The novelist Steven Pressfield's new short book on creativity is entitled, refreshingly, Do The Work. The problem with too many tomes promising advice on "how to be creative" is that they might as well be entitled Rather Than Doing The Work, Distract Yourself By Reading This Book. Pressfield is a former US marine – the militaristic title of his earlier self-help book was The War Of Art – and he's uninterested in providing simpering step-by-step exercises to help you contact the delicate artist within. To bring your nascent screenplay or novel or business idea to life, he insists, what you need is a kick in the pants. "Where butts need to be kicked, we shall kick them," he warns, early on. No ifs, though there are quite a few butts. And asses. "Get to the end as if the devil himself were breathing down your neck and poking you in the butt with his pitchfork." The inner critic? "His ass is not permitted in the building."

Perceptive readers may notice a problem here, which is that if Pressfield thinks "do the work" is all you need to know, it's unclear why he needs a book to say it, unless just to scream it, marine-style, in your face. In fact, he has another important insight, which is that effortlessness is not necessarily a sign that creative work is going well; resistance – or as he always writes it, Resistance – can be proof you're on the right track. He's clearly heavily influenced here by the epic battles he depicts in his novels: he sees Resistance (which includes procrastination, the opposition of family and colleagues, and more) as an actively evil force, hellbent on sabotaging your efforts to pursue your calling. The good-versus-evil language seems unnecessary here, but the basic point is surely sound: work that matters is always going to feel difficult. Or to quote Pressfield: "We will sink our junkyard-dog teeth into Resistance's ass and not let go, no matter how hard he kicks."

Does it really make sense, though, to view creative work – or any work, unless you're a soldier – as a battle? The one obvious truth about Resistance that Pressfield seems to have missed is that if you go searching for it, armed to the teeth and looking for a fight, you'll certainly find it. Or to drop the military imagery: convincing yourself that your work is extremely important, that your life depends on it, is a way to generate fear, not conquer it. Kicking Resistance's butt (or biting it in the ass, though I imagine it might be hard to do both at the same time) frequently isn't half as effective as outwitting it entirely.

An example from my line of work: one of the most useful books I've read about writing is Paul Silvia's How To Write A Lot, which is aimed specifically at writers in academia, but which has relevance far beyond. Silvia's primary recommendation is to stick to a writing schedule. He offers a few other tips for keeping quality and quantity high. And that's about it. No warnings that you'll need "balls of steel" (Pressfield) in order to finish your project. To be honest, How To Write A Lot is pretty dull. But that's exactly as it should be: it makes creativity non-intimidating, and thus it makes creativity actually happen. Resistance slinks away, bored by your down-to-earth persistence, baffled by its unbruised buttocks.

oliver.burkeman@theguardian.com; twitter.com/oliverburkeman