The War of Art- Becoming a "Professional" Writer

 (#2) Read 25 books

1. Room by Emma Donohue
2. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
4. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
5. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
6. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
7. A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin
8. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
9. The Shack by William Young
10.The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
11. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
12. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
13. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
14. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
15. Wicked by Gregory Maguire
16. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

This book was recommended to me personally by Sherman Alexie, So what if there were 200 other people in the room at the time? It counts.

While I'm not normally big on the self-help genre, books about writing by successful writers should certainly be taken seriously. Even if they talk a lot about God and angels and cosmic justice.

Okay, so I didn't take this one too seriously.

The War of Art (the title clearly being an homage to The Art of War by Sun Tzu) is about how to break through what Pressfield calls "Resistance"- all the little distractions and self-sabotages that keep us from reaching our true potential as a writer or whatever we are truly meant to be. The book is broken into three sections- defining Resistance, beating Resistance, and "the Higher Realm" beyond Resistance. Each chapter is a micro-lesson about Resistance and how to combat it.

At least, that is the goal.

On the whole I found the novel to be a lot of fluff without much practical advice.

Pressfield's point is basically that nothing should ever stop you from sitting down and writing. And if you do sit down and write, the Universe will reward you with inspiration. Explained in this quote from Somerset Maugham:

"I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at 9 o'clock sharp."

In other words, taking your writing seriously is the first step to actually writing something worth reading. To becoming, as Pressfield describes in book two, a "Professional."

Heaven and Earth will move to keep you from sitting down and writing every morning. Your Ego will try to talk you out of it using every method it can think of, and it will know exactly what to say to make you doubt yourself. But if you can break through Resistance and put your fingers to the keys, inspiration will come.

I'm no "Professional" but I honestly think I just explained Pressfield's point better than he did himself. He took 165 pages to do it after all.

One more thing of value that I did find in the book was the idea of "territories." Pressfield claims that humans need to categorize ourselves to make sense of the world. Those that categorize based on hierarchy are never happy because the world is simply too large for any one person to be ranked among others. But if we define ourselves with our territories- the things that we do best or love to do most- we can find contentment. To test yourself on what your territory really is, Pressfield recommends:

"Of any activity you do, ask yourself: If I were the last person on earth, would I still do it?"

Without hesitation I knew that I would still write. And BAM! Just like that I was inspired.

When I asked Ronnie, he said his territory must be video games.

So what is your territory, reader?