How to write and how to live.
This quote comes from Steven Pressfield, the historical novelist who has a new book out: Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be.
It’s another way to say what Emerson has before him: “God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.” Pressfield’s book arose from a nine-year-old blog post on his website and part of the reason I’m linking to it here is because I needed the encouragement this past week.
On Monday, on a hunch, I flew down to DC to see if I could get before the people who might become the protagonists of my next book. I can’t say too much about that possible book, except that it involves the war in Afghanistan and on-going national security and humanitarian aid efforts. I wasn’t sure that these protagonists would talk to me, much less that they’d allow me to follow them around for three days. As of Sunday night, less than 12 hours before my flight, I still didn’t have confirmation that they would even meet with me.
My own money was on the line here. I wasn’t traveling to DC as the correspondent for some magazine. I alone booked my travel because I thought, if my hunch were right, that the story would be too large for a magazine. The only way to find out for sure would be to get in front of the people who lived out the narrative but hadn’t spoke…
