Patience is a virtue. Growing up, that was something I heard often. And although I understood what it meant, it wasn’t something that came easy to me. I couldn’t wait for the school year to end to enjoy the freedom that the summer break afforded. I couldn’t wait to escape my awkward adolescence and become a grown-up. And I definitely couldn’t wait for the day when I would be able to leave my parents’ home for a place of my own. I was always in a rush to move to the next stage, always running ahead to an uncertain and unforeseeable future.
Learning to Go Slow
As I focused more on my writing, and specifically as I transitioned from short-form to long-form fiction, I struggled again with patience. I wanted to write the first drafts quickly so that I could get to my favourite phase: the rewrite. Then I wanted to speed through the rewrite(s) so I could send the manuscript off for editing. And while the manuscript was with my editor, I’d start on another project, still anxious and thinking about what my editor thought. Because I wanted to move the project to the next stage.
But there’s an important lesson that I learned, and Ryan Holiday reminds us of it in Discipline is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control when he writes: “[…] almost everything that matters takes longer than it should, certainly longer than we would like.”1 So, if I thought a rewrite might take three months, it often took double that or longer. I had no choice but to practice patience, and to give myself the grace to go slow.
Patience as Virtue
As I finally understood that things generally take longer than I liked, I was able to see the opportunity that having the patience to go slow provided. It allows me to focus on quality over quantity. And that’s important for me as an author, because I take pride in the works I put out into the public domain. I ‘obsess’ over each word. I take the time to absorb the feedback and suggestions from my editor and beta readers, and work methodically to incorporate the necessary changes.
So, do not rush. Have the wisdom to know when to practice patience. And remember, as Jean de la Fontaine told us: “Patience and time do more than strength and courage.”
- Holiday, R. (2022). Discipline is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control, New York, Portfolio/Penguin, p. 130. [↩]
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