It is a good and inspirational book. Unfortunately with no techniques on how to overcome the writer's block. So if U seek a book with solutions for the writer's book then this book is not for u.

This book is lightweight, derivative crap, written in the style of a self-hating self-help guru with blame the victim issues eighteen ways from Sunday. I tore out the two good pages, one of which was a quotation from W.H. Murray and the other of which quoted King Leonidas, and burned the book in the fireplace. That's how angry it made me. Horrible waste of paper and time.

Really, you want more details? Okay. The author personifies Resistance and then writes a tiny little snippet about it, one per page, stretching a teaspoonful of insight out for seventy pages or so. Sure, we come up against resistance in every area of our lives. This isn't news to anyone. But the ways he personifies it contradict each other, or simply don't make any sense, or come across as pure page-filling psychobabble.

Worst of all, he manages to blame the reader for everything. You feel resistance because it's easier! If you don't feel it, you're going the wrong way! If you don't feel it, you're making a step down in life. Sex is resistance! Food is resistance! Exercise is resistance! Everything good is resistance! Unless it isn't!

Save yourself some pain and brain cells and avoid this book. It's condescending incoherent nonsense argued on the level of a Sunday school comic strip. I wish I could give it less than one star.

Uno de los peores libros sobre escritura (autoayuda) que he tenido que leer. Si te dan a elegir entre leer este libro o sacarte los ojos con una cucharilla, pregunta qué tipo de cucharilla.

Fuck me, this was terrible.

Let's get the good parts over with: I highlighted more things in here than I'm comfortable with. (I feel faintly dirty about this, as though I've eaten food found in a dumpster.) It's nice to see someone acknowledging that we can be afraid of our work, and that we can manage that fear. There's some not bad--if not terribly original--advice about scheduling, professionalism-as-routine, and some other things that may well be useful to you, as I fear--as I'm terrified, really--that they may be to me.

But Jesus, Mary, and Joseph: the bullshit. Imagine Robert Evans on MDMA writing about Jung for "Reader's Digest." Angels live in the world, and they're real, and they help us write; disease is what happens when we give in to Resistance (capitals in original--oh, so many capitals), and overcoming work problems may cure cancer; the 'Gita and Coyote Trickster and the Muses and Tiger Woods all say that work is a holy thing that we don't own but belongs to the universe. More beliefs: food with fat in it is a sign that we are deceiving ourselves, when we should be creating; mental illness doesn't really exist, and goes away if we continue to work. And etcetera. This man is past self-delusion and into full-on hallucination.

This book is five hundred times worse than a one-page .pdf of its ten useful sentences. If you can find such a .pdf, read that. If you can't, oh boy: maybe come for the chuckle reel that is 90% of the prose, and stay for the occasional nugget of insight that drifts, as though from another universe, onto the page.

An early chapter just grabbed me with this opening line, "Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance." Those sentences grabbed me and have stayed with me. How much do I resist? How do I resist? Why do I resist? The reflection that chapter inspired was well worth reading the rest of the book though nothing else was as revolutionary for me-- I got what I needed early in the pages. There's also a fabulous quote from WH Murray later, "The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too." It reminded me of why I like to operate from passion. That the things that I am doing because I feel I must or out of obligation are never easy. The things that I do from passion always spin out with dizzying force. When you act from passion, providence indeed moves. A timely reminder.

Holden Caulfield would love this, as would Ernest Hemingway. HC had it in for the phonies, and Pressfield has no use for them, either. Only he's met the enemy and it is himself. And you, gentle reader, need only a mirror to find your enemy. Pressfield calls it "Resistance," and it lurks in all of us. What's more, it's every excuse you can possibly think of to delay doing what the Muse put you on this earth to do: procrastination, rationalizations, physical sicknesses, psychological conditions with funny letters, family, drama, Twitter, Facebook, busywork, alcohol, drugs, television, your cellphone, fatigue, hopelessness, etc.

Hemingway? Oh, yeah. To make it more personal for those who would write, EH called out the faux writers who wanted to be seen "writing" at the cafés of Paris in the 1920's. It was the Lost Generation's version of "I'm not a writer, but I play one in cafés."

Pressfield, a writer as well, often alludes to the trade in The War of Art. Too often, writing is something phonies talk of doing and dream of doing but just don't do, or do sporadically, or make excuses as to why they can't do it, or do and fail once or twice, then quit. "Amateurs," Pressfield calls them. The world is split between the "pros" who sit down, roll up their sleeves, and DO IT every day (and he does mean every day) and the "amateurs" who talk a good story while shopping at Excuses R Us.

Of course, the same applies to most anything the Dreamy You dreams (or once dreamed) of doing. Should you be working out now? Dieting? Training for a marathon? Swimming? Writing? Painting? Volunteering? Reading classics? Starting your own business? You name it, you can do it, but you choose not to. That's right. It's a choice, and we make it easy on ourselves.

This little manual falls in the dictionary under “quick read.” Esquire magazine calls it “a kick in the ass,” and I can’t argue with that description. Pressfield pulls no punches. He has little choice. The Pretenders are legion and their excuses like Orc armies -- seemingly endless.

The book is divided in three. Part One is simply called “Resistance: Defining the Enemy” and leads off with a quote from the Dalai Lama: “The enemy is a very good teacher.” Pressfield identifies resistance in its every form. Trust me when I say you'll recognize yourself, perhaps multiple times over.

As the book was penned in 2002, however, he neglects to mention more prevalent forms of "Resistance" that exist today. "I'll start my work, sure... but first, let me check my Twitter feed... or let me check updates on Facebook... or I have to check e-mail and reply to a few folks... or reading can wait because I need to TALK about reading on Goodreads (which, ironically, cuts deeply into reading time, which is sacrificed on the altar of social time masquerading as reading time)."

Hoo, boy. Maybe even reading The War of Art is a form of delaying what I should be doing -- writing. Then again, I'm writing this review. Is that writing? One voice (amateur) says yes, but another (pro) says no, it's slumming -- a shameless ploy for "likes" and comments, not me pursuing art or income as a freelance writer.

Hmn. This is worse than I thought.

Anyway, Part Two is called “Combating Resistance: Turning Pro” and leads with a Telamon of Arcadia quote: “It is one thing to study war and another to live the warrior’s life.” Here's where Pressfield delineates the true pros who tolerate no excuses from “amateurs” who live by them.

Page after page, he shares how a professional lives every day: "A Professional Is Patient," "A Professional Seeks Order," "A Professional Demystifies," "A Professional Acts in the Face of Fear," "A Professional Accepts No Excuses," "A Professional Plays It As It Lays," "A Professional Does Not Take Failure (or Success) Personally," "A Professional Endures Adversity," "A Professional Self-Validates," and on and professionally on. No wonder being a slacker and killing hours online is easier.

Part Three? It’s called “Beyond Resistance: The Higher Realm” and its lead quote comes compliments of Xenophon: “The first duty is to sacrifice to the gods and pray them to grant you the thoughts, words, and deeds likely to render your command most pleasing to the gods and to bring yourself, your friends, and your city the fullest measure of affection and glory and advantage.”

It’s about achievement once you’re disciplined and have mentally accepted the challenge. Interestingly, Pressfield shares some quirky opinions about Muses, angels, William Blake, William Wordsworth, self vs. ego, and hierarchal thinking vs. territorial thinking. Hint: choose self over ego, territory over hierarchy. Then mean what you say and spit out your excuses binky.

Anyway, if you’ve ever wanted to write a book, poem, or screenplay; paint or dance or sing or act; start a business or charity; lose weight and exercise regularly until you look like you should look; run a marathon; fill-in-the-blank with your once-upon-a-time hope for yourself before Twitter and Facebook and e-mail and job and family and social drama and “health issues” and excuses dragged you down, this just might be your book. It's short, but worthy of rereading. I can imagine returning to certain excerpts for an old-fashioned butt-kicking, then getting back on that horse beside Nike ("Just Do It!") and working in "the smithy of my soul" like I ought to.

I can also imagine unplugging, or at least creating more strict guidelines for bad habits that have snuck in to choke my creative being like so much hypnotic kudzu. Wait. Did I just say "imagine"? What an amateur pledge that was....

I like to have a writing book around to dip into when I get stuck or frustrated or just to keep me going.

This one started out with some interesting ideas, but it ended up not being very supportive. A little bullying, in fact.

Toward the end, it's a lot of religious pronouncements and philosophy that I didn't agree with or find very helpful. It felt a bit rigid.

This was really short, but super helpful. It made me think that Elizabeth Gilbert should have cited this book more in Big Magic. The ideas are very similar. Lots of helpful advice here even for the non-artists--anyone who writes or creates or does any work of the mind.

a book for idiots.

Are you an aspiring author? Or painter? Or entrepreneur? Do you want to save the world or promote piece? Maybe help get clean drinking water to people in third-world countries?

I’m betting you do, and I’m also betting you’re not doing anything to pursue it. I’ve found a cure for that.

You need to read “The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles” by Steven Pressfield, who also wrote “The Legend of Bagger Vance.”

This book rocked my world. I read a lot, and I don’t review all of them. Maybe I should, but when I read this one, I had to share and discuss it.

In this book, which I would call a self-help manual even though I doubt that is what it is actually classified as, Pressfield tells the reader how to go after the dream. The best part is, the dream can literally be anything. Sure, he spends a lot of time referring to writing, but that’s what he does. It is how he relates it all, but the tips he provides and the points he makes are applicable to anything.

It blew my mind. Really. I had to read it twice and listen to in as an audio book on my iPod. It is that good and that inspirational.

I gained so much from this book that I don’t think I can truly give justice to all the points it made, but I’m going to highlight a few of my favorites.

First, if you want to do something creative (write, start a business, help the needy, whatever), the first step is to do it.

The mantra in the book was: “Sit down and do your work.”

Just do it . . . that’s not a reference to Nike, but it is accurate.

No matter what you are wanting to do, sit down and it. If you produce crap, so what. The important part is you are working toward your goal. You won’t get anywhere if you stay in your recliner and think about the task. You have to take action. Imagine Larry the Cable Guy is standing next to you and shouting, “Git ‘er done!”

But what stops you from taking action? Pressfield said it is one thing and one thing only, though it may take on many forms.

Resistance.

Resistance is anything that prevents us from doing our work. For example: procrastination is a form of resistance.

Here is how he first delves into the topic:

“Are you a writer who doesn’t write, a painter who doesn’t paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what Resistance is. Resistance is the most toxic force on the planet. It is the root of more unhappiness than poverty, disease, and erectile dysfunction.”

Resistance is bad. It kills us, and what’s worse, it comes from the inside. It grows within us, and it is our job to crush it.

How do we defeat it? Fight it. As Pressfield said, Resistance hates nothing more than when we sit down and do our work.

Sit down and do your work!

This really struck home. In fact, it inspired me.

As some of you may know, I have published a novel (www.toddvogtsamazon.com). It published June 1, 2011.

That’s quite a while ago.

Then factor in that I finished writing it almost a year and a half before the publication date.

That’s a really long time ago.

The embarrassing part? I hadn’t written much except for a few short stories, a couple poems and various blog posts since then.

But Pressfield got me going. I sat down and did my work. I do it every night now. I write for at least two hours after I get home from work. It isn’t a lot, but I’m doing the work.

Now when people ask me how the next book is coming, I can answer honestly — "I'm working on it" — instead of saying, "Oh, it's coming. Slowly," which wasn't true since it can't move slowly if it isn't really moving at all.

I haven’t been this happy in quite a while, and according to Pressfield, that means something.

It means I’m no long an amateur writer. I’m a professional. At least, I’m thinking like a professional. I don’t worry about if what I’m writing is any good. I don’t even care. I’m doing what makes me happy. I’m doing my work.

Pressfield wrote:

“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.”

Talk about a light-bulb moment.

He’s absolutely correct. Making the effort to sit down is the toughest part. Once I’m into my zone, words flow. Sometimes they might be good. Sometimes they might be total crap. But they flow, and that’s what is important. Doing the work.

That is being a professional. Pressfield talks about “turning pro” a lot in the book. He said you need to view the work as what you do, but you can’t become so invested that it becomes who you are. You need to ignore the critics, and just do your thing.

If you’re a professional, success or failure is not personal. It just is. Pressfield summed it up like this:

“The professional keeps his eye on the doughnut and not the hole. He reminds himself it’s better to be in the arena, getting stomped by the bull, than to be up in the stands or out in the parking lot.”

Toward the end of the book Pressfield discussed determining the motivation behind the work. He suggested you ask yourself this question:

“If you’re the last person on earth, would I still do it?”

If you answered yes, he suggested you were doing it for the right reasons. You were doing it because it was what you do. What you are. If you said no, you were doing it to gain praise and approval from others. This, he suggested, isn’t the right reason to pursue a creative venture.

If I were the last person on earth, I would still write. It is my outlet. It is how I process the world around me, and it is how I relax and find my center. That’s the main reason I write for the different blogs I run.

Basically, you need to be a writer (or painter or whatever) for yourself. If others enjoy and benefit from what you do, that’s just gravy. You need to please yourself, or, as Pressfield said, you need to please your Muse.

That was another thing I liked. Pressfield expressed his belief in everyone being a creative person. The difference, he said, was that some people listened to the Muse and acted upon that creativity.

I agree. I think anyone can accomplish creative work. I hate when I hear people say, “I’m not creative.” That’s garbage. You have to keep your heart and mind open. You have to let — God, the Muse, the Angels — speak through you. Pressfield said creativity was a spiritual thing, and I agree.

Speaking of spiritual, nobody feels closer to God than when they are faced with death. Pressfield talks about how when people get a death sentence from a cancer diagnosis or whatever, they suddenly focus on what is truly important. They quit their jobs and pursue the dream with all they have because the fear their time on earth is short.

Why? Why should impending death be what spurs us to action? It shouldn’t. Even if I never publish another novel, I’m going to keep trying. I’m going to collect rejection letters. I’m going to live.

Of course, the crazy thing is sometimes people fully recover after giving up everything to pursue the dream before they die. Here’s how Pressfield wrote it:

“Miraculously, cancers go into remission. People recover. Is it possible, Tom Laughlin [“Billy Jack” actor, lecturer, author and Jungian-schooled psychologist who works with people diagnosed with cancer] asks, that the disease itself evolved as a consequence of actions taken (or not taken) in our lives? Could our unlived lives have exacted their vengeance upon us in the form of cancer? And if they did, can we cure ourselves, now, by living these things out?”

Such a notion is quite interesting. Even if it isn’t true, it is something to consider. It makes you think, doesn’t it?

That’s what this book does. It makes you think. It makes you analyze your own actions. It lights a fire and makes you want to sit down and do your work.

I read it at just the right time. I was needing a kick in the butt to get moving, and this book delivered.

There is so much more in this book that struck home for me, but I don’t want to just rewrite it here for you. Go buy it. Read it. Listen to it. Do whatever you have to in order to get this message.

I will leave you with how he ended the book:

“Are you a born writer? Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In the end the question can only be answer by action.

"Do it or don’t do it.

"It may help to think of it this way. If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don’t do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself. You hurt your children. You hurt me. You hurt the planet.

"You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God.

"Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.”

Inspiring.

I think I might get “Sit Down And Do Your Work” tattooed on my body.

In a word: obnoxious. I've suffered through 57 pages of being told I should resist resistance. Skipping ahead to page 68, I see a chapter on the value of being miserable. No. Just no. I'm done here.

As someone who has wanted to write for years but has actually finished very little, I found this book helpful. It’s divided into three sections, Resistance, Combating Resistance, and Beyond Resistance.

In the first section the author defines resistance and the various ways it can get in the way of accomplishing creative endeavours. For example, that resistance cannot be seen, touched, or heard, but that it can be felt, that it will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work.

In the second section the author talks about what it means to be a professional versus being an amatuer. For example the amatuer only works when inspiration is felt, while the professional has some kind of schedule.

Finally in the third section, the author explains that he believes that there are forces that we can call our allies. He is very upfront in telling the reader that he will be using terms like muses and angels. He adds that if that makes you uncomfortable, to feel free to think of angels in the abstract. I found this section to be a mixed bag. Some great ideas, some ideas that were kind of out there.

I found the first two sections to be the most helpful. Identifying resistance and the many ways it can get in the way of creating was very eye-opening. Since the author gives so many examples I didn’t feel they all applied to me though. I highlighted the passages that I felt were most important.

Another thing that I found helpful are the stories he tells of his struggles as a beginning writer. I feel that they do a good job of illustrating what he is trying to say.

Although I don’t agree with everything that was presented and I’m skeptical of some of the ideas from the third section, I still liked the book.

This isn’t for everyone. But for someone like me, who feels the urge to create but never gets around to finishing things. This book was helpful in identifying what’s been standing in the way and how to overcome it.

If all you need, is to be aware that you need the discipline to get creative things done, you don’t need a book like this, you’re already knocking out novels and whatnot nonstop.