Battle On!

Resistance is anything that keeps us from doing art. And Resistance is evil.

I learned this from Steven Pressfield in his book, The War of Art. I've written about his book before. Such a powerful tool for those of us who are driven to create art but don't necessarily have the heart of a lion or the skin of a hippo.

I have known rejection. I felt it in my gut, and without saying the words, vowed to avoid that feeling again.

It hurt.

I have also come face to face with Resistance, even when I was experiencing "success." There is something about beauty and truth that Resistance can't tolerate.

Most recently, Resistance has gotten brazen. He shouts rather than whispers in my ear that what I'm creating is icky poo-poo. This makes going to critique group similar to standing in line to be flayed. Ouch!

The key, according to Pressfield and experienced by moi, is to separate myself from my work.

I am me, the creator of stories. My stories are something I make, not me, not flesh and bone, certainly not my children. And my work always benefits from skilled eyes evaluating and guiding. This is why authors gush about the help they've had along the way in their acknowledgements.

We don't write in a vacuum, people.

Creating stories to send out into the world may be the most courageous thing we ever do, and we must do the telling with our whole hearts and souls.

Or who will care?

Battle on!

(I recommend Mr. Pressfield's book as a daily devotional for writers, especially if you need a swift kick in the pants now and again. The "chapters" are very short, sometimes not even a page long. BTW, I don't get a cut.)

How good are you at separating yourself from your work? Is critiquing something you welcome or something you dread? Is having someone point out a flaw in logic in your work a source of celebration or a crushing defeat? In what form does Resistance come to you?

Buggy Pleasures or Draw a Sword?

CONTEST REMINDER: We think pretty highly of the novel around here, and from your devotion to reading and developing craft, it's clear you do too. We're dedicating this year to answering the question: Why does the novel matter? Answer that question with panache and you just might win a Kindle Touch. Read rules here.

I did not forget. Honest! I've been waiting for the right moment to continue our book talk of Anne Lamott's contemporary classic, Bird by Bird. And wouldn't you know it, Anne comes along with a chapter on writers block? While I don't have an official diagnosis, I suspect I may be experiencing the dreaded WB. This description from Lamott's book comes pretty close to how I've been feeling lately:

A blissfully productive manic stage may come to a screeching halt, and all of a sudden you realize you're Wile E. Coyote and you've run off the cliff and are a second away from having to look down. Or else you haven't been able to write anything at all for a while. The fear that you'll never write again is going to hit you when you feel not only lost and unable to find a few little bread crumbs that would identify the path you were on but also when you're at your lowest ebb of energy and faith.--Lamott

So I read the rest of the chapter, looking for something to transform me back into the roadrunner. Beep! Beep!

Lamott's advice rings true enough: Write one page of ANYTHING per day. Do grocery lists count? Make a commitment to the characters rather than the novel. I like my characters. No problem. And "just take in the buggy pleasures" of everyday life to refill what must be running on empty. Really? How many legs do these bugs have?

Overall, however, I did not feel better or energized after reading this chapter. I. Want. To. Write. So I reached for another book on my shelf, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. This guy takes no prisoners in the battle of Resistence, that inevitable battle when creating art. He's kicked me in the bum before. I think I even wrote about it here.

There's a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don't, and the secret is this: It's not the writing part that's hard. (Patti here: Well, it's a little hard, wouldn't you say?) What's hard is sitting down to write. (Yes!)--Pressfield

What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.

Resistance can best be defined by what it keeps us from doing, like starting and finishing anything worthwhile--diets, exercise, and writing among those listed. And Pressfield characterizes Resistance with ominous adjectives: invisible, internal, insidious, implacable, impersonal, and infallible. All true.

If you believe in God (and I do) you must declare Resistance evil, for it prevents us from achieving the life God intended when He endowed each of us with our own unique genius. --Pressfield

This puts writers block in a new light, doesn't it? Evil? A little like burying our Master's talents? Hmm.

I've allowed Resistance to put my latest WIP on hold for a few months. I have my excuses, thank you very much. And it's not like I haven't been bubbling and stewing and mulling, even had a few false starts. But I do find myself wearing that "Writer" tee shirt Katy talked about. Truth is, I've been miserable not writing.

If I'm going to be honest here, time and/or exhaustion isn't my problem. Fear of failure is. Like Lamott, my last manuscript didn't evoke the love of editors or agents or anyone. I don't even think my mother liked it. Pressfield addresses that problem, and I'm going to copy the whole chapter for you. Here goes:

Henry Fonda was still throwing up before each stage performance, even when he was seventy-five. In other words, fear doesn't go away. The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day. --Pressfield

The battle goes on. Either that fact makes you reach for your sword or sends you to the bomb shelter. I'm off to war!

Whether Lamott's approach or Pressfield's makes more sense to you may be a matter of personality. Know this about me, I cannot wait to mount up and follow the Lord back to earth at the Second Coming. Yep, there's a warrior behind this mild-manner facade. It's time to wake her up. Writing novels is too important. I offer another view of how the world should look. I offer hope! I entertain! I like to think that I add a respite of beauty, too. So do you.

How do you wake up the warrior within? How do you write when everything is saying no? Is Resistance evil or just maddening?

Resistance is Futile!

Win a set of my trilogy, The Garden Gate series, by making a comment today and having your name entered into a drawing. I'll notify the winner after 5 PT. By the way, thanks for coming along today.

The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.
~ Steven Pressfield from The War of Art

If you write copy for election advertisements, you don't have to read this. Resistance doesn't know your name. But if you have chosen the artist's life, no matter the medium, and you're bleeding from battle, let's talk.

Pressfield articulates the struggle precisely in his tidy tome, The War of Art. Resistance, he says, is "a force of nature. It acts objectively." So when you answer the call to create (or anything else you can't finish in a nanosecond), you will come across a pernicious energy that seeks to kill the artist within.

Resistance comes in many forms. Doubtless, your nemesis is on this list: procrastination, fear, spouse, relatives far and near (including children), jobs and bosses, bad days, good days, feeding the poor, baking PTA cupcakes, giving blood, TROUBLE, a headache, automobiles that don't work and those that do, promises made in haste, the clock, a beautiful sunset, a moonless night, and people who feel guilty because they've given into resistance while you sat at your computer typing the Great American and/or Canadian Novel.

Whatever prevents you from creating is by definition resistance.

Wait! Don't comment yet. I'm not saying that spouses and children et al are inherently bad. NO!!! They are good and worthy of your love and nurture. That's what's so sneaky about resistance. It can be good things that keep you from creating.

We understand one another, don't we?

We don't slay the tools of resistance, we manage them. But that discussion is for another day.

I've written six novels. I know what it is to be a warrior artist, but I have a new-to-me source of resistance.

For background: The door to publishing opened readily for me. I held out my indulged manuscript, and a publisher swept it up, and then four more. I'm too embarrassed to share the self-important thoughts that filled my fat head in those first months.

Fast forward to several months ago: I ate my self-important thoughts. My book sales didn't warrant more risk, so I'm publisher-free. With a lance in my gut I battled resistance to finish my work in progress, but now what?

What to do? What to do?

My dragons have mushroomed in size. And my sword is a toothpick!

What to do?

After prayer and counsel from my husband, I spent the weekend filling out applications, polishing an odd resume, and cursing the invention of cover letters. I need to find a job. A real job. During a recession. Help!

The notion of having a job and writing at the same time isn't the greatest source of resistance I'm facing (not yet). No, it's worse than that. There's the very real possibility that my poor sales performance will dampen my writing career, meaning publishers may shy away from this poor-performing author. And so, my stories may not reach an audience.

I'm trying very, very hard to sharpen my sword on what Pressfield says, "...the artist cannot look to others to validate his efforts or his calling...He must do his work for its own sake...Do it as an offering to God."

My sword is still nicked and dulled, but this is where I want to be again, writing for the pure joy of creating, whether I have an audience or not.

Can you relate? Are you steeped in the battle to create? Is it possible to find joy in writing without an audience? What causes resistance for you? How do you battle on? Let's talk!