Recognizing Creative Resistance

“I’ve been taking a break from finishing my book and feel it’s time for me to get back to writing but I haven’t been able to get started.

I’m trying to draw inspiration from your writing but seem blocked by wanting to finish other “stuff” first. Have you any thoughts to offer?”*

I genuinely love receiving comments on my posts and having the opportunity to answer your questions; so if you haven’t yet taken the plunge, please dive in as I’d love to hear from you!

Today I’m prompted by the question above to share a key aspect of my approach to recognizing creative resistance.

 “Bad” and “Good” News

To one degree or another, this is a real issue for everyone who feels called to write or engage in any form of creative self-expression.

The “bad” news is that resistance to taking creative action isn’t something you deal with once and never experience again.

The “good” news is that the more you recognize it, feel it… yet go ahead regardless, the less power it has to keep you stuck and the faster you’re able to move through it.

A Shape-Shifting Creature

The first steps, however, are to understand what resistance is and recognize its presence – neither of which are as straightforward as you might think.

Creative resistance is essentially anything and everything that prevents you from starting, developing or completing your creative projects.

It’s a canny, shape-shifting creature that can appear unexpectedly at any time before, during and after your writing or other creative expression.

Gripped in a Vice

Resistance can be understated to the degree that you may not be consciously aware of its existence.

Alternatively, it can seize you with such ferocity that you feel gripped in a vice of writing paralysis, even when other areas of your life are flowing freely.

Pause for a moment and see if you recognize one or more of the following in relation to writing. Do you:

1. Struggle with deciding what topic to write about?

Having an abundance of ideas is typical for most writers.

Deciding on where to place your focus is an integral part of the creative writing process and may take time to crystallize, often beyond the point of starting your first draft.

Yet if you find yourself going round and round a loop of possibilities over a prolonged period of time and never feeling ready to choose one, it’s likely that resistance is the cause.

2. Think about writing but put off starting?

Procrastination is a classic form of resistance for writers, and one I’m certainly familiar with myself!

It’s not just the effort to begin writing, it’s also the will to start afresh day after day to see the work through to completion.

When you regularly use a selection of seemingly credible reasons for delaying the moment of truth and sitting down to write, resistance is the cause.

3. Feel overcome by doubts about your ability to write and who would want to read your work anyway?

Most writers question their capacity for skilfully crafting words on the page at one stage or another.

You may doubt whether anyone will be interested in your ideas and feel that it’s all been said before. A typical question is, “Who am I to write…?”

Naturally, you do need to ensure that your ideas are fresh and your sentences make sense, but if your doubts develop to the extent that they prevent you from writing at all, resistance is the cause.

4. Lead a busy life yet when you have a window of opportunity find yourself clearing out cupboards instead of doing your writing?

Not having enough time and space to write is another perennial issue for writers and is a genuine challenge.

You’ll undoubtedly have commitments relating to family, friends and work as well as the general admin of everyday life.

Having too much time can present you with a different set of issues yet ultimately lead to the same end point. When you want to write but consistently avoid it, resistance is the cause.

5. Find it hard to finish a piece of writing and enjoy a sense of satisfied completion?

Author Erica Jong once admitted, “I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged.”

So many writers have a plethora of unfinished pieces of writing, snippets of ideas only partially developed or stories that lack an ending.

When staying the course feels like trying to hold a handful of water, resistance is the cause.

In a Nutshell

In a nutshell, when you fail to write despite wanting to, or feel anxious to the point of inertia, you’re almost certainly caught in the clutches of some form of resistance.

Dive In

• Reflect on how creative resistance shows up for you. Give yourself permission to acknowledge it fully and write about it in your journal.
• Avoid self-judgement. Instead, cultivate compassion towards yourself in the knowledge that you’re far from alone in experiencing some form of resistance.
• Allow yourself to smile as you observe what’s truly going on for you in relation to your writing.
• For now, simply witness the details of your experience and record them in order to develop your ability to be aware when resistance is holding you back.

I’ll write about how to release creative resistance another time.

Hopefully by then you’ll have cultivated the awareness you need to notice what’s going on when you find yourself repeatedly “wanting to finish other ‘stuff’ first”!

How does creative resistance show up for you? Please share your experience or ask a question below. Thank you!

*****

* With thanks to Helen for asking this question in response to last week’s blog, “The Fresh Start in Every Moment”. Read the post and my response to Helen here.

Further Resources

The areas relating to recognizing the different forms of resistance are an edited extract from my book Conscious Writing: Discover Your True Voice through Mindfulness and More (Chapter 15: Facing the Dragon).