Steven Pressfield

But I'd never judge it, you know, and it took a long, long time to get to that place to learn that, you know, because I would drive myself insane for years and years judging along the way.

I used to be able to write for four hours.

Now I can only write for about two.

What I tell myself, and I think it's true, is I can do in two hours now what I used to do in four.

But I stop when I start making mistakes.

When I start...

having typos and things like that, then it's kind of like a workout at the gym.

You know, when you've reached the end, you know, I'm just going to hurt myself if I do another set, you know, um, point of diminishing returns.

So when I get tired, I stop and I don't question it at all.

I don't say, I don't make myself feel bad about, Oh, you can get another 10 minutes.

Um, like Steinbeck used to say that, um,

pressing forward at the end of a long day to get just a little bit more is the falsest kind of economy because you pay for it the next day.

Hemingway used to say he always stopped when he knew what was coming next in the story, which I also believe in that too because that will help you in that hairy first moment when you're sitting down because at least you know, oh, okay, this is what's going to happen.

Yeah, exactly.

No.

Let's just interrupt for a second.

They call it resistance training, which is exactly what we're talking about for art.

Yeah.

But please continue.

No.