Don't Quit!!!

Collage, 2007, by Laura Basha

People have asked me about how much it took to write this latest book I completed and published. They admire that I have done it; they are completely respectful of what it has taken. It’s really very acknowledging of them to communicate this to me, and I appreciate it.

But let me tell you something – I have the same unrelenting and loud screaming voice in my head as everyone else: “You don’t need to get up at 4:30am! Go back to sleep, you can write later today, or even tomorrow …”, or “WHY are you writing a BOOK?! WHO needs another BOOK on the planet for heaven’s sake?!” or, “What makes you think YOU could write a book anyone would want to read?!”, and on and on and on.

So I had to dig deep sometimes, and reconnect to the powerful creative pull calling faintly through the cacophony of invalidating internal verbal assaults. I just kept choosing the music of the Muse, one proverbial foot in front of the other.

So, I came across this quote today, and I wanted to share it with all of us working on breaking up the anti-creativity tar-baby-of-negativity that this impersonal and incessant inner shrew or seductive cajoler is committed to expressing, to keep us from our authentic self-expression.

I will just say to you: listen to the Muse, and don’t quit!

“RESISTANCE IS INSIDIOUS”

“Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. It will perjure, fabricate, falsify; seduce, bully, cajole. Resistance is protean. It will assume any form, if that’s what it takes to deceive you. It will reason with you like a lawyer or jam a nine-millimeter in your face like a stickup man. Resistance has no conscience. It will pledge anything to get a deal, then double-cross you as soon as your back is turned. If you take Resistance at its word, you deserve everything you get. Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.”

~ from The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield