The enemy inside our heads will tell us—and I mean all of us, including Shakespeare and Dante and the Dalai Lama—that we are worthless, without talent, too old, too young, too fat, too thin, too smart, too dumb to achieve our dreams.
“Who do you think are,” the voice of Resistance will ask us, “to dream that you can write a book, start a company, achieve a breakthrough in science or technology or politics? You? Every idea you have has been done a thousand times before—and by men and women ten times more deserving than you. Forget it! You’re a bum and a loser and if you dare set your work before the eyes of the world, you’ll only prove yourself the fool and laughingstock you’ve always known you truly are.”
That’s the enemy.
That’s your head and mine.
Trust me, I’ve read and responded to thousands of notes and emails from creative people of all kinds.
The voice in our heads is exactly the same.
It’s not us. It’s Resistance.
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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Bang on. That voice is scary. Calling it out for what it is, is the only way to slay it. Thanks Steven!
Its scary. The pressure exerted. But the full responsibiltiy on our part to crush it.
It wont back down.
Its something like hating us so much that its destiny (resistance’s destiny) is to annihilate man.
Keep it from attaining its …apex. Its significance.
The more we connect with your teaching, your thinking, this nail in our head that keeps banging in it,
the clearer…
That rat has been quite talkative lately. It helps to name him and to know it’s not me. Now to quiet the voice….
Ah, our dreams… my dear Steve, Resistance is so huge that it’s like the walls of Troy, behind which our dreams await until they wither and die.
The walls can’t fall, we need to find the cunning way.
The Trojan Horse AND the Riders. AND the cause.
Ten years at least of pure siege without results, our clothes torn apart, our hair long and sticky, and unwashed.
Let them come.
Well written, Tolis!! I couldn’t agree more. To anyone reading: keep fighting the good fight ⚔️
<3
Perfect message I needed to read today. It’s comforting to know I’m not alone in fighting that big bad “resistance”! Thanks Steven!
Some days are harder than others to compose…”there are only 12 notes and more talented people out there than you, and they’ve strung them together far better than you ever could” is not a daily jibe, but it occurs much more often than I would like it to.
Perfectly written! Thank You, Steven!
Toward that end (slaying the enemy), I used to write while listening to “As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls” by Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays (the title track will take you away, and “September Fifteenth” will bring a tear to your eye). Now, I alternate between Noise and Calm to minimize distraction (your mileage may vary).
Best of luck to each of us!
Harshest voice I know: my own.
Yep. Resistance is part of the flow. Yin yang. The balance in the reality of our lives.
Duality DOES exist…we just need to embrace it !!!! or Accept it…best to you..Mike
👏👏 Obrigado, obrigado, obrigado! Steve, você vai no ponto, e nos ajuda muito, e sempre. Esse é o post com a mensagem essencial. Entre tantas mais que você refletiu e compartilha para a nossa reflexão.
Obrigado
Ah yes. Always appreciate your reminders. Thanks Steve.
And what if this resistance, which is a natural power inside of us that’s always looking to show up and “steer the bus” can be harnessed? What if we can turn it into a valued gear in our being? Fighting it seems futile.
The Resistance is real. It showed up in my inbox last night.
👏 That voice of resistance is so loud sometimes. But, I choose not to listen. Instead I will keep affirming and taking action on the vision I have before me. I will choose not to quit, but to keep going.:)
Dude!! Nailed it. That might be my favorite thing you’ve ever written!
Maggie’s comment said it for me. My husband has commented lately on my fear that has leached out to other things besides writing/creativity. I had no reassurance for him that I ‘m ‘FINE”. I’m not….
I wish I was internally deaf sometimes.
People are making sculptures out of cardboard. If you troll through IG, there they are. They are creating everything from rino heads to put on walls, to little free standing houses. It’s really cute.
I’ve been feeling nothing in regards to what I must create, to fix my spirit, since the loss of my most precious and dear husband. Yet, my high school sweetheart is here in spirit, if I allow. If I allow myself to think forward. If I allow myself to escape into the genius of creativity.
People are making things out of cardboard. They can’t help themselves. Recycled, corrugated paper, molded into something else, waiting to come out.
The holidays are difficult. I don’t want to do anything. Resistance can become my only friend, if I let it.
So, I am gathering cardboard. I bought a hot glue gun and am going to join the brigade. While I’m a sculptor in clay, an oil painter of strong women, maybe I’ll just make a little house out of Amazon boxes.
The world of creativity marches on, with or without us. I can feel that energy calling me. Scolding me. I can feel my husband telling me, “You’re an artist.” And so, I must, absolutely must, create! No matter what I make, that part of me is as significant as I allow it to be. It is my reason.
Silvio Dante was one of my favorite Sopranos.
The Dalai Lama has surely spent some time with the line, “To be or not to be.”
I’m seeing that “Hamnet” (with Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal) is getting really good reviews. I’ve got it on my “to watch” list. No, seriously. It’s not Resistance. I’ll be watching as research. Story structure, scene setting, building tension, creating characters who you feel something for. That’s what I say whenever I sit in front of a screen watching something, when I could be doing something else.
I want to see Hamnet, too! Something is indeed rotten in the state of Denmark & elsewhere: Resistance! Gov SP’s message came to me today just when I needed it⚔️
En garde, Kate!!
I first saw Jessie Buckley when she played “Nurse Oraetta Mayflower” on Season 4 of “Fargo.” She’s good. Hope you’re well, chanteuse!
Thank you Steven. Just over two years ago I read “Turning Pro” and a few days later made the choice to get sober. Can’t get deep into my work any other way. It’s hard work every single day and absolutely worth the grind. Keep sharpening. Thank you for the wisdom.
Thank you, Steven. i wrote a book only because i read passages from The War of Art every day.
That voice is created by the things said to us in the past. People love externalizing their own insecurities and dragging others down. I would never speak to another human being that way, and I’m learning to not speak to myself that way.
Also, there is a required amount of delusion that comes with being human. Some have much more than others, but all of us have to create meaning with that delusion. I’m just delusional enough to believe that I can write something that will connect with enough people so that I can make a living from it.
Steven, I first want to say how I appreciate your work–writing in a way that makes me feel like we know one another. Then, what you describe here is what I call Ego, which finds any way it can to protect us. Play it safe. Be inferior, superior, victim, victor. I think we come equipped with two operating systems: Ego and Heart. We need both as humans (Ego helps us survive on a physical level, especially as infants), but we came here to experience, filter, process, live life via Heart. I just mention this briefly because your article here relates directly to my belief–helps make connections. Thank you!
Only last night I went to sleep visualizing the ideal day I’m supposedly living into. That’s when I realized I’d already watered the dream down, not thinking it’s possible.
Maureen 0, Resistance 1.
Then I thought, “What if I’m wrong? What’s the downside to going for it anyway?”
Take that, Resistance.
It’s constant, as Steve says, this battle to believe the Universe is friendly and to act accordingly. I need more than just Writing Wednesdays to stay tuned to the right frequency, and the notes I get every weekday help. You might enjoy them, too. Here’s a sample…
https://www.tut.com/notes/id/3072/
Short and sweet.
I LOVE THIS!
Great reminder Steve!
Thanks.
Just knowing everybody goes through this is helpful.
Today is the day I’m evicting Resistance from my headspace.
Thank you Mr. Pressfield for your encouragement to persevere. Not everyone will appreciate the art I create but they definitely won’t if I don’t make it known.
🦋 T.
A reassuring reminder. Just when we begin to believe its nudges, reminders like this one come. Thank you