by Joel D. Canfield, @JoelDCanfield
To begin, tell me a little bit about yourself. How many of these have you experienced in your writing life during the past two years? I’ll include checkboxes so you can keep track.
Never finding the time to write
Making the time but not writing
Dreaming of writing but never getting started
Starting but never finishing
Starting but never finishing that one particular piece
Thinking you can do it without help
Thinking you’re beyond help
A love/hate relationship with your writing
Focusing on unhelpful negative feedback and ignoring positive feedback
Focusing on positive feedback and ignoring helpful negative feedback
Wanting to write deep but writing shallow
Writing for others instead of yourself
Writing for money but not treating it like a business
Reading about writing instead of writing
Seeking out feedback before you’re ready
Seeking out the wrong level of feedback
Ongoing health challenges like
Unexplained fatigue (physical or mental)
Mysterious illness (a neverending or recurring cold or flu)
Injuries (constant little accidents)
Addiction of any kind (substance, activities, self-destructive habits)
How many did you check? (Put the number right here)
Is it more than zero? I’ll bet it is.
If so, you’re facing Resistance.
I’ve written nearly 20 books and 200 songs in the past 11 years. I checked 17 boxes. SEVENTEEN.
I’m facing Resistance.
You’re facing Resistance.
Resistance? What’s That?
According to bestselling author Steven Pressfield in his groundbreaking work The War of Art Resistance is the mental and emotional pushback we feel when we dare greatly by being creative. It is our unconscious mind protecting us from what it thinks is the danger of emotional vulnerability. It shows up in all the ways in that checklist above, and more.
Resistance is a bully. It will stand in your way and stop your writing. It will knock you down and hurt you, emotionally, even physically.
Resistance strikes nonfiction and fiction authors alike. (Memoirists, are you listening?) Writing a nonfiction book is still a creative endeavor and will expose you to the same fears.
It will stop you from writing using the tools you checked off in that list above.
It’s Not Just You & I
Who was this loser?
Stephen King. Stephen 350 million books sold King.
This is a quote from his On Writing which, although not precisely instructional, is the most inspiring book I’ve read when it comes to staying the course as a writer.
This is the quote that gave me my writing life back. (I’ll tell you that story someday if you like.)
Our inborn desire to have our work respected can lead to problems if we put what others believe about our “God-given talent” ahead of what we choose to write. It’s one of many ways Resistance twists natural feelings into quicksand.
What’s a Writer to Do?
You cannot defeat Resistance once and be done with it. It’s part of our mental and emotional makeup. What you can do is make it irrelevant. Note that I don’t say “ignore it” because you can’t ignore a bully. But if you defuse them, do things to take away their power, they are no longer a threat. Like the bully at school (or, frankly, in the office) they still show up every day. But we don’t have to keep giving them our lunch money.
Being a writer is hard. You don’t have to do this alone.
Too many writers face the emotional struggle to write without proper support. After years of writing about it, I’ve created a forum to help writers and artists deal with writer’s Resistance.
It’s not going to be a collective moan-fest or chat-fest. It’s a guided learning environment, a community of writers making a safe place for some “you’re not alone” emotional support. It will also cover practical and actionable tools and processes to get you writing and keep you writing.
Membership is $5 per month or only $25 for the whole year. Questions? Comments? Shout ’em out below and I’ll answer every one.
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Thanks for much for the opportunity to share, Elizabeth.
Thanks so much for posting today, Joel. An important topic for writers.
I only checked two at the moment, but that’s enough to stop me.
Great you have a community for writers where they can fight resistance. That’s one thing the IWSG does as well. We need to know we’re not alone.
That’s why I ask whether a writer checks any boxes at all: even one can stop us in our tracks.
It’s so interesting to think of resistance in this way. And, yes, writing does make a person emotionally vulnerable. That’s one of the things that makes it difficult. The trick is, as you say, to keep those barriers at bay, so to speak. Thanks, both.
Indeed. I would even venture to say that emotional vulnerability is the biggest thing that makes writing difficult.
Hi Elizabeth and Joel – excellent post … which I’m sure everyone will relate to … ticking all 17 + more, or just one or two – which don’t allow one to get beyond those few resistance stoppers … it’s keeping on and knowing we can get through … pushing on – having done that yesterday … I’d better re-calibrate today, which I have … cheers Hilary
I like the term recalibrate.
Joel,
You’ve come up with an impressive list of sources of resistance.
Regarding “starting but never finishing”:
I think resistance is one culprit behind the mid-draft rewrite bug, i.e. when you’re tempted to change your entire story right in the middle of writing it.
When your story is just fine the way it is, changing it is a bad idea. Your inner critic is actually trying to derail your progress and prevent you from finishing through the (false) promise of improvement.
On the other hand…maybe you have discovered a better way to tell your story—in which case, making the switch is a good thing.
How to know which is it?
I recommend outlining your story both ways, and then comparing the outlines to see which one is better…but I know that method doesn’t work for everyone.
PS: I’d like to know the story behind the King quote that gave you your writing life back.
A locally well known writing coach read the first draft of my 5th mystery. Though they praised my writing, they ended with “This story is beneath you.”
That shut me down artistically for over 2 years. I tried everything, including giving up, and I stayed stuck.
Reading On Writing for the eleventh time, I came across that quote. Stopped me cold. I thought about it for a week, and realized that if King feels that way and keeps writing, so could I.
And I finished the book. Launched to my email list last week, going public with it on July 1st. Already has two 5-star reviews at Amazon.
I’m eager to write my next book.
Your comeback is a great story in and of itself. Thank you for sharing it.
Good luck with your current launch–and your future book!