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The War of Art

steven pressfield robert mckee

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Internationally bestselling author of Last of the Amazons, Gates of Fire, and Tides of War, Steven Pressfield delivers a guide to inspire and support those who struggle to express their creativity. Pressfield believes that “resistance” is the greatest enemy, and he offers many unique and helpful ways to overcome it.

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,2002

This edition

Format
168 pages, Paperback
Published
April 1, 2003 by Warner Books
ISBN
9780446691437
ASIN
0446691437
Language
English

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About the author

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steven pressfield

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I was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1943 to a Navy father and mother.

I graduated from Duke University in 1965.

In January of 1966, when I was on the bus leaving Parris Island as a freshly-minted Marine, I looked back and thought there was at least one good thing about this departure. "No matter what happens to me for the rest of my life, no one can ever send me back to this freakin' place again."

Forty years later, to my surprise and gratification, I am far more closely bound to the young men of the Marine Corps and to all other dirt-eating, ground-pounding outfits than I could ever have imagined.

GATES OF FIRE is one reason. Dog-eared paperbacks of this tale of the ancient Spartans have circulated throughout platoons of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan since the first days of the invasions. E-mails come in by hundreds. GATES OF FIRE is on the Commandant of the Marine Corps' Reading list. It is taught at West Point and Annapolis and at the Marine Corps Basic School at Quantico. TIDES OF WAR is on the curriculum of the Naval War College.

From 2nd Battalion/6th Marines, which calls itself "the Spartans," to ODA 316 of the Special Forces, whose forearms are tattooed with the lambda of Lakedaemon, today's young warriors find a bond to their ancient precursors in the historical narratives of these novels.

My struggles to earn a living as a writer (it took seventeen years to get the first paycheck) are detailed in my 2002 book, THE WAR OF ART.

I have worked as an advertising copywriter, schoolteacher, tractor-trailer driver, bartender, oilfield roustabout and attendant in a mental hospital. I have picked fruit in Washington state and written screenplays in Tinseltown.

With the publication of THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE in 1995, I became a writer of books once and for all.

My writing philosophy is, not surprisingly, a kind of warrior code — internal rather than external — in which the enemy is identified as those forms of self-sabotage that I have labeled "Resistance" with a capital R (in THE WAR OF ART) and the technique for combatting these foes can be described as "turning pro."

I believe in previous lives.

I believe in the Muse.

I believe that books and music exist before they are written and that they are propelled into material being by their own imperative to be born, via the offices of those willing servants of discipline, imagination and inspiration, whom we call artists. My conception of the artist's role is a combination of reverence for the unknowable nature of "where it all comes from" and a no-nonsense, blue-collar demystification of the process by which this mystery is approached. In other words, a paradox.

There's a recurring character in my books named Telamon, a mercenary of ancient days. Telamon doesn't say much. He rarely gets hurt or wounded. And he never seems to age. His view of the profession of arms is a lot like my conception of art and the artist:

"It is one thing to study war, and another to live the warrior's life."

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Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 100 votes)
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
KaitharVideo
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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Odpor. Takhle se ten hajzlík jmenuje. Vystupuju před osmou z vlaku a hlášení zrovna recituje odjezd vlaku opačným směrem. Zatoužím do něj naskočit a za chvilku být doma, v peřinách, schovaná před světem. Bez povinností a zodpovědnosti. Ale zodpovědnost vyhrává, mám školení, čekají na mne účastníci. Odpor nemá šanci. I tak se hlásí dál. Doufá, že nikdo nedorazí. Že nastane nějaká nejasná katastrofická událost, která způsobí, že seminář nebude. Zmizí školící místnost, všichni naráz dostanou chřipku, nebo alespoň nebude fungovat elektřina. Slyším ho do chvíle, než se postavím před ostatní a přivítám je na školení. Jakmile začnu mluvit, Odpor ztichne.

Když zavolá firemní klient, jestli by bylo možné zítřejší seminář odložit, Odpor se raduje se mnou. Odpor si pohlídá, abych před každým napsaným článkem uklidila celý byt, nebo alespoň zhlédla celou sérii nějakého seriálu na Netflixu či HBO GO. Ale jakmile napíšu první větu, odchází. Kvůli Odporu jsem začala připravovat druhý ročník Social Media Akademie v listopadu, místo v září. A první ročník ohlásila doslova na poslední chvíli. Protože strach je nejsilnějším projevem Odporu. A Odpor si vždycky pohlídá, abych se dostatečně bála. Když ale rozpohybuju všechna potřebná kolečka, začínám se usmívat. Vím, že dělám skvělou věc a už stejně není cesty zpět.

Odpor potkávám každý den. Projevuje se prokrastinací a jeho mladší bratříček se jmenuje imposter syndrome. Kecají mi do práce, do studia, do vztahů, do jídla i necvičení. Ale když jsem otáčela poslední stránky knihy Válka umění, hruď mi sevřel adrenalin. Takové to pnutí kolem srdce, kdy se děsíte věcí příštích a u toho se usmíváte. Protože jsem si společně s Odporem v sobě uvědomila, že když teď vím jak na něj, začnu tyhle bitvy vyhnávat. A z toho jsem vyděšená k smrti
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Nzo_
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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Part of me was extremely inspired by this book. Part of me had no idea what he was talking about(at certain points) and the writer in me wishes I'd written this wonderful book before the author did.

This is a classic work that anyone with the slightest desire to create anything should not only read but study. It tackles head on the biggest block to every creators journey toward self-expression through their work-the author calls it RESISTANCE. Not only will you nod your head in agreement as you read but you will be equipped with the tools you need to banish fear and procrastination forever and finally GET TO WORK !
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playrough
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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We all experience a force that pushes us away from our creative endeavors. Whether it be a new diet or exercise regimen, a novel, a painting, a business venture, or a relationship, this force seems to appear every morning along with the sun. Call it what you will---the lizard brain, laziness, procrastination, writer's block, instant gratification---if we want to become the person we are meant to be, we must engage with it, and somehow, do our work anyway.

Steven Pressfield, in his magnificent book, The War of Art, calls it Resistance.

What Is Resistance?

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. What's hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance...

Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard, or smelled. But it can be felt. We experience it as an energy field radiating from a work-in-potential. It's a repelling force. It's negative. Its aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work.


The way I choose to see Resistance is biological. Evolutionary.

My urge to create comes from the brain's frontal lobe, that human concoction that enables reasoning and abstract thinking. But Resistance comes from the amygdala, which we share with the "lower" animals (hence the lizard brain). It's the part of the brain that generates fear and the fight-or-flight reaction.

Thus Resistance is impersonal. It's not intending to sabotage me and my work. In fact, it's an essential part of me, whose purpose is to protect me from danger.

What kind of danger, though, is immaterial.

The problem is, we're not lizards anymore. Danger isn't always physical.

It's dangerous to create art and show it to the world---dangerous to our ego and our self-esteem.

What if our art is rejected? Then we feel rejected. We feel rejection as a primordial risk---the risk of being cast out from the tribe, ostracized and exiled.

But what does that mean? In hunter-gatherer times, it meant you were now on your own, wandering the savanna at the complete mercy of predators. At the mercy of death. The lioness picks off the loner; she doesn't mess with the herd.

There are no lions on the streets of New York. Standing out from the pack no longer means death. But Resistance doesn't know that.

Dancing With Resistance

We can use this. The stronger Resistance we feel toward our work, the riskier it must be. The bolder it must be. The more ground-breaking. Not ground-breaking in a worldly sense, but breaking new ground in our lives, in our souls. We are pushing ourselves farther than we think we can go. We are reaching our potential, expanding our capabilities:

The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.


Pressfield sees our relationship with Resistance as a war. Each day is a battle.

I've got a different view, which I developed in therapy. I learned that I could not dismiss or wish away my anxiety and my fear. No more than I could remove my amygdala and continue walking.

Instead, I taught myself how to live with it and how to listen to it. Because how could I fight something that is part of me?

And if Resistance is fear, then its presence is a good thing:

The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.


So don't knock yourself for being afraid. It's normal. It would be weird if you didn't feel it.

Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul. That's why we feel so much Resistance. If it meant nothing to us, there'd be no Resistance...

The more Resistance you experience, the more important your unmanifested art/project/enterprise is to you -- and the more gratification you will feel when you finally do it.


Gratification is what it's all about. The feeling you get when you want to do something so badly that you can't do anything else. Resistance sees this as a challenge. It uses fear to beat you back.

But when you push ahead, through the fear, and complete your quest? That's the feeling that makes it all worth it.
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UltraReviewShow
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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The War of Art is a very inspirational book, and I think it would be a helpful read for all kind of creative people.

It explains what the Resistance is (no, nothing to do with Star Wars) and how it can be defeated.

The book is very dense, and it almost feels like a summary of a much bigger book, so I'm glad that the author synthesized it. It's a quick read so you can often read it to get more inspired. The Resistance got in my way, so I read this for several months. :D

Steven Pressfield's judgment in some places is a bit too much, and I can't entirely agree with all of it. Despite that, I enjoyed it a lot. The things he says make sense if you think about it.

The War of Art answers some questions like "What is the difference between a professional artist and an amateur?", "Do we do our job in a territorial or hierarchical manner?" - the latter is something specific to the context of the book (more can be read here)

There is this part in the book about "resistance and isolation" - it was very well received from me in the time of COVID isolation.

Fav quotes are too many, but some of them are these:

"Any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth, health, or integrity. Or, expressed another way, any act that derives from our higher nature instead of our lower. Any of these will elicit Resistance."

"The working artist will not tolerate trouble in her life because she knows trouble prevents her from doing her work. The working artist banishes from her world all sources of trouble. She harnesses the urge for trouble and transforms it in her work."

"Individuals who are realized in their own lives almost never criticize others. If they speak at all, it is to offer encouragement. Watch yourself. Of all the manifestations of Resistance, most only harm ourselves. Criticism and cruelty harm others as well."

This book should definitely be re-read!
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henrijetica
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art is essentially an extended pep talk/motivational speech meant to pump the reader up into doing what they’re putting off doing, be it going for a new job, starting a new diet or whatever, though ostensibly it’s aimed at wannabe writers.

And it’s a bit too generic for my blood. I’ve read a few books like this – off the top of my dome, Stephen King’s On Writing, Benjamin Percy’s Thrill Me and Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck – all of which did it better than Pressfield.

This slim volume is made up of three sections. The first identifies Resistance (basically his all-encompassing label for procrastination/fear/laziness) and was overly long for describing such a simple concept; the second tells you how to tackle Resistance (answer: the Nike slogan – Just Do It!); and the third is full of woowoo with Pressfield going off the deep end, waffling on about angels(!) and divine destiny.

The book is fairly well written and I agree with most of what Pressfield has to say about getting comfortable with the uncomfortable in order to progress, knuckling down and getting on with it, creating a routine, being patient, fighting apathy, not listening to any negativity in your head, etc.

I wouldn’t say it was useful for anyone looking for practical advice on overcoming procrastination or writing though as Pressfield tends to generalise most of what he says, which is fluff about beating doubt and being the hero of your own story. And the repetitive and tedious nature of the content makes for a very uninteresting read. The advice is banal self-help stuff that’s been said a million times before and Pressfield’s personal anecdotes were uninspiring and dull.

I love the Joe Rogan Experience podcast but I have no idea what Joe sees in this one. And that’s what I’d recommend for inspiration/motivation instead of this book: Joe’s podcast, particularly the episodes with Jocko Willink and Jordan Peterson.
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__EyeCandy__
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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Ένας οδηγός επιβίωσης για τους φριλάνσερς και δημιουργούς. Όποτε δε μου δίνουν κίνητρο 2-3 σελίδες για να επιστρέψω μάχιμος στην εργασία, χτυπάω απλά ολόκληρο το βιβλίο στο κεφάλι μου για να συνέλθω, και συνεχίζω ακάθεκτος.
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Rock_and_Revy
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 1,2025
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The first 2/3 of this book were exactly the inspiration, direction, correction, and kick in the butt every person doing creative work needs. The last 1/3 was much of the same but phrased as abject nonsense. It’s short and moves fast and is well worth reading.
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