Writer Shelves » self-help http://writershelves.com Reading, writing, publishing, and my journey to become a NYT Best Seller Fri, 22 Oct 2010 02:03:25 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 The War of Art http://writershelves.com/reviews/the-war-of-art http://writershelves.com/reviews/the-war-of-art#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:53:57 +0000 heidi2524 http://writershelves.com/?p=851 I don’t remember who tweeted about this book, but I’m very glad to have found Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art. The segmented format makes it a quick read, while the insights to the creative process let you know you are not alone in struggling to face down Resistance.

The War of Art is divided into three books:

  • Resistance – Defining the Enemy
  • Combating Resistance – Turning Pro
  • Beyond Resistance – Higher Realm
WritShel_ATCpcollecting happiness

Each book contains topics, usually no more than a page or two. I rarely mark up my books, but I found myself underlining and bracketing off passages about every 7-10 pages.

The most significant passage for me was on page 30:

Resistance also told me I shouldn’t seek to instruct, or put myself forward as a purveyor of wisdom; that this was vain, egotistical, possible even corrupt, and that it would work harm to me in the end. That scared me. It made a lot of sense.

What finally convinced me to go ahead was simply that I was so unhappy not going ahead. I was developing symptoms. As soon as I sat down and began, I was okay.

So in order to overcome my personal Resistance, I created this website.

What will you do when you overcome your Resistance?

Title: The War of Art
Author: Steven Pressfield
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Pages: 192
Genre: non-fiction, self-help
ISBN 978-0446691437

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