A succinct, engaging, and practical guide forsucceeding in any creative sphere, The War ofArt is nothing less than Sun-Tzu for the soul.

What keeps so many of us from doing what we long to do?

Why is there a naysayer within? How can we avoid theroadblocks of any creative endeavor-be it starting up a dreambusiness venture, writing a novel, or painting a masterpiece?

Bestselling novelist Steven Pressfield identifies the enemy thatevery one of us must face, outlines a battle plan to conquer thisinternal foe, then pinpoints just how to achieve the greatest success.

The War of Art emphasizes the resolve needed to recognizeand overcome the obstacles of ambition and then effectivelyshows how to reach the highest level of creative discipline.

Think of it as tough love . . . for yourself.

Whether an artist, writer or business person, this simple, personal, and no-nonsense book will inspire you to seize thepotential of your life.

No one's insights about the craft and journey of being an artist have guided me in the day-to-day struggle of this profession more than Steven Pressfield. Wherever you are, whatever you've been called to make, you need to read this book...and everything else he has written.

- Ryan Holiday, Bestselling Author of Ego Is the Enemy and The Obstacle Is the Way

YOU ARE AN ARTIST ... AND YOU HAVE AN ARTIST'S JOURNEY

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.

On our artist's journey, we move past Resistance and past self-sabotage. We discover our true selves and our authentic calling, and we produce the works we were born to create.

You are an artist too-whether you realize it or not, whether you like it or not-and you have an artist's journey. Will you live it out? Will you follow your Muse and do the work you were born to do?

Ready or not, you are called.

Running Down a Dream is a book about how to do the thing most people want to do but tell themselves is too scary, too hard, too unlikely.

- Ryan Holiday, Bestselling Author of Ego Is the Enemy and The Obstacle Is the Way

This book is the secret sauce...

- Barbara Corcoran, founder of The Corcoran Group, author, and Shark Tank investor

Shatters the mold of typical self-help.

- Daniel H. Pink, author of, When and Drive

The truth about how to succeed.

- Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby, frequent TED speaker, and author of Anything Your Want

Indispensable!

- Steven Pressfield, bestselling author of The War of Art and The Artist's Journey

A Deeply Personal Field Guide to Defeating Your Own Worst Enemy

When you dream, you envision a magical future...the day when you have heroically slain your dragons and unlocked the creativity and genius buried deep inside.

But how do you actually get to that destination?

You can analyze the myths of visionary creators-artists, writers, musicians, software developers, etc. who have accomplished the impossible. You'll read about how they went for it, refused to quit, and would not be denied. But exactly how these successful creators went from being fearful dreamers to accomplished artists proves elusive.

Running Down a Dream unflinchingly bares the naked truth of creation and shares the practical to-do list to take you from here to there.

The good news?

You don't have to be an Austen or a Michelangelo or an Oprah to create a work of art.

The bad news?

There is no glossing over the pain, embarrassment, and financial terror necessary to contend with on your journey to mission accomplished.

More good news?

What lies ahead for you is the realization of your heroic self. The run is worth it in ways you can't yet imagine.

What are the first principles in writing a story that works?

At Story Grid, it's easy to get distracted by the tools, spreadsheets, commandments, macro lense, micro lense, and on and on. However, all of this eventually comes back to five first principles.

In Story Grid 101, Story Grid founder Shawn Coyne distills 30 years of experience working with writers to build their stories into five principles:

• Stories are made up of distinct parts, or units.
• Stories are about change.
• The change that happens in stories concerns Universal Human Values, the things that most people would say are necessary to survive and thrive in the world-or alternatively, the things that keep us from surviving and thriving.
• Each unit of story has a Story Event, a one-sentence distillation of what's happening and what value is changing.
• Within each story unit we find a pattern of change we call the Five Commandments of Storytelling.

Also inside of Story Grid 101, Shawn also introduces you to the fundamental tools:

• The Foolscap and Editor's Six Core Questions
• The Spreadsheet
• The Infographic
• The Four Core Framework
• Story's Boundaries

Story Grid 101 is for anyone new to Story Grid who needs a primer on how we approach our craft.

The Story Behind THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCEIf you've read his books THE WAR OF ART and TURNING PRO, you know that for thirty years Steven Pressfield (GATES OF FIRE, THE AFGHAN CAMPAIGN etc.) wrote spec novel after spec novel before any publisher took him seriously. How did he finally break through?Ignoring just about every rule of commercial book publishing, Pressfield's first novel not only became a major bestseller (over 250,000 copies sold), it was adapted into a feature film directed by Robert Redford and starring Matt Damon, Will Smith, and Charlize Theron.Where did he get the idea?What magical something did THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE have that his previous manuscripts lacked?Why did Pressfield decide to write a novel when he already had a well established screenwriting career?How does writing a publishable novel really work?Taking a page from John Steinbeck's classic JOURNAL OF A NOVEL, Steven Pressfield offers answers for these and scores of other practical writing questions in THE AUTHENTIC SWING.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERForget all that Zen stuff--Here's the Golf Book the Golf World Really Needs...In David Feherty, we've found at last not only a true Renaissance man but also a writer with the guts to address the important themes of the 21st century. In A NASTY BIT OF ROUGH, the operatic singer turned golf pro turned witty golf commentator turns into a golf novelist and discusses the world's most vital issues -- flatulence; alcohol consumption in vast quantities; male genitalia getting whacked, bitten, lanced, and shot; and more flatulence...The overly serious world of golf writing needed a good gut-buster, and Feherty has supplied it.--Sports IllustratedFirst Joyce, then Yeats, now Feherty. The tradition of Irish literary excellence continues, but with this difference: of the three, only Feherty is funny. At once ribald, hilarious, esoteric, moving, and profound, David Feherty's A NASTY BIT OF ROUGH shares this quality with other original works of genius: only he could have produced it. Pick this book up. If you don't laugh out loud at least once in every chapter, I will personally confiscate your splatter guard niblick.--Steven Pressfield, author of THE LEGEND of BAGGER VANCEGolf's equivalent of the Hatfield-McCoy feud, with a cast of outlandishly eccentric duffers. If you're one of those people who think golf is a religion, prepare for some seriously funny blasphemy. A NASTY BIT OF ROUGH is the book S.J. Perelman would have written had he known anything about golf...and if he'd been taking steroids. Feherty's outrageous characters dance off the page.--Troon McAllister, author of THE GREENI didn't know Dad could write.--Rory Feherty, age 8A NASTY BIT OF ROUGH is a pure delight, as I suspected it would be since the delightful David Feherty wrote it...Every golf nut will love this book.--Dan JenkinsP.G. Wodehouse meets Judd Apatow in the most hilarious and outrageous Golf Entertainment wince CADDYSHACK.Fans of FEHERTY on The Golf Channel are in for a real treat (or punishment depending upon their temperament).Meet a character only David Feherty could create, Major General (Ret.) Sir Richard Gussett, his riotous imaginary uncle who presides over Scrought's Wood, the world's most cantankerous golf club. In this first volume of his misadventures, Gussett sets his sights on the most prestigious prize in golf, the petrified middle finger of St. Andrew, patron saint of Scotland.Gussett must motivate his merry band of members through battles with incontinence, single malt Scotch, peculiar handicaps, and a litany of other unmentionable afflictions in order to seize the finger in a friendly competition with their ancient rivals, the dreaded and notorious McGregor clan.Feherty's fanatical fan base will rejoice, the driving range addicted will tee off, the USGA will have no comment, and anyone who loves the game or knows someone who does will be unable to resist Feherty's storytelling and golfing gravitas.

Golf is not a game, it's a punishment. -David Feherty If you're one of those people who think golf is a religion, prepare for some seriously funny blasphemy.--Troon McAllister, author of The GreenSomewhere in Ireland, A Village is Missing an Idiot is a collection of Feherty's most popular Golf Magazine columns, intermingled with his most outrageous work from Golfonline.com. As an added bonus, readers will be treated to some notorious pieces from his work at the British publication Golf Monthly. Edited by and with a running commentary by Feherty, and accompanied by some of the priceless letters to the editor from readers across the country and around the globe complaining about Feherty's perversity, Somewhere in Ireland is the perfect Father's Day gift for the crankiest duffer in every family.

Feherty is at his self-effacing best. -- Los Angeles TimesGolf is not a game, it's a punishment. -- David FehertyThe New York Times bestselling author of A NASTY BIT OF ROUGH and SOMEWHERE IN IRELAND, A VILLAGE IS MISSING AN IDIOT, returns with a singular assortment of ribald observations on golf, life, and how best to not take any of it seriously.First Joyce, then Yeats, now Feherty. The tradition of Irish literary excellence continues, but with this difference: of the three, only Feherty is funny. -- Steven Pressfield, author of THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE and THE WAR OF ART

Action Stories speak to ancient human desires. Readers want to experience heart-stopping fear and excitement and learn lessons of survival.

How can you write a story that satisfies those desires?

In Action Story: The Primal Genre, Story Grid founder Shawn Coyne takes you on a journey deep into the meaning of the genre. Coyne boils down insights gained through more than 25 years as an editor and writer to teach you Action Story's fundamental constraints and patterns. He explores subgenres and setting, and proposes a new way of understanding the traditional cast of characters to reveal their power as agents of light and darkness.

In keeping with Story Grid Publishing's goal of helping all writers level up their craft, Coyne provides a practical twenty-point game plan, showing how action stories move forward from beginning to end.

Action stories are part of our DNA, fundamental to our humanity. Let's learn to write them together.

What's at the core of every great story that leads readers to rush breathlessly to the end and then share it with all their friends?

At Story Grid, we believe great stories are built of four essential elements: Core Needs, Core Life Values, Core Emotions, and Core Events. Whether you're writing an action adventure, a mystery, or a love story, these are the elements that spark the emotional connection and catharsis readers are looking for.

Assembled into a Four Core Framework, the right need, life value, emotion, and event become the blueprint for a story that will satisfy readers and bring them back for more.

In The Four Core Framework, Story Grid founder Shawn Coyne distills 30 years of experience in publishing into a compact guide for writers who want their novels, screenplays, and nonfiction to resonate and captivate. He dissects twelve kinds of stories and explains how to create the the ideal framework for each, including:

• A Core Need that will make your story an all-night read;
• A Core Life Value that will guide your characters' evolution;
• A Core Emotion that will enthrall your audience;
• and A Core Event that will provide the final payoff readers are waiting for.

In The Four Core Framework, you'll learn to keep readers turning the pages and rushing to recommend your stories. Join Shawn to get down to the core of it all.

Faust meets Fleishman Is In Trouble.

Eric Bauer-son, husband, father, and small business owner-is slowly losing his grip on reality.

Drowning in debt and a never-ending to-do list, he finally catches a break.

To trade the torment of barely scraping by for the riches of Nashville's elite Pinnacle Club, he only needs to keep doing what he's been doing since college.

Lie.

Playing fast and loose with the truth is the easy part.

What's hard for The Shithead is figuring out how to build a meaningful life in a meaningless world.

Bilbo Baggins, an altogether respectable hobbit, had never done anything unexpected-to say nothing of heroic-until he met a wizard in a blue pointed hat. After that meeting, Bilbo embarked upon an adventure, recorded in the pages of The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, that captured the imagination of readers around the world.

With unparalleled skill, Tolkien forged scenes of physical courage, revelatory self-transformation, and spiritual transcendence that do more than entertain-they help us make sense of the world.

In this Story Grid Masterworks Analysis Guide, Shawn Coyne examines Bilbo's transformation and Tolkien's craft through a powerful new lens, the Heroic Journey 2.0, revealing how stories help us survive, thrive, and find meaning individually and as a species. Using this lens, writers will learn to create the emotional catharsis readers crave and tell stories that cross barriers of time and culture.

Bilbo's unexpected journey beautifully illustrates the human imperative to keep going, to break and remake our worldviews in a search for truth. But in the end, readers and writers may agree with Coyne that, There is no final truth, only the creative act of meaning-making in the here and now.

Dorothy Gale's trip from Kansas to the Emerald City-in print, on screen, and on stage-has enchanted audiences around the world for more than a century. But what is her magical adventure really about? And can studying such classic tales help today's writers improve their craft?

In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum: A Story Grid Masterworks Analysis Guide, Shawn Coyne answers these questions and more. In Oz, Coyne finds a pitch-perfect illustration of the Heroic Journey 2.0, his revolutionary take on Joseph Campbell's monomyth. Coyne exposes the essential ingredients that define the book's life-or-death Action Story, coming-of-age Worldview Story, and transcendent Heroic Journey.

Writers who take up the challenge and put the Heroic Journey 2.0 to work will craft stories that resonate across time and cultures and provide the emotional catharsis their readers crave.

By the end of Baum's book, Dorothy has survived a worldview-shattering moment and committed to go on, creating new meaning in her life. Your journey as a storyteller begins with the same commitment to make meaning in the world, and this Guide will set you on the right path.

Jane Austen's masterpiece, Pride and Prejudice, has been admired, adapted, and copied by thousands of writers. Her work is still adored by readers all over the world two centuries after it was first published.

Have you ever dreamed you and Austen could take a turn about the room or walk the grounds of Pemberley while she explains exactly how she wrote her timeless love stories?

In this Masterwork Guide, Shawn Coyne applies his Story Grid tools of analysis to Austen's classic, transforming the reading experience into writing inspiration.

Coyne dissects each and every scene of the novel to show how it works. And he reveals the must-have moments readers crave in any love story so you can craft one of your own.

The Story Grid is a curated set of writing and editing tools that helps writers pinpoint weaknesses, learn how to fix them, and produce stories that work. After a long career as an editor, agent, and publisher, Coyne has a deep understanding of what resonates with readers. He wants you to know that you are not the problem-the problem is the problem.

Let the Masterwork Guide help you see the love story of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy through a new lens. Then let the Story Grid approach help you re-envision your own stories, and fall in love with writing again.

What if you could look inside a novel and see exactly how it works, like a doctor analyzing an x-ray or MRI scan?

In The Story Grid Contenders Analysis Guide to The Threshing Tim Grahl and Shawn Coyne look deep into the heart of Grahl's dystopian action novel set in a grim future where people compete in a virtual world to survive in the real one.

What essential actions lie beneath the moves the characters make?

How does each scene propel the story forward?

Coyne opens the Guide by analyzing the structure of the Action Story, the first and most primal fiction genre. Why have humans shared heroic tales that pivot on life-or-death choices ever since we began gathering around campfires? Why do Action stories persist at the top of bestseller lists? Because they speak to our desire to experience heart-stopping fear and excitement and learn hard lessons vicariously. Coyne's analysis provides the framework you need to satisfy those desires in readers.

Then Grahl takes you into his process of crafting a story that works by dissecting the structure of each scene, from inciting incident to crisis to resolution. You'll see the critical choices he made to deepen his characters' dilemmas and surprise readers again and again.

There is simply no better way to learn the craft of storytelling than to study a novel scene by scene.

This Story Grid Contenders Analysis Guide is a valuable tool for any writer or editor interested in the art and science of storytelling. By showing you the inner workings of this contemporary action story at the macro and micro levels, Coyne and Grahl give you the tools to analyze your own work, diagnose and solve problems, and level up your craft.