Steven Pressfield: Every Story Needs a Villain | How I Write Podcast

Steven Pressfield waded through 27 years of Resistance so you don’t have to - come learn his best practices to creating your best work.
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:40 Your career in writing
00:07:00 Writing rough drafts
00:11:10 Copywriting
00:13:20 Hemingway
00:14:20 The Legend of Bagger Vance
00:18:40 Fiction vs Non-fiction
00:19:15 Storytelling advice
00:29:20 Editing your work
00:40:55 Discipline in writing
00:43:45 Villains in writing
01:02:45 How Steven started writing
01:05:15 Robert Greene
01:08:50 Tim Ferriss
01:12:00 60 scenes method
01:13:20 Writing styles
01:20:20 Make your heroes suffer
01:23:55 Steven Pressfield's new book "The Daily Pressfield"
SPEAKER LINKS:
Website: stevenpressfield.com/
Instagram: / steven_pressfield
Book: stevenpressfield.com/books/
WRITE OF PASSAGE:
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ABOUT THE HOST:
I’m David Perell and I’m a writer, teacher, and podcaster. I believe writing online is one of the biggest opportunities in the world today. For the first time in human history, everybody can freely share their ideas with a global audience. I seek to help as many people publish their writing online as possible.

[@DavidPerellChannel]

Steven Pressfield has sold millions of books, seen his first novel become a Hollywood film…and he thinks talent is wildly overrated. Here are 19 things he taught me about fear, art, and channeling the creative muse: 1. The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying. 2. Find work you can do for its own sake - not fame, fortune, attention, or applause. 3. You can test if your desires are genuine by asking yourself: "If I were the last person on earth, would I still do it?” 4. Discipline beats talent when talent isn’t disciplined. Pressfield: “If you have discipline and no talent, you're way better off than if you have a lot of talent and no discipline.” 5. Every day you don't spend writing is a day spent putting off the work you really want to do, the things you really want to achieve, and the person you really want to become. 6. Pros know that you shouldn't wait to start writing until you have every idea. You find ideas by working. 7. The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it. 8. If you're going to do high-level creative work, you're going to have to get good at saying no. The committed writer needs an empty schedule. 9. The artist faces a daily battle between the life they live and the life they could live. Between the two lies The Resistance. 10. Are you living life on amateur mode? Here are the signs: “When we're living as amateurs, we're running away from our calling - meaning our work, our destiny, the obligation to become our truest and highest selves." 11. An addiction can become a surrogate for your calling too. Why? Because it takes work to follow a calling. It's hard. It hurts. It demands entering the pain zone of effort, risk, and exposure. 12. To write is to subject yourself to a certain kind of torture... to endure isolation, rejection, self-doubt, despair, ridicule, contempt, and humiliation. 13. Hesitation is the graveyard of great ideas. Pressfield: “A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. It’s only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate.” 14. Ignorance and arrogance are the artist and entrepreneur’s indispensable allies. They help you go through patches where a “sane” person would quit. 15. Ambition is precious: “Ambition is the most primal and sacred fundament of our being. To feel ambition and to act upon it is to embrace the unique calling of our souls." 16. Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention. It's a gift to the world and every being in it. Don't cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you've got. 17. The Blitzkrieg Method: During your first draft, you will be blasted by anxieties from all sides. If you slow down to deal with them, it’s over. He recommends the Blitzkrieg Method instead-if you come to an obstacle, go around it. Forward momentum is everything in a first draft. Get words onto the page. 18. To be a writer is to hold the warrior and the artist inside yourself. 19. It's time to turn pro: “The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.”

[@HarryDry]

My favourite podcast atm. Nothing like it out there. Love Pressfield's voice. Years of experience 🙏

[@eugeniocg3079]

agreed

[@DavidPerellChannel]

Thank you!

[@DavidPerellChannel]

@@eugeniocg3079 Appreciate you

[@fragwagon]

This deserves a lot more views.

[@martinopietropoli]

This has quickly become my favourite podcast. In honour of what many of your guests say, I take a lot of time in each episode to take notes and listen to certain parts again. Wonderful, thank you!

[@DavidPerellChannel]

Ah, I’m so happy to hear that

[@bhargavchaudhari1921]

The podcast is getting better and better everytime 😭 Wisdom bombs dropping!

[@DavidPerellChannel]

Lots of good guests in the pipeline too

[@bhargavchaudhari1921]

Won't miss them

[@edblache6214]

Thank you David! Steven is so authentic and your questions are spot on. This has helped and amused me enormously.

[@ChippyPinkChannel]

Excellent guest and conversation. Thank you!

[@solmrx]

Echoing every else here. This has easily, by far, become one of my favorite podcasts out there. Each week is just getting better and better! Solid stuff! 🔥

[@Mkube1999]

Please get Tarantino on this podcast!! Ask him how he develops plot ideasss

[@rahulsanghi6065]

I wait for these like I wait for a new episode of Succession

[@DavidPerellChannel]

Hah! Love to hear that

[@parvazc93]

Same here. I literally mark each Wednesday on my calendar as a 'How I Write' podcast drop day.

[@riccardocecco]

Thanks David for doing this. I can feel you're really enjoying it. You're delivering a lot of value to us viewers... It's definitely one of the best podcasts out there! Keep it up man 👊

[@ganapathyakshay9483]

Thanks for bringing in one of my favorite writers! I recently stumbled upon your podcast and the guest lineup is simply amazing. Cheers all the way from India!

[@heygauravsharma]

Hey thanks David providing such an insightful conversation with Steven. I enjoyed it as well as learned a lot. Keep going.

[@TheCliffordma]

Thank you for sharing such a lovely discussion.

[@mokgeniusm7]

I never pressed on a video so hard

[@DavidPerellChannel]

👊

[@eugeniocg3079]

let’s get itttt

[@DavidPerellChannel]

He's a legend

[@aigovbuzz]

The War of Art is one of my all-time favorite books. It was great to watch this mesmerizing interview. David, you mentioned prayer and Jesus. Please read 1 Timothy 2:5. Jesus is our mediator. We can only get to God through him. We must pray through him to have our prayers heard.

[@simonflossmann5832]

This podcast is so valuable! David, I would love to see an interview with Nicolas Cole.

[@vic_and_hugh]

When Pressfield does a writing interview, you stop what you're doing and push play.