The Authentic Swing: Notes From the Writing of a First Novel - Steven Pressfield

The Story Behind THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE If
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.