Resistance Doesn’t Go Away on the Artist’s Journey
The Fifth Rule of the Artist’s Journey is:
It never gets easier.
We may recognize Resistance now (which is vastly different from before, when we were blind to its existence and it held us, helpless, in its thrall.) We may understand the enemy now, and we may know how to fight it.
But the dragon never goes away.
We have to slay it anew, every morning.
Steve shows you the predictable Resistance points that every writer hits in a work-in-progress and then shows you how to deal with each one of these sticking points. This book shows you how to keep going with your work.
A short book about the writing of a first novel: for Steve, The Legend of Bagger Vance. Having failed with three earlier attempts at novels, here's how Steve finally succeeded.
NOBODY WANTS TO READ YOUR SH*T
Steve shares his "lessons learned" from the trenches of the five different writing careers—advertising, screenwriting, fiction, nonfiction, and self-help. This is tradecraft. An MFA in Writing in 197 pages.
Amateurs have amateur habits. Pros have pro habits. When we turn pro, we give up the comfortable life but we find our power. Steve answers the question, "How do we overcome Resistance?"
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Yes. My mistake is that I expect tomorrow to be easier. And, of course, it changes masks every day. The most unexpected masks.
Bow and arrow, friend.
Stephen King has a lot of fun writing every day. He probably put the dragons in his books. 🙂
I think You’re on to something! Dragons just wanna have fun too…Like when they sit on your chest when you’re trying to get out of bed, the dragon is just teasing you to play? Thing is, regarding the Dragon as the bad guy, I collect dragons; Rosewood, glass, bone, plastic, they’re all around my writing room on shelves, in nooks and crannies. PUT THE DRAGON IN THE STORY1 Then your Dragon will just curl up and enjoy a nice nap.
Thank you very much dear Steve.
You have experienced that all your life. So you are one of those warriors full of scars. Yes there may be other warriors who have no scars because fighting is in their genes. But the scars give an experience and gifts of life that no no-scars-man can have, although of course they can have other gifts.
It is so difficult for me the 9:00-13:00 working window. Hell breaks loose, a philosophical hell too. So I try the other way around: I face those hells and try to find possible ways to turn them to book. Seems like it takes forever, but maybe not. Maybe not.
I wonder, can we destroy Resistance altogether? I feel there is a possibility. Which will demand of course many details and paths alltogether working on it, and that stroke of luck.
There must be a way. I feel it.
But for now it’s not here.
Dear Tolis,
Like Odysseus, we must never lose hope and continue having faith in our journey home! Home is where our true selves live. That little fire inside is your guide. The Gods are on your side my friend!! We battle obstacles and slay the dragons because it makes our writing more rich in experience. I hope this for you today!
I feel it every morning, every morning! Until I get moving and start my morning ritual, its fighting me every step of the way!
Every morning I have to remind myself that this is the way, my heroes journey, I chose to accept the journey and there is no going back!
The challenge is to embrace and accept the fact that resistance is a constant obstacle to overcome. Expect it. Rise up and do not succumb to it!
I’m reminded of this quote, “The world isn’t interested in the storms you encountered, but whether or not you brought in the ship.”
Resistance is our private struggle. Only in defeating the dragon will we prove ourselves to ourselves.
Indeed we do. Some days I merely confront the dragon. Slaying doesn’t always happen
My dragon breathes fire down my neck while I sit at the piano–“why even bother when there are child prodigies that played better than you at age 3?”. Kindly f*ck off today, dragon! Please and thank you 🙂
Steve, thank you sooo much for all the work you have done. You saved many of us with your writing of War of Art, etc. My pastor first introduced me to your writing through Gates of Fire. From the moment I picked up the book, I was locked in with the Spartans. I felt every ounce of blood, sweat and tears you wrote for them. When I was finished, I was exhausted but stood taller with a quiet dignity, and was strengthened by their virtue-love. Thank you!! Thank you also for telling us about your rituals prior to sitting down to write (I love the cannon fire!). That has inspired me to do the same. I am just getting started but mine will be putting on my Dad’s steel mill hard hat that has a sticker on it “Hot Works!” and I just acquired a sweet picture of three little children huddled together in rapt attention reading a book and light is shining from the book onto their little faces! My ritual will be to look at their picture, and say to them, “For you!” and then I will fire up the computer! That is the plan thanks to your inspiration. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the lessons!!
“We have to slay the dragon anew, every morning.”
That is such a powerful call-to-arms. The implication is that the dragon never tires, is *always* looking for weaknesses and lapses of vigilance against Resistance. And being possessed of savage cunning, the dragon won’t attack when we are at our strongest and most motivated. Instead it will remain coiled in its lair, it’s ruby-red eyes following our every move, and chose its own moment to strike.
Thanks as always, Mr. Pressfield
Since reading the War of Art this issue has surfaced for me over and over again… But at least now I recognize it and push through. I have a tendency to write what I believe and in many ways, writing is an exercise for me to explain to myself what that actually is. The Resistance is mainly me… or perhaps the divine within??… Asking me what right I have to express it. Your words have influenced me. Thank you.
You might wonder, “Hmmm… how might I make friends with a dragon ?” You might ask him/her/them, “how are you trying to protect me ? What do you most want ? What’s most important to you ? what are you afraid of ? what are you most proud of ?”
Personally, I bought a rubber godzilla, renamed it Lizondria. She sits on my desk – right next to my copy of “The War of Art.” She likes kisses. She wants to protect me from social media hits. She wants me to be thoughtful, aware of what I’m creating. She’s most proud of her scary presence. She’s like a big dog – scary to some, but. a. gentle giant to. those who know her.
Thanks so much for all YOU inspire and create !
As many have alluded to above, overcoming resistance at one particular juncture does not make you immune later on – as I am finding right now.
It’s a “wall” faced by many – and it doesn’t just “go away” after you’ve beaten it once or twice. Knowing others face it (and HAVE faced it) is a great help and motivator, to say the very least!
My first problem as an author: What can I still express with words today (i.e. in the age of multimedia entertainment worlds) and who wants to read these days? The well-known phrases in this regard are: “A picture is worth a thousand words!”, “I am speechless” or “I am at a loss for words!”. I am referring, among other things, to the language theories of Ludwig Wittgenstein (quote: “If you cannot write about something, you should keep quiet!”) and the language crisis of modern writers, poets and philosophers such as Stefan George, Rainer Maria Rilke, Franz Kafka, Friedrich Nietzsche or Hugo von Hofmannsthal, who at the beginning of the 20th century could no longer overcome the limits of linguistic expression. This led, among other things, to some authors having to give up their profession because they felt that continuing to write (under these suboptimal conditions) was completely pointless.
I want to read.
Resistance is a stealthy gatekeeper. Not only does it bar our entrance into the miracle of the Human mind and it’s infinite creativity but it keeps moving the gate across that vast landscape we seek to enter. Once the artist enters the realm of creativity the journey gets much easier for the creative juices fuel the fires of creation, however, the slightest bump of our earthly animal distractions can immediately eject us from this promised land we seek within our mind. Today’s world is more distracting than ever from this natural process of creation. Not only does the Human mind require it for Humanity to progress and expand but this is one of the fundamental natural laws of the universe. The arch of Human creativity has created the very comforts, conveniences and, thus, distractions which now plague the artist or engineer, scientist, or musician etc. from moving Humanity forward. Countering resistance requires enough discomfort to change and most people are too comfortable . . . this is a cycle. The institutional ‘solutions’ are no longer working…..burdened by bureaucracy, group think, and the opportunity of easy money…however, they remain in place, intransient. The way forward can only be found outside those institutional walls and the distractions they create. This will require a commitment from the artist to their work like never before to overcome the comfort, distraction and didactic thinking which fuels Resistance to enter the realm of creation. As I close this comment a potential solution comes to mind….we must enter the realm of a child, oblivious to the realities of the modern manmade construct, ready to slay fictitious dragons, go through the gate as if it was not there make mistakes, understand for a moment whatever done does not work and go on to the next line without the resistance of shame entering into the equation, thus free
My second problem as an author: I have been wondering for decades whether my creative work as an author of fictional stories (in which, due to dramaturgical requirements, you also have to get emotionally involved in a dramatic situation) triggers or exacerbates certain fears, childhood traumas and their psychosomatic complaints because I deal with these things too much and too often with “my XXL mind cinema”? This is precisely “a neuralgic point” for me, because I don’t know whether this activity and the associated “emotional permeability and mental thin-skinnedness” (which I need to be creative) does me more harm than good and whether it wouldn’t be better for me if I “put my imagination in its place” or stopped this activity completely? While many people “write their problems out of their soul” (keyword: writing therapy), some studies that have looked at the connection between mental illness and creativity would suggest that my creativity is limited, and they give me the impression that one can only be particularly creative in “exceptional mental situations”. And how do my fears fit with the real life experiences of various other artists (especially writers who suffered from mental disorders such as Franz Kafka, Ernest Hemingway, Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen Fry, Charles Bukowski or Hermann Hesse and many other artists) and their work in the proverbial border area “between genius and madness”?
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_with_bipolar_disorder
I understand what you’re saying, Christian. But I’ve learned (the hard way) my brain is going to tell me stories whether I write them down or not. If I put my hands on a keyboard, my brain puts those stories on paper that one day might become fiction books. If I don’t, it still tells me stories — incredibly dark ones — that I eventually start to believe, because I’m a good storyteller. Better to just keep writing, however pointless it may feel.
Damn right, Sam. Keep writing, keep creating. You just picked another fan!
is this a danasuar because i think https://flavorfresco.com/
My goodness What ever happened to brevity . Less is more people
My dragon is the heavy fog that presses upon my fuzzy blankets, making extra warm in the early mornings when I could be writing.
Hegel observed that contradictions were the cause of change good and evil. Amateurs don’t like contradictions. But Pros are comfortable in the midst of contradictions like Resistance. They know without Resistance their dreams would never come true!
Ever watch celebrities at the peak of their careers self-destruct by doing something outrageously illegal or immoral?
That happens when the artist presumes Resistance has quit and they can finally cruise!