A Tale of Two Stephens/Stevens

What What do Stephen King and Steven Pressfield have in common?

1. Both are named Stephen/Steven - Duh!

2. Both are writers

3. Both wrote books about being a writer

4. Both of these books have been extremely helpful to me in developing my craft.

On Writing - By Stephen King.

My wife Marian gave me this book for Christmas three years ago. I was already deeply involved in writing MAXIMUS . After I finished reading On Writing I had to go back and edit my fledgling manuscript entirely as I agreed with "Steve", as I began affectionately calling him, on many of his suggestions. I had a good yarn but it was technically all wrong. Reading On Writing was like getting hit for the first time as a young boy starting to play tackle football; Oh... so this is football! OUCH! But I thank Steve everyday for helping me become a better writer and giving me a heads-up on how difficult but necessary it would be to "kill your darlings".

The War of Art - by Steven Pressfield.

A spin on the title of the famous book by Sun Tsu (which I read for the first time in the mid 70's trying to improve my skills as a young lion in the business world) The War of Art describes the challenges each of us face in putting pencil to paper - or more realistically fingers to keys. How many of us have talked to friends that have said, "I've always wanted to write a book". So sit down and DO IT DAMMIT! Someone asked Pressfield in an interview, "So when do you sit down and write - do you wait till the creative juices start flowing?" His answer, "I become creative every morning at 8:00a.m." That's how you get that book written.

I suggest these two books sit on your shelf next to your Dictionary and Thesaurus.

I want to personally thank these two Stephens/Stevens for their wisdom and help.

THANK YOU STEPHEN ! THANK YOU STEVEN !