The Difficulty

I almost drowned on the Ocoee River. The thing that saved me wasn’t anything I’d thought to ask for.This is the first essay in the Saturday series at The Difficulty — longer pieces from a series I’ve been writing on Substack called The Descent, about the choices that shape a creative life. Saturday is for the essays that don’t fit the news-cycle pace of the rest of the week.Today’s is about how hard it is to ask for help — and the deeper, harder thing underneath it: the surrender we resist for years before we know we’re resisting it. Drawing on David Whyte, David Hawkins, and Carl Jung’s “shoes too small” image, with a near-drowning story I haven’t told publicly before.Closing question: What am I holding onto that I already know isn’t working?—CHAPTERS00:00 Saturday Series Intro01:01 The Hard Word — Help03:26 The Near-Drowning Lesson04:52 Two Kinds of Help06:52 Surrender vs Giving Up07:57 Shoes Too Small09:40 Letting Go Changes You10:46 Readiness and Courage12:55 Modern Ways to Give Up14:47 The Question to Ask15:07 Closing and Where to Find More—FREE — THE DIFFICULTY FIELD GUIDEEight difficulties every working writer faces, and what to ask when each one shows up.→ crossroadspublishing.group/assets/pdfs/The_Difficulty_Field_Guide.pdf—WHERE TO FIND MESubstack — new essays Wednesdays, the Working Publisher news digest Fridays→ chadprevost.substack.comThe Difficulty — Monday (the why), Thursday (the how), Saturday (essay readings) — wherever you listen to podcasts→ chadprevost.com/the-difficultyCrossroads Publishing Group — publishing services, IF/THEN Books, the Iris Blackwood mystery series→ crossroadspublishing.group—“The difficulty in life is the choice.” Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 2 of The Difficulty.The hardest thing about indie publishing isn't writing the book. It's giving up the fantasy that the book will market itself.In this one I get honest about the ego defenses we run as creators when it's time to put work into the marketplace — the survivorship bias of the "no marketing" success stories, the isolation that breeds false certainty, the asymmetric gap between making (which feels like magic) and marketing (which feels like math).Some of what comes up:— Howard Finster on his farm. Emily Dickinson and her response to Thomas Higginson. Fernando Pessoa's 200 heteronyms in a Lisbon trunk.— The German musician who poured everything into one album, got profoundly little response, and stopped.— My own Iris Blackwood cover that got 14 thumbs up and 38 thumbs down on NetGalley — and what to do with that.— "We haven't failed. We just haven't found our audience yet."The challenge at the end: pick one marketing lane, commit to it for 30–60 days, and report back.If the show is doing something for you, the easiest way to support it is to share this episode with one person you think it'd land for. Or restack the post. Or both.Episode mentions:— The Difficulty Field Guide (free PDF — eight difficulties every working writer faces): https://crossroadspublishing.group/assets/pdfs/The_Difficulty_Field_Guide.pdf— Iris Blackwood and the Curse of Hemlock Island, just out at IF/THEN Books — extras page (Decision Tree map + reading guide): https://crossroadspublishing.group/if-then-books/hemlock-island/New episodes Mondays (the why) and Thursdays (the how).The difficulty in life is the choice. Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe

The very first episode of The Difficulty. A 50-year-old paperweight on my father’s desk turned out to be a line from a 1900 Irish play, and the seed of this show. What you’re getting on Mondays vs. Thursdays, what’s launching this week at crossroadspublishing.group, the founding-and-selling of C&R Press, the Terminus Magazine “just make it real” lesson, and the $4,000 bestseller campaign I almost said yes to two days ago.00:00 Welcome — we’re not about perfectionism, we’re about idealizing03:00 The motto: the difficulty in life is the choice04:30 Origin of the quote — my father’s rock paperweight, George Moore, 190008:00 What this show is NOT (and is)11:30 The free Difficulty Field Guide12:30 What’s launching this week: the show, the site, IF/THEN Books, Iris #117:00 Crossroads Publishing services — for writers with a body of work20:00 Who I am — PhD, ICF coach, Enneagram, C&R Press 1996-2015, 50+ books24:00 Making it real imperfectly — the Terminus Magazine origin story30:00 Who this show is for33:00 The $4,000 Brody bestseller campaign and $2,000 Cohen Groundbreakers38:00 The in-between is the hard part — the real difficulty isn’t the choice42:00 What’s coming Thursday: how to stop believing your stuff is specialThe Difficulty Field Guide (free PDF — eight difficulties every creative life faces)Iris Blackwood and the Curse of Hemlock Island (launching Tuesday May 5, with freeDecision Tree map and educator’s reading guide)Crossroads Publishing Group — IF/THEN Books, Crossroads Press services, free resources.Subscribe to The Descent (the show’s hub):YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@chadprevostwriterPersonal site: https://chadprevost.comMentioned in this episode:- George Moore, The Bending of the Bough (1900) — the source quote- C&R Press (founded 2006, sold 2015)- Terminus Magazine (Atlanta literary magazine origin story)- Game Time Books — earlier interactive-fiction venture- Dave Chesson / Kindlepreneur — Publisher Rocket- Paul G. Brody / Brody Consulting — bestseller campaign service- Bryan Cohen / Best Page Forward — Groundbreakers community- Robert Frost — “the road less traveled” Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe

Here’s the question this show keeps asking:What does it cost to keep choosing the work?This is The Difficulty — a podcast about the choices that shape a creative life, and the courage it takes to make them.I’m Dr. Chad Prevost — writer, publisher, ICF-certified coach. I’ve spent years inside the questions creative people actually wrestle with. Not the productivity-hack version. The real one.New episodes weekly. Full episodes, transcripts, and Notes from the cutting-room floor.Subscribe wherever you listen.The Difficulty. Start anywhere. Get full access to The Descent at chadprevost.substack.com/subscribe