Do the work

Steven Pressfi

eld

Do Th

e Work!

84
of man-as-part-of-nature-himself. So that Man is dueling the evil

inside himself

and being consumed by it.

Again, “What’s missing ?”

Th

e involvement of the crew! If Ahab is the only crazy person

aboard and the crew meekly follows him, that’s no good. Th

e

men must become as obsessed as their captain. A new scene. Ahab assembles the crew and forges new harpoons, made not for other whales but only to kill Moby Dick.

“Advance, ye mates! Cross your lances full before me. Well done! Let me touch the axis.” [Ahab pours the full voltage of his own electric hate, by the medium of his hand, into the lances of his three harpooneers.] “Drink, ye harpooneers! drink and swear ... Death to Moby Dick! God hunt us all, if we do not hunt Moby Dick to his death!”

That’s Why They Call It Rewriting, Part Two Does the prior Ahab scenario sound far-fetched? Melville was a genius, you say; he could never fail to realize a character to the fullest on his fi

rst try.

Maybe. Probably. But if this didn’t happen to HM then, I prom-ise you it happened to him other times. And it happened to a million other guys and gals, over and over and over.

No matter how great a writer,

artist, or entrepreneur, he is a

mortal, he is fallible. He is not

proof against Resistance. He will

drop the ball; he will crash.

Th

at’s why they call it rewriting.

The Point for Us Th

e point for you and me is that we have passed through hell.

We have worked our problem.

We have solved it.

We have escaped from the belly of the beast.