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28 Steven Pressfield

Next: beginning and middle. We need to set the climax up and
load it with maximum emotion and thematic impact.

We must, in other words, establish both protagonist and antag-
onist, make clear to the reader what each of them represents and
what their conflict means thematically in the broader scheme of
the human (and divine) condition.

Beginning: Ishmael. Our point of view. A human-scale witness
to the tragedy.

Once we have Ishmael, we have our start and our ultimate fin-
ish—after the whale destroys the Pequod and all her crew and
drags Ahab to his death in the depths, Ishmael pops up amid the
wreckage, the lone survivor, to tell the tale.

End first, then beginning and
middle. That’s your startup, that’s

your plan for competing in a
triathlon, that’s your ballet.

“But hey, Steve ... I thought you said ‘Don’t think.’”

Let’s pause for a moment then and consider the difference be-
tween thinking and “thinking.”