Recording - March 2021 - 69

Continued from page 66
right and it's a fastball right down the middle, "
those are the ones that have not done well.
So, I've pretty much given up trying to secondguess the market. I mean, within reason, I
always ask myself of an idea as I'm starting to
work on it, " Does this have a chance? Is anybody
gonna want this at all? " And if it is completely
out of left field, then maybe I won't do it. But I
will try to follow my heart and what I love, and
sometimes people find it. Sometimes what you
love is what other people love too. Sometimes.
I'm not saying you shouldn't follow your heart; I'm
just saying having the writing chops, understanding structure, understanding...
Same thing with music. Obviously, you've got
to know what you're doing.
Right. You can't just have a song for like 17 minutes with no chorus. People like an intro, a verse,
a chorus. We're wired for that. I don't know if anybody ever shared this with you, but the choruses
in music actually came from back in the days of

" So, I've pretty much given up trying
to second-guess the market. I mean,
within reason, I always ask myself of
an idea as I'm starting to work on it,
'Does this have a chance? Is anybody
gonna want this at all?' And if it is
completely out of left field, then
maybe I won't do it. "
-Steven Pressfield
the Knights of the Round Table, when traveling
minstrels would go from castle to castle and play
gigs at court after court. And somebody once
played something that had a refrain, and people
in the court started singing along with it, because
it was repetitive. And whoever that was went,
" Ah, repetition. " So allegedly, that's where the
chorus came from.
I want to go back to another part of your life. This
was personal for me when I read that you were a
Marine. We have a daughter that became a combat search-and-rescue soldier at 18. And I
watched what that did to her, how fast she grew
up and how her brain wiring changed. Everything.
Not only more adult, but more capable, more
everything. How did your time in the Marines
affect you as a person, and did that have any
effect on your discipline that was required later in
life?
Definitely. Now I was a reservist, I was one of
the guys that did six months of active duty,
RECORDING March 2021

then five and a half years in the reserves. But
it's funny that while I was in, I resisted it
mightily. You know, I said, " I am not going to
be brainwashed by this. " But once I got out, I
discovered-particularly as a writer where
you're facing the blank page and you're all
alone and all that-that I was falling back on
the concepts of discipline. But instead of it being
externally imposed discipline, it became self-discipline. But very definitely, I kind of live my life...
You know, I'm up early, I work out, I have a sort
of military-type of day. And I think of myself as
kind of a warrior of the page, you know? That
I'm enlisting the virtues of a warrior, but internally, against the demons of resistance, and so
on. That that is the enemy, and that I have to fight
it every day. It is a battle every day, and I think of
myself as like a soldier in that war.

Do you ever go back and read what you wrote
about resistance when you are having a day
when you were being unproductive or waiting for
the muse to show up? Do you read your own
stuff?
Actually, I do, and it's a weird feeling, because
I say to myself, " Yeah, I should take that lesson
myself. " I forgot the lesson. I need to crack the
whip harder over myself.
Don't miss Part 3 in next
month's TAXI Insider!
I encourage you to purchase
Steve's life-changing book,
The War of Art, that thousands
of TAXI members have read.

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Recording - March 2021

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