{"id":31008,"date":"2023-02-11T16:28:12","date_gmt":"2023-02-12T00:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=31008"},"modified":"2023-02-13T06:53:26","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T14:53:26","slug":"resisting-creativity-and-furry-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/resisting-creativity-and-furry-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"Resisting Creativity and Furry Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"

Resistance is a funny thing. It comes in all shapes in sizes as it stands against any effort of true meaning. Like the crushing weight of the Titan moon hurled by the Infinity Gauntlet, is resistance to the one who seeks to put forth enough effort to materialize that which didn\u2019t exist just a moment before. I have a new appreciation for this invisible force since reading The War of Art <\/i>[1] <\/i>and On Writing <\/i>[2]. The War of Art <\/i>is a collection of musings around identifying resistance and becoming a professional at resisting resistance in whatever creative endeavor one might choose. On Writing<\/i> is a memoir reflecting on the writing process while demonstrating how to write. Filled with all the wit and observations found in his popular fiction writing, Stephen King offers reflections similar to Steven Pressfield as both professions name the challenges of creativity reflecting on their own process. Of the many observations to be made in their works, I will focus on the resistance present in Pressfiled and Kings work as well as the the presence of encouragement and how that led them to push through the weight of the creative act.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I know a thing or two about resistance. Not only did I have to work through the normal challenges of picking a time to write and sticking to it, but I also had th\"\"<\/a>e add bonus of a furry friend that took a liking to Stephen King\u2019s memoir. As you can see from the photo, my pug, Lulu, took to the taste of the book. Not only did she overcome the limited resistance I put<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

forth to keep it out of her reach, she went for it a second time over other books that were within her reach. I had to put Pressfield\u2019s observation to work when he said, \u201cThe working artist will not tolerate trouble in her life because she knows trouble prevents her from doing her work.\u201d[3]. Well done, Lulu. Well done.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Other than the machinations of my furry companion, I find that resistance often takes the form of fear. I find myself thinking along the lines of the impostor (\u201cWho am I to do that\u201d) or the ignorant (\u201cI don\u2019t know anything about that\u201d). Which is why I appreciated that Pressfield named one of the many ways that creativity is stifled in the life of the artist – fear. He writes, \u201cFear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do\u201d [4]. Much like King, who quickly tossed aside an early draft of Carrie [5]. If it wasn\u2019t for his wife who saved the early work from the trash, he might not have ever finished the work [6]. This led King this piece of advice when writing, \u201cRunning a close second [to not giving up on the characters] was the realization that stopping a piece of work just because it\u2019s hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, isa bad idea\u201d [7].\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How do you press on when resistance seems to take over or you just want to give on the process? Both Pressfield and King offer great insights into how a creative moves forward, yet the most compelling to me is how they were each encouraged to keep going in seemingly innocuous ways. Pressfield writes about the elation of finishing a book he had been working on, \u201cNext morning I went over to Paul\u2019s for coffee and told him I had finished. \u2018Good for you,\u2019 he said without looking up. \u2018Start the next one today\u2019\u201d [8]. King often mentions the encouragement of those closest to him in his development as a writer. He relied so much on the encouragement of those important to him that he writes, \u201cWriting is a lonely job. Having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference. They don\u2019t have to make speeches. Just believing is usually enough\u201d[9].\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There is nothing like resistance to keep a person from accomplishing anything that is worth doing. Resistance is the inertia that everyone has to overcome through daily habits, showing up and surrounding themselves with those who offer encouragement, whether it is in speeches or simply saying, \u201cget back to work.\u201d Encouragement is certainly the key, but so it naming the resistance. Now that I see its alluring pull to skip today, I will be more intentional to make creativity a daily practice. I will also put my books on a higher shelf to minimize the furry forces of resistance in my life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Steven Pressfield, The War of Art : Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles <\/i>(New York, New York: New York Black Irish Entertainment, 2012).<\/p>\n

2. Stephen King, Joe Hill, and Owen King, On Writing : A Memoir of the Craft<\/i> (New York: Scribner, 2020).<\/p>\n

3. Pressfield, 24.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

4. Ibid., 40.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

5. King, 76.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

6. King, 77.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

7. Ibid.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

8. Pressfield, 122.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

9. King, 74.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Resistance is a funny thing. It comes in all shapes in sizes as it stands against any effort of true meaning. Like the crushing weight of the Titan moon hurled by the Infinity Gauntlet, is resistance to the one who seeks to put forth enough effort to materialize that which didn\u2019t exist just a moment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2198,2197],"class_list":["post-31008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-king","tag-pressfield","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31008"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31040,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31008\/revisions\/31040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}