The poster boy for freezing before we begin is Hamlet, the Melancholy Dane.
If you remember Hamlet’s problem, it was that he knew what he had to do—avenge the murder of his father, the king—but he kept rationalizing and making excuses for why he couldn’t make the fatal move.
Not quite yet, anyway.
No matter how many provocations to action confronted Hamlet, the prince always found a reason to stall and “think” and “reconsider.” It wasn’t that he didn’t understand this failure. Remember his “To be or not to be” soliloquy? “
Thus the native hue of resolution
is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought
And enterprises of great pith and moment
with this regard their currents turn awry
and lose the name of action.
Resistance strikes us first BEFORE we begin.
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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Ah yes… I had always identified with Hamlet (too much). Through this lens of The Resistance, it makes even more sense. The next time I find myself stuck in rumination, considering and reconsidering, I will envision my younger self watching Hamlet, thinking “What is wrong with you?! Just kill him already!!”
As Churchill used to say, “Action this day.” And Napoleon, Grant, Patton…….[Trump?]
Even before we start. Very good to be reminded of this! Thanks Steven!
I use Churchill’s phrase in my planning.
And in the middle and near the finish line.
Comfortable with failure, knowing it as a means to learn and grow, I ask this question in search of a sincere answer, “Why do we fear success?”
Gay Hendricks would guess we have an Upper Limit problem…
https://www.amazon.com/Big-Leap-Conquer-Hidden-Level/dp/0061735361
I’m getting a “Your comment is awaiting moderation” when I try to link to this book, Jackie. Apologies if the comment has already shown up, but in case not…
Gay Hendricks, in The Big Leap, suggests this is an Upper Limit problem; some if not most (if not all) of us have a success setpoint, the same way we do for happiness or even weight. Much easier to overcome if you realize what’s going on.
Hope that helps!
Thanks Maureen,
I’ll check it out. Much appreciated.
“I don’t know who needs to hear this today…but if you are struggling with motivation, just remember broke crackheads still find a way to get high. Don’t get out husseled by a crackhead”
Granny Bibbins
Excellent!
I like that! . . .
With all the Cheerleading from the FireHorse Lunar New Year, Fiery drive and success seemed out there for the picking yesterday. So this is the morning after the Hopeful Drunk? I need to post one of those great pictures of the FireHorse over my desk to scare away the deamons for the coming year…
Save be, tis a grave conclusion to which the young prince of Denmark implies. Yet, I shant tarry on neither verity nor veracity, for the spirit of thine message abides.
jk ,,, well, kinda 🙂
How do you resist the resistance? Accept it and go through it. Breathe into it. Any thoughts?
Is Hamlet an anti-hero? I mean he fails. Does that work today? Does it only work when you could write soliloquies? I can really only think of one modern equivalent, Chinatown. But Jake is more active, he just loses.
Resistance can also serve as a convenient “catch all” excuse for non-action. “Oh, what’s the point? My efforts will be futile, so why bother?” It can also trigger the inevitable negative self-talk that comes from imposter syndrome.
Dangerous words.
I can quit any time I want. I’ve done it a thousand times.
Yes, Resistance strikes before we begin. And I am finding that every time I take a day off, I have to begin again, which means Resistance can strike again… before I begin again.
Our Hero: 🤔 “Should I READ the latest edition of Steven Pressfield’s ‘Writing Wednesdays,’ or…?”
Everyone Else: 🤣🤣🤣
😉(Just kidding!)
Thank you so much dear Steve. And I understand that force in me too, the “think” and “reconsider” state. So I can put a few words on it.
As I perceive it now, there is an obstacle inside us between creating the creation and thinking & feeling about it or about other things in general.
That obstacle as I perceive it lately is an energy body. Ah, you said well before me: an energy field. In my experience now, it is like a maze of energy not on the blank page but inside the chest that allways calls to action, but strangely the action it calls forth is not “creating the creation”.
Terribly, this energy in my chest calls forth *other energetic fields inside us that are almost primitive and they have to do with anchors like desire or fear or stress*. Note that I perceive these energies now, I can tell. How? Because between them I can also feel the precious energy that calls forth the “creating the creation” state in me. But it is squeezed between the other energies, which are large and fat, while that precious energy is like a stick and it can’t ever come forth.
I may be wrong, but struggling to deflate those other fat asses is my way now to reach the day when the precious energy comes forth. Like trying to deflate fat ghosts like that which was devouring everything and everyone in the baths in Spirited Away. Notice there how thin and simple is Chihiro – and she can deflate it with one touch! I can’t say it better than that for now.
So I’m trying to get thin and simple as Chihiro but not simple in a simplistc way-simple in a way of the soul this time (and there are surely many ways of the soul). I can’t call forth the “create the creation” yet but I can tell that I’m deflating bad asses.
I know it’s not the path. But it’s better than nothing. And I must be very cautious because I’m playing cards with Resistance.
The whole world talks about anxiety all the time now. Anxiety is a call to action. Act. Not think. Not consider. Not research. Not scroll. We were built to act with limited information. Not drown in all the world’s information 24/7.
Thought sneaks in before we realize it.
Wow, this might be the first ever Shakespeare quote I actually understand. You come up with an idea, but you overthink it, and lose momentum, and ultimately the idea is not activated.
Just today I was reading a Matt Helm spy story where at the end he has to use a night sniper rifle. I think the writer understood resistance, as Helm angrily tells himself not to tinker with the electronic night scope, and angrily reminds himself not to start overthinking downhill trajectories. After a certain time, he knows, one must relax and make the shot, not research the shot.