If you’ve been following me on Facebook, you’ll know I’ve been running into roadblocks on my current WIP. This is the same book that started out with such promise (I wrote the first fifty pages in a week, wheee!!!!). I love, love, loved it, knew it was the best thing I’d ever written and was gonna finish it in record time.
Well, the honeymoon period has been over for a couple of months. My WIP won’t take out the trash, doesn’t tell me I’m pretty any more, and the relationship has just been stagnating, the two of us sitting on the couch together, but not really communicating. I’ve tried sneaking around the road blocks in the story, but keep running into new ones. I’ve questioned myself (Is it me? What am I doing wrong?); my WIP (Why are you such a cold-hearted bastard?! Talk to me!!); and life in general (Maybe I’m not meant to be a writer. Maybe I should just resign myself to admin work the rest of my life).
So this morning I open this book, THE WAR OF ART by Steven Pressfield, on the Muni and read this:
“Like a magnetized needle floating on a surface of oil, Resistance will unfailingly point to true North – meaning that calling or action it most wants to stop us from doing.
We can use this. We can use it as a compass. We can navigate by Resistance, letting it guide us to that calling or action that we must follow before all others.
Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we will feel towards pursuing it.”
Talk about a cosmic wake-up smack on the back of the head (which kind of hurt ’cause I’m on my second week of serial migraines). I love moments like these when you read, see or hear exactly the right thing to flip a stubborn switch from ‘off’ to ‘on’ and help you move forward.
In other words, my WIP and I may be going through a shaky period, but it’s worth the time and effort to make this relationship work. I have a damn good book in the making and I’m gonna finish it even if I have to take out the trash every night.
Come on, WIP. Tell me I’m sexy. You know you want to. 🙂
Glad to hear you’re encouraged. Didn’t hurt me to read that, either!
This book is great, Guru… I know you’d love it!
Here’s hoping this gives you a new charge of energy with the WIP. Do you ever switch to another WIP to work out different muscles? It’s what always works for me. Stick with it — of COURSE you’re a writer. Pshaw! No doubts about that!
My favorite part of “War of Art” is the “It’s a job. First rule of a job is you show up.” And that’s how you call the Muses…
Margery, in this case I actually switched to a short story, had a blast writing it in a short amount of time, then went back to the book and… bonk! The wall hit again. Which is why this book is so perfect for me to read right now! It reminds me I’m my own worst enemy at times.
I’ve been showing up to work, dagnabbit! But the quality of my performance has been iffy. 🙂
you’ll beat it, I have faith.
Adele, I generally do… after much whinging… 🙂
Don’t you DARE give it up. Don’t, for Ob’s sake, let that dratted WIP win!!!!
If anyone was meant to write, you are that person. (And I’ve read pretty much everything you have turned out, including “Professor Purr’s Solution”–HAH!!! THAT takes care of the inferiority of cats.)
So sorry to hear those stupid migranes are back. That work in progress is obviously adding to the strain. I hope you can overcome the block soon, as long as you feel better.
Whine all you need to. Just please take care of yourself. You are more important than any WIP, or anything else. 🙂
Sorry to be so late. I just recovered from a bad stomache virus. Otherwise I’d have seen this when it was posted. 🙂
Jack, never fear! As much as I angst, I won’t give up on any of my projects. Sometimes it’s just easier to work things out in my head if I do it loudly. 🙂
Sorry to hear you were down and out with the bug! Glad you’re back up and running again!
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