You Need a Sam Gamgee

The Creative Rebellion • Dispatch #007 • 4 min read

Confession: this post should have been published last week. But I didn’t finish writing it in time. There were a lot of reasons for not getting it done, but the truth is:

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been a creative, Resistance will still fight you. I’ve been creating since I could hold a crayon or a pencil. I have 35-year-old notebooks filled with artwork and short stories. But I still face Resistance on a daily—if not hourly—basis.

There is no defeating it once and for all. It’s a fight you will wage over and over and over again. Consider it part of the creative process.

Sometimes starting will feel like the hardest part. Sometimes it’s the middle that weighs you down. And other times it’s that final stretch as you near the finish line when Resistance extends a foot into your path, tripping you up just so it can watch you tumble into a heap while it crunches on avocado toast.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about collaboration, and how Resistance keeps us from sharing our ideas for fear they might be bad.

(Hint: a lot of them are)

Although there can be fear surrounding collaboration, there is also safety to be found. We might wish for the relative safety of solitude to avoid the fear of sharing our ideas, but that can be a mistake.

When we embark on solo creative endeavors, the journey can be lonely and can make us susceptible to giving up, sometimes before we even get started.

There are times when it’s important to close ourselves off and get to work. We need times of uninterrupted focus—deep work, to borrow the title of Cal Newport’s book. But every so often we need to connect, we need the camaraderie that’s inherent to collaboration.

The same comfort that can be found in a collaboration can also be found by merely sharing your struggles with another creative.

You don’t have to collaborate to share one another’s burden, but you do have to be willing to be vulnerable.

You have to be willing to actually share what you’re struggling with.

Can’t get motivated? Share that.

Stuck in the middle? Share that.

Unable to call the project done? Share.

Have a fear of hitting publish? Share.

You get the idea.

If you can share your creative struggles and your fight against Resistance, you’ll find you aren’t as alone as you thought. Because we all experience it.

You are not the only one who has ever faced Resistance.

My favorite book* is The Lord of the Rings.

It’s an epic tale that can be boiled down to a very simple summary:

Frodo must destroy the Ring of Power before it destroys him, or falls back into the hands of Sauron.

At the risk of spoiling the end of a 68 year old story…

SPOILER ALERT

…Frodo does accomplish his mission.

(Although, even at the end, at the edge of the fires of Mt. Doom, Frodo’s greed for the ring would have spelled defeat were it not for Gollum’s deeper desire for the ring.)

But he never could have done it alone. Gandalf died. The Fellowship was broken. He tried to leave Sam behind. Gollum tried to take the ring back. He was almost killed be a giant spider. And the Ring almost lulled him into surrender a number of times.

Sam was his constant companion. He couldn’t carry the burden of the Ring, but he could carry his friend. He could push him to the end. Protect him. Urge him on.

And though the rest of the Fellowship was split, they did their part to defeat the army of Mordor and help Frodo in ways unseen and unknown to him.

We all need a Sam. We need a Fellowship.

Find someone who can share in your struggles even if they aren’t sharing in your project.

When Resistance shows up, you’ll need a friend to urge you on in your mission.

If you’ve never read The Lord of the Rings, what are you waiting for? Get a copy now!

*Nerd side-note: Yes, it’s usually viewed as a trilogy, but Tolkien only published it as three separate books at the insistence of his publisher. He meant it to be one epic piece.

When the publisher wouldn’t go for that, he aimed to split it into six parts (each published book still contains a Book 1 and a Book 2). Still a no. (Post-WWII paper supplies and costs and all that.)

So it was released as a trilogy. But the best way to read it is as one giant story. I really like this version. Also, you don’t have to read The Hobbit for LotR to make sense, but it will help deepen the story. I like this pocket edition of The Hobbit.

Do you have someone to share your creative struggles with?

Until next Saturday...

Stay rebellious,

Travis

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