Patience Writer. It’s a mantra I use to remind myself in the middle of a project to relax and enjoy the trip. No skill is more needed by a writer than that of patience. It is not an easy one to learn. We often feel an urge to surge ahead so we rush ourselves only to slip and fall. We forget to keep our basics in play.
There are some helpful things we can do to develop more patience. It is a bitter pill to swallow but the results satisfy the soul. We are most fortunate that patience is a learnable skill.
Know your enemy…impatience.
Our world today is a breeding ground of impatience. We have such convince in everything from buying our clothes to getting a fast answer on Google. Instant gratification rules us all. The only cost our ability to deal with the realities time imposes on us.
Go on line or look at any media ad. What do we see? Ads and claims that we can achieve any goal in just a few minutes and with no other cost than the program, pill, or some secret. Do you really think you can actually “Lose 10 inches in 10 days”? If you do, will you be happy with the results? Have you considered your answer there? Is it limited? Did you think about what your next step might be to maintain them for that answer?
Such is the comeuppance of impatience. We often miss the entire picture just for one tidbit promise that is more often fleeting than not. The frequent cost is despair and more frustration.
The Writing! Get on with the Writing!!!!
Sounds somewhat familiar, doesn’t it? That’s the sound of my own inner voice when I want to get the point of my writing. I want to get to the meat of the matter right away. It’s a good thing that writing does not allow me that luxury. No one would understand what I am talking about without some kind of introduction and a general form to follow in the argument.
Writing demands patience. I have my montra to remind me too. “Patience Writer.”
The fact is every writer is under attack, mostly from within, to write faster, write more and get published. We cannot wait to see our names in print or even see that direct deposit from our client. We want it all now.
The waiting is the hardest part.
One of the hardest things to do for a writer is to wait. We need to wait for a blog proposal to be accepted, a journal editor to accept our submission, or a book publisher to approve of our manuscript. It is not uncommon to hear a writer say they would rather have a quick no over a personalized rejection in a couple of months.
That kind of a mindset is almost a crime that will only slow the writer’s development over the long term. A personalized rejection like that will give the writer a better perspective on his piece and skills. Such honest evaluations are essential for real development as a writer. Skipping this for a lack of patience is a disservice to yourself.
I am not saying you should wait for everything. I am saying that you should be more grateful when you do wind up waiting at some point. You will not get some insightful answer every time, but those you do get can really improve your game. That gain is always worth the wait for a writer with patience.
Learn patience writer
Patience takes practice. Patient writing is not any different. That means you will need to let things mature as you go along. I have found a few things do help with developing patience. Yes there are small hacks you can do to move through the process. Not really speed things up, it’s more like what they taught us in the Marines for swimming. “Slow is fast in the water.” That’s because when we swim we fight the water and sink instead of just pushing our buoyant bodies forward.
Purposefully approach your work with the mindset that you are going to let the writing process outside your control is not your concern. Focus instead on consistent and regular writing habits that you can control. For instance getting your pages done today. Publishing your blog’s post or getting that spec article for the portfolio written and uploaded.
Distract yourself habits. One habit you can really use is to check your email just once or twice a day for a very limited time. This also applies to texting and social media as well. You do have people you want to hear from other than your client or publisher. When you limit your time looking for responses, you open more time to think about and do other things. For instance instead of worry over your newest submission, you could just move on to your next project. Ship and then get back to work and life. There are other things to do with your time than just wait for a response, even a fast one.
Be a Salesman.
Awhile back in college I worked schlepping vacuums cleaners door to door. I learned a lot in that time even though I did not really rack up large volumes of cash doing it. In fact I had a manager who was always killing my sales because he was focused on getting cash only deals while all the ones I could find were payment types. From his perspective it was a loosing deal because a cash deal was always paid immediately while the payment program required a waiting period for the commission to be paid and a replacement vacuums to be sent.
I complained of the situation to a more experienced salesman on the team who pointed out that sales was much like life. You had to get through all of the no’s to find the yes’s. “Always look for the no’s.” My boss was just focused on a different set of no’s than I was. In some ways he was more patient than I at the time. He knew the yes’s would come. He just had to get through all of the no’s first. To do that he needed people with stock on hand available to get those to those yes’s as fast as possible.
Writing rejection works the same way. If we waste our time or take too many stupid hacks trying to speed things up because we lack patience, then we lose the time to get the next project or work on said project with less than the total focus and skill we should. Either way we suffer more over all because we are waiting for responses instead of keeping our efforts moving forward.
What to remember? Patience writer.
Patience is not about sitting down for a good wait. There is no such thing as a good wait. Good waits will drive you crazy and destroy your writing career.
Patience in writing is an active process. You get stronger the more patient you choose to become. To be patient you let the things you do not control do their thing and you become more focused on what you do. Write more. Read more. Practice. Allow yourself to fail, so that you can get up for more practice. Be active in your patience.
Photo by Joshua Pilla on Unsplash