Resistance Strikes at the End of Act One
We’ve initiated our startup, our non-profit, our novel. A favorable wind of enthusiasm has borne us safely through the first stages. If we’re talking about a stage play, we’ve reached the end of Act One. Suddenly …
Panic strikes.
The poster child for this moment is Christopher Columbus. He has sailed from Spain, certain that the earth is round and his westward course will carry him eventually to the East Indies.
But wait! Suddenly he’s out of sight of land. Nothing but blue water behind … naught but blue water ahead.
Suddenly Chris is doubting every principle he banked upon. What if the Earth really is flat? What if our ships plummet over the edge? What if we sail west forever and never reach anything?
See the common denominator in these first two Predictable Resistance Points? Both involve vision—bold, necessary vision—and both confront (imaginary) adversity.
Both call upon the individual, to remain true to, and act by, his own lights.
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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Thanks, Steve. I needed this today. I’m in the middle of the ocean. No land in sight.
Stop looking at the horizon and look directly in front if your feet. Take the next step.
Yup thanks John …I needed this today too!
Thanks John for redirection of perspective.
Thanks I too needed this today Steve .. I always look forward to your emails. Definitely out in the middle of no where with a good idea .. now I gotta hold the course … copy that
WHAT IF?!!!!!!🥹 What a menu to choose from
WHAT IF ??!!! What a menu to choose from! I just finished answering an email from a friend employed in a very dangerous assignment. I brought up your books about the Spartans. Seemed to balance things for me, at least.
What unbelievable timing! The comforting sight of familiar land that was Act 1 of my screenplay just disappeared under my wake a few days ago. Today I was staring out into the endless blue yonder, trying to outline the beats of Act 2 and beyond, when this message arrived with just the reminder I needed:
I would never give up these instances of losing my way. Every time we find our way back, we find a little more of our true selves.
Point of no return and there is no turning back. Yikes!
One thing I’ve added to my quiver, at Steven’s suggestion: Getting up promptly in the morning, instead of lying in bed, thinking, pondering, summoning the will – sometimes for up to a cozy hour or more. If I eliminate that, say, just 4 days week, that translates in a year to an equivalent amount of writing time of 6 hours/day, 6 days/week for a month and a half!! I could get a lot of writing done in that sort of block – and some folks pay a lot for a writing retreat of that duration. I now have a free, annual ‘writing retreat’ just by getting out of bed promptly on my work days. It doesn’t entail waking up early (and shorting my sleep), just getting up when I do wake up.
You’ve been saying this since I’ve started reading Writing Wednesdays, Steve, but it just now got through. Something like, “Resistance is reassurance this work is important to your soul.”
Instead of fighting it, I take it as a good sign. What a powerful reframe! Thank you for hammering on many of the same themes over and over, to allow people like me to catch up 🙂
Thank you for the great simile dear Steve.
Ah ya, he sees not land before, nor land ahead.
The system that protects us from danger turns on. It sees all the possible dangers it can perceive, this very moment. One of which is the fear that there is NOTHING where we are headed. And guess what, this moment INDEED there is nothing there, because there will be something ONLY when-and-if we arrive. We are the builders and the building matter of the destination in this paradoxical way.
And it sucks when you had a great vision and the next day you see NOTHING in its place. Ask me, I know. My energy sees nothing, like a thin stick again between those fatty ass energies. But my energy sees other things, elsewhere! It hets inspired by them, whether they be good or neutral. Damn it, we don’t want to bridle our own energy.
If I was at the ship, I would now put matrix-like 3d-images of a variety of attractive alive forms for my energy, so that I could still hold on heading that direction with inspiration. Hmm.
My love to you, Diana, our friends here.
Thinking of William’s comment, today I frittered. Yuck. But then again, I have some discreet writing projects that I know I will do before this day is done.
What I want to say is that renowned British artist David Hockney painted a big sentence on his bedroom dresser: (from memory) Get up and get to work.