Watch water drop onto the rock beneath it. One drop does nothing, but many drops over time create a hole in the rock. Such is the power of patience.
I know many of us writers struggle with our lack of patience. So many things are out of our control- getting sick while typing that first draft, waiting for beta reader responses, checking the inbox a gazillion times a day to hear back from agents and editors.
Why do we endure all this?
We love to write. Most of us would be miserable without our writing. I know I would. So take a deep breath and remember, the Word document will still be there tomorrow. The email in your inbox won’t disappear if you don’t check it every fifteen minutes.
Just relax.
Easier said than done, eh?
Photo from Musical Footsteps.
No, my email vanishes if it's not open on the bottom of my screen. I need to know the second I receive an email. THE SECOND!
The scariest part is that I'm not even querying. I just really like emails.
I am constantly checking my emails for query responses. I hate that. I wish I could just check once a day like I used to.
Great post! I need much more patience. I'm constantly checking my email.
The more time passes, the less impatient I get waiting for things. It's like, the very beginning I'm totally obsessively checking my email, but a few weeks down the line, I'm barely checking it once a day. Is that just me?
It's not just you, Amalia. My patience grows with time as well.
Great post, Stephanie. Wouldn't it be great if it WAS as easily done as said?! 🙂
I'm hating my inbox ATM — I've got some virus/spoofer or something sending out spam to everyone in my contact list (which includes lots of agents)… Seriously pissed at Yahoo.
I'm pretty sure I've forgotten how to relax and let things happen to me. I can't stand not doing something about it.
Sigh…
Patience is key!! I can not agree more. I often have to find patience to weather through those times I can not write because life gets too busy. I have to find patience for those times that I just don't feel creative anymore and I worry that my imagination has evaporated into the void. And lastly, I must find patience to plow through all the rewrites! Happy writing!
The Word doc will still be there…AS LONG AS YOU REMEMBER TO BACK IT UP! As long as I live, I will never forget the time my laptop died horribly in the middle of revisions. At least I'd recently sent a copy to a friend for a critique. Phew! That's all that saved me. Now I back up religiously to two different storage devices after each day's writing.
But yeah. Patience, and stuff.
Relaxing and breathing is good! Good advice 🙂
Great post Stephanie. I've never had any patience. The suspence of waiting just kills me! And I'm constantly checking email too 🙂
Hey, I blogged about loving to write today, too. I've become way better at practicing patience in the last year. It'll all unfold at it's own pace. Until it does, I'll still be writing.
Patience? Is that like not eating the chocolate cake that's in the fridge? Oh no. That's abstinence. Either way, I sin.
Impatience = my worst enemy.
But one of the best pieces of advice for writers is learning to combat it.
My second drafting phase is going so slowly, I have to tell myself this EVERY DAY. I think I wrote about 300 words today. That's all. But now I'm being naughty and visiting blogs.
Oh, you nailed it! I am sooooo impatient. I just want the writing to be done so I can get on with the querying. But I know it's not something I can do well if I rush it.
sigh.
And I seriously have to quit checking email 200 times a day. It doesn't help that I have one email my writing life, one for friends and family and one I use mostly to purchase stuff online, but it has somehow leaked out so I occasionally get messages there too.
I could use some zen in my writing/blogging. Thanks for the reminder, good lady!
(Except it's hard to meditate when you're hopped up on caffeine. Meh. I'll figure it out eventually.)
Relaxing and breathing is good!
Contextual Ad Network India