The Positive of Patience

In two and a half weeks time, I will be teaching a class on creative writing.  I have 17 people signed up eagerly awaiting for what I will have to tell them.  I have my outline done and my next step is to practice.  As I was putting together my outline, a thought occurred to me: patience. 

People in general can be impatient sometimes, but what I find is when you add the pressure of creativity, patience is often lost.  I am just as much as guilty as the next artist.  I start working on a piece and before I can even get through the first sentence I am eager to have a finished product.  I forget that things take time, that I have to put in the work and energy into finishing what I start.  Even when I continue and work through my impatience, I am often frustrated that more time as passed than I would have expected.  In the end, my impatience is clear, but I know enough now that I can't let it beat me, that I must move passed it to get the outcome I am looking for.

New writer's can sometimes fall within this trap.  They let the impatience of the process take over and decide that writing is not for them and then move on to the next endeavor.  It is the determine ones that realize writing takes time.  It takes time to hone one's craft and even after you make it through the publishing door, you are always growing.  Writing is not something that comes quickly, a book just doesn't appear out of thin air.  Sometimes, the best books take years to write.  The trick is to take the impatience and use it.  Use it to push you further down your path.  Turn that impatience into a positive.