How creative of a person are you? "They" say the more creative you are, the more sensitive you are. Which can mean that you don't want to get out of you bed some days, or that you have the ability to procrastinate greatly, or that you want to destroy every piece of work that you have ever created because it's crap and you'll never be as crazy as Vincent van Gogh or as cool as Michaelangelo.Well, this book gives you tools to help you overcome all your short comings and own up to your potential as...

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.

“The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.” ― Steven Pressfield, The War of ArtThree stars in both content and delivery, but I should probably also disclose that I REALLY struggle with the whole self-help genre and this was basically just a self-help book for writers and artists. I'm not sure if it genetic, or shaped by my own experience on this blue dot, but I generally HATE all forms and types of self-help book. "The sub-genre...

It's more than worth the price of admission for anyone in a creative field. Clear, inspiring, and short. (Also, inexpensive, which seems remarkably fair in this era.)Yes, roughly half of the book is a little... ethereal, perhaps. More Pressfield's life philosophy and spirituality than anything, and not helpful to me. But I'm not going to knock a star off it for that. I've read too many business books that are 15 pages of gold surrounded by 200 pages of fluff to get angry when an author legitimat...

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 wi...

Hello, my name is Makeba and it has been 22 days since I've thought about writing and decided to do something else instead. I write everyday, and this book helped me do it."The War of Art" made me feel bad about my relationship with the creative process. She would invite me out and I'd decide to wash my hair instead. He would call and I'd push the button that sent it straight to voicemail. I was a lousy friend. Illuminating what Pressfield defines as resistance and turning pro turned the tables

What a piece of garbage! The author of this new-ageish book repeatedly states opinion as fact, and proves himself to be a misguided and judgmental buffoon. Here are some of the things I "learned" while reading this meritless piece of tripe: 1. Attention Deficit Disorder and Social Anxiety Disorder aren't "real"--they are merely excuses that we give ourselves because we don't want to succeed; 2. The reason Hitler killed millions of Jews is because he didn't have a creative outlet, and he should h...

Reading this book is like fishing through a landfill site for diamonds; they're there, just buried under mountains of crap.The central thesis is that procrastination is often harmful to our long-term success, and of this point I have no disagreement. However the majority of the book is replete with superstition, thinly veiled proselytizing, bullshit facts, and other miscellaneous woo-woo including:* Hitler was an artist that started WWII because he was procrastinating, and, as a result of this,

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.

I couldn't get into this book. I've read and reread it several times, but it just doesn't do it for me. I gave it the second star because he does give some good advice about committing to the work, and staying in the seat. Some good bits about discipline and such.I have about 13 years of collegiate and graduate art school under my belt, and I've worked in the fine and commercial arts. Thing is, I hate seeing the challenge of making art turn into this romanticized, epic battle between the poor pu...

What a pretentious piece of ridiculous crap. It has:• Harmful, uninformed medical opinions (Why?? It's a book on creativity. Just NO.)• Bizarre and illogical assessments of historical figures• COMPLETELY FAKE STATISTICS (How did those even survive editing? You can't make figures up to back your outrageous opinions. You need real sources. They should be cited. This is the fastest way to enrage a librarian.)• Constant judgment (as if I can't get enough of that in small town Missouri)• So much repe...

“The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.” Steven Pressfield ~~ The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative BattlesReading this book was like a slap in the face to me. I AM a director and a writer. I struggle often to find my identity in my written words.We all of us artists ~~ writers, directors, painters, photographers, dancers, musicians ~~ have faced all the serious struggles that comes with being an

I dig it. There are a lot of negative reviews of it on Goodreads, mostly about it being derivative, and/or unnecessarily characterizing the creative process as a struggle. Guys: you picked up a self-help book. You picked up a book called "The War of Art". If you hoped for originality, or a touchy-feely art-is-easy book, you made a strange decision. I'm just saying.Personally, I found this book pretty useful. It's dense, wise, and low-bullshit. Spiritual, yes. Namby-pamby, no. It treats inspirati...

This short book is filled with short chapters—some one or two paragraphs long, some a few pages—that are primarily to motivate people who are or aspire to be writers or painters or another kind of artist. But it’s also inspirational to folks who want to start exercising or lose weight or quit some addiction. The basic message is, essentially, you can’t keep saying stuff to yourself like, “I’ll start the novel tomorrow.” “I’ll start exercising/eating well tomorrow.” It’s all about overcoming Resi...

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 pe...

What a mess. This book is ridiculous. This book is angry. This book is upset that it had to be written because the author made himself think that he had to stay in a chair everyday writing regardless of however else he may have felt at the moment. This book is an awesome example of someone who apparently believes in the explicit value of free speech but denounces free will.I finished it a few days ago and have since been seriously trying to understand how it was published.FIrst of all, it's not

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...

Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art is essentially an extended pep talk/motivational speech meant to pump the reader up into doing what they’re putting off doing, be it going for a new job, starting a new diet or whatever, though ostensibly it’s aimed at wannabe writers. And it’s a bit too generic for my blood. I’ve read a few books like this – off the top of my dome, Stephen King’s On Writing, Benjamin Percy’s Thrill Me and Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck – all of which did it

I read this book over and over again as necessary. It is the kick in the ass every artist needs, sometimes daily. Because we all face the same enemy, fight the same battle every day: Resistance. According to Pressman, this is the whole story. Every day you either win or lose your battle with resistance. All the rest is talk. Why you lost it doesn't matter. Maybe your mother didn't love you enough. Maybe you don't believe in yourself enough. Maybe you think you're not as talented as you wish you

As some of you may have noticed, there's a book called The Midnight Disease listed as something I'm currently reading. I don't remember when I added it anymore, but I know it was a while ago.There was a period of time this summer where I simply could not write *at all.* I tried everything--I tried to read book about writers block like The Midnight Disease. Nothing in them helped me. I went to different places to try and write. Nothing. I made myself sit down with only my AlphaSmart and refused t...