading you. You might be surprised.
Week 21 Superficiality 2 Steven Pressfield 2023-08-06 | When you’re working by yourself there’s often the temptation to settle. Settle for something that sort of works, settle for something that “seems” done, but you know isn’t really, settle for something less. It’s easy to give in to that temptation.But when you Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be you commit to going to the deepest level. So remember when you make the decision To Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be, put it there all the way – the best you can possibly do.How could i forget The Great t-shirt from The Painted Porch Bookshop in Bastrop TX. Thanks Ryan Holiday@RyanHolidayOfficial
Week 20 Resistance Never Ends Steven Pressfield 2023-08-05 | RESISTANCE NEVER ENDSCan you Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be for life?It never goes away. Through your life it remains just as strong as it was at the very beginning.I've been in this writing for more than 50 years and Resistance is just as intense as it always was.We as writers and artists, anybody pursuing a dream, have to elevate our intensity every day. It can never slacen off.There's never a moment when you say, “Oh we got it now., We got it knocked.”When we say, Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be, we mean put it there for the long haul.I’m gonna share a little story. Some of you know I go to the gym every day. A few years ago, I fell off the wagon of going every day and didn’nt go for like three months. I completely bonked and lost it. I was in a terrible state of mind.I was talking to a friend of mine, and I was telling her how bad I feltShe said, listen, this is a lifetime commitment for you and me. So if you fall off for a little while,no worries, you'll get back on it.What I’m trying to say is it IS A a lifetime commitment, when you fall on tough times, have a ad way, can’t get it together, you have to remember it’s a lifetime commitment. Get back to it. Gete back to the keyboard, the easel, the studio, the office. Don’t quit because you screw up for a bit. Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be because resistance never gets less. We can't ever get less either.So my question to myself and to you -- Can you Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be for life?
Week 19 The Dark Side of Resistance Steven Pressfield 2023-08-04 | When there’s something in us waiting to be birthed into the world, a dream, a book, a dance, music, a movie and we don’t follow through, the power of this dream turns inward in a dark way. It doesn’t simply disappear. It inverts itself often into something negative. Maybe it’s an addiction of some sort, illness, acid reflux, anger, eating issues, relationships that come and go -- any number of things – but it isn’t benign. I know it sounds dark, and it is.It also shows us the importance of what’s inside of us waiting to get out. I deal with it myself all the time. It’s hard to follow through, hard to have the discipline to stick with it. But, I can tell you all of the hard work is worth it. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it.So if you feel like you’re yielding to Resistance, my advice – Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be and DON’T STOP!!
Week 18 The 2nd Law of Resistance Steven Pressfield 2023-08-03 | THE MORE RESISTANCE THE BIGGER THE DREAMThe second Law of Resistance is this; Resistance always comes second. The dream comes first. If there is no dream, there is no Resistance. If you’re in the midst of starting something, a new business, a new book, a new musical, any artistic venture and you’re experiencing Resistance, let this encourage you. It’s a good thing!! It means the dream is there and it means the dream is importantOne of the visuals I have is a tree in the middle of a sunny meadow. The tree is the dream. And the minute the tree appears, the shadow appears. The tree casts a shadow. The tree is the dream. The shadow is Resistance. So if you're experiencing Resistance, even if it's kind of vague, you're sort of unhappy with yourself, you’re chafing, you might not even be exactly sure what’s going on, but IT’S A GOOD SIGN. YOU WILL NOT EXPERIENCE RESISTANCE UNLESS THERE IS A DREAM. AND THE BIGGER THE RESISTANCE THE BIGGER THE DREAM. It’s not always easy I the midst of this to believe it’s something good. But if you’re feeling Resistance it tells you there's something that your soul is calling out to do. So PUT YOUR ASS WHERE YOUR HEART WANTS TO BE, and do it!!
Week 17 Resistance in the Morning Steven Pressfield 2023-08-02 | Resistance — you know it —that feeling of self-sabotage, negative self talk, fear, doubt, when is it strongest? I believe it’s first thing in the morning. As soon as you open your eyes. Before you get out of bed. And the the best way I’ve found to combat Resistance is by engaging it first thing in the morning. Get up and get to it. Don’t hit the snooze, don’t make excuses, get up and go. My alarm goes off every morning at 315 am. I get up, brush my teeth, stretch and go to the gym. My day starts this way 6 days a week. (you can ask @buck_moon if you don’t believe me).Ryan Holiday, Jocko Willink, Joe de Sena, and countless others all talk about how important it is to get up and move headlong into the day. I’ve found when I engage Resistance immediately, I don’t let it gain any momentum, it can’t stop me from sitting down, PUTTING MY ASS WHERE MY HEART WANTS TO BE, and doing my work.So get up, get to it and make it a great day!!@youtube.com/@JockoPodcastOfficial
Week 16 In the Zone Steven Pressfield 2023-08-01 | This video is a little long, and slightly rambling – I hope you’ll stick with it. I’ve talked before about different levels of being. I believe there's a level above us, above the material plane. It sounds kind of like a science fiction movie, but just think about it for a second. Like at night when we dream, that's a whole other level of reality, right? We're in a consciousness where the rules are different, right? You can move instantly from one place to another. It’s quite another place than our waking consciousness.You’ve probably heard of the idea of “The Zone”. Mostly talked about with regard to athletes – everything running on all cylinders – basket so big I couldn’t miss – everything slowed down, I could see everyone on the fieldArtists also have a Zone – those moments when everything is working. The times when we aren’t worried, we’re writing, or dancing, or painting and time simply disappears. We aren’t thing about sales or deadlines. I believe The Zone is when we move from our Ego Self to our True Self that’s on this other level. Everything is working and we’re along for the ride.We're always trying for that zone. We're trying to get our waking consciousness, our ass, our rational being to shift its center from the ego to the self to this other level. That is a different dimension of reality. So that is another level of Pur Your Ass Where Your Heart Wans to Be.It took me like 30 years of trying before I could finally get to the point where I could sit down at the keyboard and actually speak in my own voice or in the voice of the character that I was writing in. And what that was about was Moving Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to BeEnd Video Credits: CurryMIXes. : @youtube.com/c/CurryMIXesSong: In The ZoneArtist: PL Official @plofficialAlbum: In The Zone
Week 15 1st Rule of Resistance Steven Pressfield 2023-07-31 | Are you in the middle of a project - is Resistance kicking your Ass - that’s a GOOD THING!! It’s means whatever you’re doing is important to the evolution of your soul so put Your Ass Where HEART Wants To Be, Sit down and get to work!’
Week 14 The Muse Sees You Steven Pressfield 2023-07-30 | When I sit down day after day, doing my work, the muse knows and shows up and when she shows up it’s pure magic. The muse is a lot like Santa Claus. She knows when we’ve been naughty or nice.I’m not being facetious. Somehow, by some mechanism unknown and unknowable to mortals, the Higher Dimensions see and know what’s going on down here on the Material Plane.So start doing it – Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be. Every day commit, show up, put your fingers, or toes, or feet, or brain to work. I promise you she’ll show up and when she does MAGIC!!The great illustration of the muse by my friend the talents Victor Juhasz @juhaszillustration check out his work.
Week 13 One Hour a Day Steven Pressfield 2023-07-29 | ONE HOUR A DAYI know a lot of people are working other jobs while pursuing their art. A lot of people ask me if an hour a day is enough. The answer is emphatically yes!! Last week I said that I don’t worry about how much I get done, how many words I write, etc. I worry about showing up every day. So if you’re showing up, fully committed and getting to it every day – you’re not aspiring, you’re not wannabe, YOU ARE A WRITER, ARTIST, MUSICIAN, FILL IN THE BLANK. Don’t underestimate the power of one hour a day Just wanted to add one thing. I use “the writer” as an example a lot. But this is the same if you are a painter, musician, dancer, sculptor. Don’t tell yourself “he’s only talking to writers.” That’s Resistance trying to keep you down. I love Steven Soderbergh’s Oscar speech for the movie “Traffic” where he thanks all of the artists that put in one hour a day. I’ve added an excerpt from to the end of this video.
Week 12 When I Sit Down 1 Steven Pressfield 2023-07-28 | I can’t over-emphasize the importance of the “putting your ass” part of this idea. Sitting down, getting to the studio, getting your instrument, making the 500th phone call. The important thing is that you get yourself there. That’s the hard work. That’s where it all starts.When I sit down at my desk I don’t worry about how many words I write. At the end of that day I don’t look back to see if it’s good or if the punctuation is write. I make a note of how much time I spent in my chair in front of my screen – that is the work. If you do it often enough the rest comes. PUT YOUR ASS WHERE YOUR HEART WANTS TO BE - it’s the “putting your ass” that’s the hard part.
Week 11 The Cosmic Radio Station Steven Pressfield 2023-07-27 | THE COSMIC RADIO STATIONI’ve been talking for a couple of weeks how we change when we finally Put Our Ass Where Our Heart Wants to be. Last week I said I think our DNA actually changes. I’m going to take that a bit further this week. It may seem out there, but hang in there with me if you would.First I want to show you an illustration called “The Cosmic Radio Station” by my friend Victor Juhasz, amazing, award winning artist and illustrator. My vision of The Cosmic Radio Station is driving through West Texas, a Cadillac Eldorado, the night is clear and no other cars for miles. I’m tuning the radio – stations coming in from 1500 miles away, and then I get a clear station, the station, THE COSMIC RADIO STATION. The source of all creativity. The muse is the DJ, 24 hours, 7 days. She’s there in that other dimension looking to see who’s tuning in. You’ve been there, those times you couldn’t’ write, and then you could, couldn’t figure something out and then you could. You finally put your ass where your heart wants to be and you find the station, Just like Toni Morrison, Beethoven, (I said the 9th, but it should be the 5th) Picasso. We’ve tuned in. We’re committed. I said our DNA changes, but what really changes is our vibration, our frequency – we can finally put the ego aside and access the capital S part of our Self!!The ancient Hermetics believed that the universe itself is mental – no physical, fleshly existence. They believed we can transmute our existence and move from one type of vibration to another. From a lower vibration to a higher vibration. I know this is pretty deep, but they believed that the only thing that’s different between one thing and another is the rate of vibration.For instance fear has one vibration and courage has another. You change your vibration when you move from one to another. I believe when artists, entrepreneurs, innovators truly commit, the moment when we put our asses where are hearts want to be our cosmic vibration changes. And the muse, God, the goddess know it. Can feel the change in our frequency. I’m sure you’ve felt it. I have. When we can access the higher dimension of reality where all ideas and innovation come from – the cosmic radio station. So PUT YOUR ASS WHERE YOUR HEART WANTS TO BE. Change your frequency, tune into The Cosmic Radio Station.
Week 10 Tom Guinzberg or The Moment You Commit Steven Pressfield 2023-07-26 | I’ve been talking about how we change when we finally “Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be.” When I first submitted my manuscript for Gates of Fire, it was 800 pages long. It weighed four pounds. It was as big as a Manhattan phone book. My agent, Sterling Lord, told me flat out, “Steve, I can’t sell this. You have to cut three hundred pages.”Three hundred pages?I was paralyzed. This was only my second book. I had no idea how to delete almost half of it and have it still work. I was shell-shocked; I fell into depression and despair. Then I got a note in the mail. I’ve talked about this note before, so forgive me, but this note changed my life. It was a hand-written note on personal stationery. The note was from Tom Guinzburg, who was then the president of Viking Press. At Sterling’s request, Tom had read the manuscript of Gates of Fire. His note to me said, among other kind things, “There is a first-rate novel in here. I am confident that you will pull this off.”I can’t tell you how much that meant to me. Tom Guinzburg barely knew me, and he took to time to send me this note. You’ve probably heard other stories. A mom who commits to participating in the Iron Man. The universe begins to send people into her life to help her on her way. When you and I put our ass where our heart wants to be, the universe responds. We change. We see ourselves differently. But others, sometimes those we are not aware of (and whom we have no idea are aware of us), see us differently too. They may come to our aid in ways we could never have predicted and by some word or act of kindness change everything.
Week 9 The Moment Steven Pressfield 2023-07-25 | I believe that the very act of putting our ass where our heart wants to be causes a profound change in ourselves. When we shoulder our seabag and stride up the gangplank of the Nina, the Pinta, or the Santa Maria, something changes inside us. We might not feel it in the moment because our knees are knocking too violently. But somewhere deep in our DNA, a chemical transformation is taking place.Are you familiar with the concept of the “hero’s journey?”In myth and legend, when the Hero commits to an intention by taking bold action, he enacts a Cosmic Overthrow. He “crosses the threshold.” Like Luke Skywalker heading with Obi-wan Kenobi for Mos Eisley spaceport or Dorothy being swept away from Kansas by a cyclone, the hero moves from Ordinary World to the Extraordinary World. She has gone from the Known to the Unknown.Suddenly our hero sees herself differently. She can’t help it. In Wonder Woman, the person Diana was when she followed her call and departed from her home on Themiscyra is not the same person who had dwelt on this blessed isle since she was a child.She is different now, and she knows it.My friend Brian Koppelma has a podcast called “The Moment.” Whenhe’s interviewing someone, an entrepreneur, a writer, he asked them “when was the moment for you?” For me it was I a crappy apartment in New York. I sat down and typed for two hours and I was changed. When you commit. When you Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be” you change. You have crossed into the realm of Hero.
Week 8 Put Your Ass - The Commitment - Stay Where You Are Steven Pressfield 2023-07-24 | OKAY, STAY WHERE YOU ARE….The past few weeks I’ve been talking about “Move Your Ass”. And while I still wholeheartedly believe that if you can get to the epicenter of where your heart wants to be, do it. Go. Take a chance. But I’m going modify this a little bit. Let’s carve out a special exemption for writers and other artists, who can do their work in rustic cabins, poolside villas, and other abodes of seclusion and solitude.Oxford, Mississippi is where Faulkner lived. All his life. Stephen King resides in Maine and Sarasota, Florida. Anne Rice never left New Orleans or Rancho Mirage, California. (When I made the video I said Naples and Palm Desert, respectively – wanted to correct that here.) Now I’ll talk about why I believe they HAVE moved to the epicenter of their dreams.Level One of Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be is the physical dimension. Sit your body down in front of the keyboard. Or move your physical self to the city where your dream is most likely to find its home.Level Two, however, is about the Inner Body, the metaphorical self. It means “move to the Paris/London/New York in your mind.”That, I venture to presume, has been done by Faulkner and Stephen King and Anne Rice. They have, in the metaphorical dimension, packed up bag and baggage and “moved” to that place in their hearts where their dream resides.It’s a true test of your depth of commitment.Joel and Sienna Cherrico of Cherrico Pottery in Minnesota do it. They go to their studio every day and they are 100% there. Jack Carr in Utah does it. Every time he sits down at his desk his ass is 100% committed. Will you take an hour , 30 minutes, two hours every day, go to your place of work and do commit. Meet the muse in that place every day. She’s not counting the minutes, she’s waiting to see if you show up. How deeply committed are you? Are you “there?” Or are you somewhere else?
Week 7 HOW DOES SUCCESS REALLY HAPPEN? Steven Pressfield 2023-07-23 | My friend Ram Bergman is a big-time producer at the near-Star Wars level. When I first met him, twenty years ago, he was fetching coffee on movie sets for six bucks an hour.How does success really happen?Your friends help you. Friends you made when you and they were broke and starving. Your friends rise in their careers … and they bring you along. Here’s director Ernie Pintoff, advising me as a young screenwriter to plunge into the pool with no mental reservations.“Keep working,” Ernie said. “Don’t turn anything down. Porn flicks, slasher movies, free stuff for friends. Don’t get precious. You’re young, you’re learning. Keep working.”Ernie cited three reasons:“One, working means you’re getting paid. Every buck means you’re a working pro, you’re toiling in your chosen field.“Two, when you work, you learn. Everybody has something to teach you. A grip will show you something about lighting, an editor will drop some pearl about what to keep and what to cut. Even actors know something.“Three, you’re making friends. Some kid who’s schlepping coffee today may be a producer tomorrow. An actress you do some free work for today may get you hired for a rewrite six months from now.” This is how any career REALLY works. Dance, theater, photography, financial planning. Even the military works like this. But before this network of friends and mentors can help you up the ladder, you have to be there. In person. In the flesh, where you can make these friends and find these mentors.A couple of final things - don't think things are beneath you. My girlfriend started as a receptionist and ended up a VP at one of the biggest fashion companies in the world. She did business with people she met when she was a receptionist. Nothing was beneath her, not making copies, or getting coffee. She learned something from each of those things that made her better with each subsequent job she got. And before the comments roll in – I know everyone’s friends from home aren’t just “getting stoned” but they aren’t always the ones that can or will help you move forward in pursuit of your own dream.
Week 6 Move Your Ass Part 1 - Physical Move Steven Pressfield 2023-07-23 | So in an earlier episode we talked about, and hopefully you’ve accepted the idea of sitting down at the piano, of planting ourselves in the editing suite, or taking the “D” train to the dance studio.Now let’s take the principle a step further. Leave the town or city where you live and move to the hub of the creative or entrepreneurial world where your dreams are most likely to come true. Let me repeat that. Pack up your total establishment---spouse, kids, dog, couch, treadmill---and move to the metropolis that’s the epicenter of your career or creative dream. Hemingway went to Paris, so did Henry Miller. Arnold came to Gold’s Gym in Venice. Designers move to New York, Milan, Paris. Stephen King found his spot in Maine. I know over the past couple of years we’ve learned that we can all work remotely. ZOOM will put our face before potential friends and mentors and collaborators without us leaving the comfort of our home.Trust me, it ain’t the same as being there. My own story – I wanted to write for the movies – I packed up the cat, the typewriter and headed to LA. Here’s where I met people already doing what I wanted to do, or working at doing the same thing. I found and agent who ultimately teamed me up with Ron Shusette who taught me thing I would never have learned in a classroom. So, if you say to me "I want to work in country music. Do I have to move to Nashville?” Or “My dream is to act in movies. Do I have to pack up for L.A.?" Yes and yes. It’s your dream. Put you ass squarely in the middle of it.
Week 5 Writers and Suffering Steven Pressfield 2023-07-22 | This short video kind of goes hand in hand with what I was talking about last week – inner temperature and outer temperature. When I was trying to finish my first novel I rented a little house in Northern California. I met a friend there who became a real mentor to me – Paul Rink. Paul was a writer and although he had a house, he spent a lot of time and wrote in a little trailer he had, which he called Moby Dick.Well, we had friend in common, someone who’d had a tough life. An orphan during The Great Depression. A Marine in the Pacific in WWII, and then he spent some time in jail. By the time I knew him he was writing and things were going great for him.I asked Paul one day over a cup of coffee, how do you explain it, going through all that suffering and now doing so great. Paul sat his coffee down on the Formica table, looked me in the eye, and I”ll never forget what he said; “suffering has never hurt any writer that I know of.”So I’m putting this out there for anyone who has gone through, is going through or may go through a lost of “stuff” – “suffering has never hurt any writer that I know of.”
Week 4 Inner and Outer Weather Steven Pressfield 2023-07-21 | About ten years ago I had prostate surgery. I came home from the hospital with both a staph infection and a yeast infection. The treatment for one made the other worse and doctors basically kind of said - you’re on your own.For I’m not sure how many weeks I wrote, standing up, naked from the waist down with a fan blowing under the high desk where I stood. The thing is, as bad as things on the outside were, my writing was better than ever. A lot of times I think we let what's going on on the outside, determine what we can do creatively. I don’t think that’s always the case. We let the outer weather determine our inner weather and let Resistance bring us to a cold hard stop!! Don’t let it. I've found that often it's exactly the opposite. The worse the outer weather is, the better the inner weather is. Don't stop. Keep working.Things are tough, keep working. Life sucks, keep working. This is the time when all the discipline, the daily habits you’ve put in place will come through for you. Keep working.
Week 3 - Exposure - Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be Steven Pressfield 2023-07-20 | In climbing and mountaineering there’s a term called “exposure”. It means that sections of a path or route are exposed – there is a high risk of injury if you fall. There is not a shelf or a net below you.When we talk about the idea of “Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be” we’re talking about commitment. We’re talking about the idea of taking something that you value, that can be harmed, your ass (i.e. your art, the novel you’ve worked on for three years) and putting yourself in a place where’s there’s risk. Where you are exposed. Your ego is exposed. Your work is exposed. There is a risk of injury. The thing is, if you don’t put yourself into that exposed place you’ll never make it to the summit. I am not a mountain climber, but from what I have seen and read, there is no route to the top of Everest without risk. At some point we have to be able to go beyond the safety of a rock shelf, or a rope that tethers us safely to the shore. We don’t want to do this because of fear. None of us wants to fall, but if we’re going to put our ass where our heart wants to be, if we’re committed to it, it involves risk and we’re all going to have to face it at some point.
Part 2 - Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be Steven Pressfield 2023-07-19 | I posted a video last week that seemed to resonate with a lot of people “Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be.” I’ve been thinking about it and would like to delve deeper into this mantra of mine that I’ve been using for years to get work done. So for the next several weeks, months, however long it takes I’d like to talk more about this topic. Last week I only talked about the actual physical act of putting yourself in the setting. In front of a typewriter, in a studio, with your guitar, your mountain bike, etc. But I’ve found this saying goes much deeper than this. Yes, there’s the physical level, and its important – don’t get me wrong. But there’s a deeper metaphysical level, a spiritual level, I think it enters into Karma. When we commit, really put our ass on the line, amazing things start to happen. Truth is as I’m writing about this I’m also finding realms I’ve never consciously thought about. The ways this mantra has changed me and kept me going. So I hope you’ll stick with me. The road might be bumpy sometimes and I can’t promise exactly where it’s going to lead, but I believe we’ll all learn something on the way. Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be.And if you haven’t please check out @thekoreanvegan. We’ve never met, I don’t know her, but I believe her story will resonate with a lot of people. Would love to hear your own stories of how living into this and putting your ass where your heart wants to be changes your life. Please post about it and tag me. Thanks.
Memorial for Norm Stahl Steven Pressfield 2023-06-23 | My dear friend Norm Stahl, who taught me The Foolscap Method passed away this year at the age of 91. Norm never missed a beat. He never just talked about thing, but did them. A little of Norm’s background. Norm’s moved from junior copywriter to the senior executive of BBDO and Ted Bates Worldwide Advertising, where for many years he guided creative direction companies like Colgate Palmolive and Pepsi Cola. Along the line he managed to earn a private pilot’s license and author or co-author several fiction and non-fiction books, His loved golf, art, and travel. He was a great friend and a great man. I will miss him. If The Foolscap Method has brought you any kind of knowledge or helped you in some way, give a nod to Norm, wherever he is.
The Foolscap Method Final Entry - Try It Out Steven Pressfield 2023-06-07 | This will be the last video in this Foolscap series. Not much to say except try it out, test it, study it. Watch your favorite movie, read your favorite book and fill out a Foolscap. What's the genre? What is the inciting incident? Is there an Act 1, 2 and 3? Do it over and over, practice. When I was still writing screenplays if we were working on a detective story, or film noir I'd go watch movies in this genre. Sometimes over and over again. Like anything it takes times and work. Put in some time and it will pay off.
The Foolscap Method Week 13 How I Work With It Steven Pressfield 2023-06-07 | HOW I USE THE FOOLSCAP METHODI want to talk about how I use The Foolscap Method – how it has helped and continues to help me as I hit roadblocks. So I make a one page Foolscap filling in all the items, one through ten on the sheet. Beyond that I have a file for each of the sections. One for Genre, one for inciting incident, etc., and then here is where I go into the weeds. For instance the climax is embedded in the inciting incident. I spend a lot of time making sure that the climax is there in the inciting incident.Also the inciting incident is where the hero acquires their intention – and then I’ll really ask myself does this happen.The all is lost moment is one part, but then there has to be an answer – how does the hero react to the all is lost moment and this can be a big file, page after page.The Foolscap Sheet will keep you on a path. Then separately from this, you’ll dig into each one of these item by item. I do it by keeping files.
Week 12 tying it all together Steven Pressfield 2023-06-07 | I wanted to get back to and tie together some other elements of working with The Foolscap Method.I mentioned how The Foolscap Method helps us connect details and here I want to go into some specifics.Let’s say you know you want to write a western, so now you have a Genre right? But you’re not sure of the Setting. If it’s a western you know the setting will probably have to be some place that is beyond the law.Or, let’s say you have dreamed up this setting, totally lawless, but you’re unsure of the genre, you can look at the setting and think perhaps this is a Western. (Remember my book “A Man At Arms” was a “western) – all western genres don’t have to be Clint Eastwood style.)Using ROCKY again as an example. We know the Hero and Villain clash in the Climax. We know the Inciting Incident is when Rocky accepts the offer to fight Apollo Creed. We know the Climax is embedded in the Inciting Incident so we know the Climax is going to be when Rocky fight Apollo Creed.I have a couple more things I’m going to talk about using The Foolscap. Hope you’re finding this helpful.Also we’ve had some requests to get this all in one place so we’re working on getting it up on You Tube. Will keep you posted once it’s there.
