No. The War Never Ends.

Apropos of a terrific article this morning by Ayodeji Awosika about the power of resistance (hat tip here to Steven Pressfield, and his classic The War of Art), and how we can fight back against it a little at a time.

Resistance is the name Pressfield gives to what I would call the Adversary (another name, in the parlance of my religion, for Satan). I like the terminology of “the Adversary”, because that’s precisely what it/he is — an opponent of anything constructive we attempt. Try this: think about going and getting a quart of ice cream from the freezer. Got it? Okay, now think about writing a handwritten note to your mother, thanking her for, you know, birthing you or something.

Which of those two sounds harder?

No contest, is it? With the ice cream, it’s dead simple. Stand up, walk, get the stuff, grab a spoon, voila. Even if you had to go to the store first, hey, that wouldn’t be such a big deal, would it? That’s because Resistance is not stalking you. It doesn’t care that you eat ice cream.

On the other hand, we have the simple written note. If you’re like me, you have note papers all over the place. On my desk, stacked neatly in a drawer someplace. Neither do I have a shortage of pens. But it’s such a hassle, isn’t it? Is this paper nice enough to send to Mom? Do I have envelopes? Stamps? Probably not. I could email her, but she never checks it. How long should it be? Wouldn’t it be weird? And on and on. Every excuse in the book. Resistance does not want you to write that letter.

Every creative thing we do will be opposed by Resistance.

Resistance sucks crap through a tube, but we can beat it — it’s a matter of finding that 1% extra to hit back with (as Ayodeji says much more eloquently than I). Resistance wants us to believe there’s a huge gap between our willpower and success, but that is a lie. It’s not the Great Wall we’re facing. It’s a gutter. Four measly inches. All we need to win is just a little bit more.

Here’s a fun little data point: I usually write about 10,000–15,000 words a month (new words of fiction). Except in November. November, as some will know, is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), where fictioneers attempt to write 50,000 words over 30 days. There’s a website with a big graph that shows how well you’re tracking toward the goal. I’ve attempted it seven times.

I am seven for seven. That’s right. I have never attempted NaNo and failed (I’m also four for four on Camp NaNo, which no one even knows about). In other words, I can write 5x as much as I do right now by adding a scoreboard to my writing life. And nothing else.

Your creative life will respond to some small boost. I don’t know what it is. You might not, either. So test. Try things. You’ll find it, because here’s another secret — Resistance is a coward. It flees before determined effort. The moment you begin that effort, you win. Resistance will not give up, but it cannot abide momentum. If you stop, it will be right there on your shoulder again, pushing you away toward other things. Don’t stop. Don’t give it an inch.

And you’ll win. You’ll see.