There are about as many books on writing as there are writers, pro and amateur combined. You wanna know about structure? Theme? Character development? World-building? We’ve got you covered!

But where do you turn when you’re losing your mind, your will to create, and your drive to go on, because it feels like you’re in a boxing match with a brick wall; wrecking yourself and dumping your energy, with no end, and certainly no payoff in sight?  You’re doing everything “they” tell you to do, but it’s just not working. So, who’s coming to save you?

I hate to tell you, but… NOBODY!

But… what if someone came along with the premium blend of tough love and radical empathy to allow you to save yourself? Oh, that’s easy. That would be Steven Pressfield, with  Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: Why That Is and What You Can Do About It.

Pressfield‘s best-known nonfiction work is the essential The War of Art, the beginning of an epic philosophical investigation and exposition of the creative process, as applied not only to writers, but to every variety of reckless spirit that dares to throw off the stable and sensible trappings of a “practical,” loveless career and pursue a higher calling. After identifying and indeed naming the force that bears down on all of us to stifle our creative impulses and spawn excuses and procrastination, Resistance (capitalization on purpose),  he went on to drill down into numerous aspects of the creator’s journey with an inspiring and joyous series of follow-ups: Turning Pro, Do the Work, and The Artist’s Journey, just to get you started.

But there’s something that especially resonated with me about Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t (NWTRYS), and perhaps the title alone tells you why.  This one really goes after a prominent scourge in the world of aspiring creatives (it’s more writer-focused than his others, but these ideas can’t resist universal applicability), and, after all our hard work, belts us in the gut with a harsh meathook reality that we’ve all tacitly signed on for; nobody cares. They don’t care to pay the least bit of attention, let alone money, to the stuff we create, until we get a few things straight about what we’re doing here.

What are some of those things?

• You, the creator, are only half of the transaction. Your audience isn’t made up of functionaries for your creative satisfaction. You owe them quality and engagement in exchange for their time and attention.
• It helps to conceptualize yourself as an advertiser who sells through stories, and your creation as product (and stop considering this mindset distasteful).
• There are ugly elements of any business, from relationship/ personality management to political maneuvering.  Learning and navigating these is part of the game.
• Starting a project, getting through it, and finishing it are all skills in and of themselves that must be learned.
• Learn the ins and outs of your chosen field. Comport yourself like a pro.
• Certain fundamental principles underlie every type of creative endeavor.  Fall back on these when things aren’t working.
• In refining your craft, you’ll unavoidably be working on yourself. Don’t resist this. Lean into it.
• Every life event, the good and especially the bad, is a learning experience you can incorporate into your aspirations.
• Fiction is truth, and nonfiction is fiction (love these!)
• And more!

As you may have guessed, these aren’t laid out textbook-style, but ripped from the headlines of Pressfield‘s own journey, slogging through the trenches of self-doubt, temptation, rejection, corruption, and a slew of compromises and “shadow careers” (which may be self-explanatory, but read The War of Art for clarification) to become one of the preeminent novelists working today, in fiction and nonfiction alike.

Much of his work, and especially NWTRYS, has talked me off a ledge at times when my writing felt Sisyphean at best, felonious at worst. Perhaps The War of Art is the ideal place to start, but I consider this volume no less an essential writer’s companion. If you’re struggling on the path to self-realization in any field, see Mr. Pressfield. His wisdom and insights won’t coddle you, but may just  help you navigate your way through the abyss by, among other methods, pushing you into the classic protagonist’s dilemma: what do you want versus what do you need?