I dropped by my elderly neighbour on New Year's day to wish her all the best and found her putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Although in her late seventies she likes to keep active. But due to the bad weather conditions just now it's not possible for her to get out and about, so she decided it was time to give her brain a good work out.
When I commented that it was years since I had sat down and tackled one, she offered to lend me one of her vast collection of puzzles. An offer I quickly declined, my excuse being that I didn't have the patience. But excuses don't wash with her, probably because she was once a school teacher and she asked me to justify my statement. When I started to struggle with my explanation, she laughed heartily and told me that I had myself all wrong.
She told me to look at what I do day in and day out, the thing I would do 24/7 if I could. Of course, it's writing, and she is right, you do need to be patient when writing. Because the whole process from start to the actual publication of your work takes a long time. If you think about the time it takes to plot, write the first, second or third draft. Then there's the edits, the line edits, so on, so on.
Although I still didn't take up the offer of taking away a jigsaw, I did come away knowing something about myself that I wasn't aware of. So the next time I hear the phrase, 'Patience is a virtue, possess it if you can, seldom found in woman, never found in man. 'I'll be reminded of my neighbours wise words, that demonstrated we writers definitely do need to possess the virtue of patience.
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