It’s been a long time since a book on writing has inspired me to copy long passages, but Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles makes me want to hang quotes up on my wall just so I can be reminded that all the reasons I give myself for not writing (I’m busy, sick, sad, going to do it tomorrow, etc) are not real; they are “Resistance.”

The subtitle implies that this book will offer ways to conquer what I expected to be writer’s/artist’s block. Rather than a lack of inspiration though, Pressfield defines “Resistance” as anything that keeps one from doing her work, as in what you were put on earth to do, what the still small voice inside of you knows is your life purpose.

“Late at night have you experienced a vision of the person you might become, the work you could accomplish, the realized being you were meant to be? Are you a writer who doesn’t write, a painter who doesn’t paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what Resistance is.”

This book is part pep talk, part kick in the ass. Most of us don’t have massage therapists to rub out the knots in our egos or coaches to push us to work harder, move faster, do more. Pressfield offers something better, in short chapters, direct and well-written prose, with the humor and insight of someone who has been there and already knows which excuse you’ll offer next. If you’re not writing, not writing enough, or in any other way having trouble doing your work, your real work–not necessarily what you’re being paid for– read this book.