The War of Art is a phenomenal book by Steven Pressfield. Although it’s fairly short, Pressfield manages to pack in a lot of fantastic food for thought about the creative process. He draws on his own experiences with writing books and screenplays and passes along what has helped him get through the tough times.
Pressfield focuses a lot on resistance, which is anything that prevents you from working on your creative projects. As he described the various ways in which resistance can manifest, I could see many of them at work in my own life. I’ve found it extremely difficult as of late to sit down and focus on several of the things I love to do. Because I’ve made it a habit to do this every day, I have the discipline to get it done even when I don’t feel like doing it. That is what Pressfield advocates, and it’s what got him through some difficult times in which nobody was interested in anything he wrote. Writing every day and not being deterred by rejection eventually got some of his works published and, in some cases, made into movies.
The War of Art also talks a lot about inspiration. Pressfield discusses the Muses, which are Greek goddesses of the arts, literature, and science. The Muses are said to be the source of great books, poetry, music, movies, etc. They use us to manifest these artistic works on the material plane; all we have to do is listen to what they say to us and then act to create it. This can take some pressure off of us since, although we are the vehicles through which these works come to fruition, the Muses are their original source. I felt like Pressfield discussed the Muses in a literal sense, although a metaphorical interpretation could still prove useful for those who don’t take what he says in this section literally.
What captivated me the most were Pressfield’s thoughts on motivation. He challenges you to ask yourself why you create and whether or not you’d continue working at your passions if you were the only person on Earth. This made me pause and examine what I do and why I do it. For most of my hobbies, I could easily see myself doing them even if I had nobody else with whom to share them; that’s mostly what I do now, except for social hobbies like swing dancing. However, I had a very different answer when it came to my writing. I realized that a lot of what I write is for other people rather than for myself, and that I often end up writing because I want to keep posting every day instead of because I simply enjoy it. I also thought about how much I censor myself because I think it will make my posts more agreeable to more people. Starting with this post, I’m going to focus more on saying what I think even if it’s less popular. This blog is a way for me to put my thoughts into the world and that’s what I’m going to do.
The War of Art is motivational, inspirational, practical, idealistic, and beautiful. The structure of the book is pretty loose as there are three main sections and no chapters. Some entries are less than a page in length and others are, at most, a few pages. I had to focus more than I usually do when I read but the extra attention required was well worth it for what I got out of the book. No matter what type of creative endeavors you enjoy doing, you’ll benefit tremendously from reading The War of Art. I know from experience that my own creative process contains many dry spells and I’m glad to have this book to help me get through them.