Patience = Better Writing

I am the sort of person who has to really work at not opening my birthday presents early. Or Christmas presents. Or really any present ever handed to me. I'm a big fan of instant gratification.

This presents certain problems when I'm writing. Especially when I'm writing the first draft of a book. 100,000 words is a lot of words and it takes a bit of time to get all that down on paper. I find that if I do my homework before hand, such as work out the plot, characters, world, motiviations, conflicts, imagery, etc. then my rough draft comes out fairly close to the finished product. So I strive to do that since it is less work in the long run.

However, this requires a great deal of patience. Patience not to skip over any steps, patience to figure out everything up front, patience not to fill out the story as I go, or whatever. I have to continually council myself to hold my horses and craft my stories carefully, deliberately, and not cut any corners so that the finished product is of the highest quality I can make it in the first run.

Thankfully, I'm a fast writer so I can still pound out a book in maybe three months. So it's not like I have to wait forever to finish a book. Of course, I want everything done yesterday so my standards are apparently a little high. Especially since I have a full time, demanding day job. It's a wonder I even have a life.

So, I've been working on my patience. Nothing in life comes without hard work unless you get lucky and win the lotto. If I don't attain my goals because I'm lazy, then it's my own damned fault.

So I shall continue to work hard and continue to be patient. The rest is only a matter of time.