Saturday, July 19, 2008

Patience, dear

It’s raspberry season! I love raspberries, especially sprinkled over oatmeal or mixed with yogurt in the morning. To get them, all I do is walk out the back door, turn the corner, and head for the garden. Voila!

I am impatient to cram them into my mouth, and occasionally the berries I pick aren’t as ripe as they could be We all know that unripe berries are sour. Puckery sour. ☹ Thanks to more than a few unpleasantly sour experiences, I have learned to curb my impatience (negative reinforcement, I think the psychologists call it), and wait an extra day or two if the berries aren’t quite red enough. This strategy almost always pays off. ☺

Believe it or not, you can apply this same strategy to novel writing.

A novel (or any piece of writing) needs time to grow, ripen, and mature. Just like berries. Rush to finish and the end results are not the best. It’s ironic that a person as impatient as I am chose a career in novel writing. A craft that requires infinite patience and reworking. I’m embarrassed to admit that once or twice early on, I hurried through writing a book and sent it off before it was quite ready. Thankfully, the editors caught me. I know better now, knowing that through patience and persistence I do my best work.

Until next time and wishing you the patience to do your best work, whatever it is,

Ann Roth
www.annroth.net

3 comments:

EllenToo said...

Patience is a great thing to have but so few of us have learned to have it.

Anonymous said...

So true!! Years ago I bought a greeting card that spoke to me. The front of the card says, Lord, grant me patience. Open the card and it continues, And hurry up!

I still have it.

EllenToo said...

LOL Ann I love it.