When I first started writing, I spent every spare moment trying to fit in a few thousand extra words per week. I wrote as much as I could, trying to blast through that "one last chapter" so I could finish as quickly as possible. But over the last year or so of working on The Last Bucelarii (Book 1): Blade of the Destroyer, I've come to realize that I can only do so much in a day. With all of the other things I need to do--work, family, health, etc.--I have to accept the fact that I cannot spend hours every day writing for the rest of my life. I have to pace myself. This has taught me acceptance, in so many ways. There are so many things that are completely outside of my control when it comes to writing! I can only do so much to market my book, given my current circumstances. I can only spend so much time writing per day, but I have found that spending too much time writing can actually decrease its quality. I can only do so much to ensure that my works are error-free, but the truth is that I will never catch all of my mistakes--hence the need for an editor. I can only make sure to write the best story possible, but I will always need an outside perspective to tell me "Oh, this is crap" or "Change this" or "Expand on this" or "Eliminate this completely". I can only write to the best of my abilities. I may not be the best writer on the planet, but I will be the best writer I can be. Acceptance does not mean mediocrity; quite the contrary, I think. I believe that acceptance helps us to stop driving ourselves beyond our capabilities, and it helps up pushing ourselves to our utmost limits without expecting the impossible. Life isn't perfect and it never will be. Those writers I look up to as "the best" probably face the same crap that I do, and they have come to accept it. The quality of their writing proves that they are as good as they can be, and that's what they are content with. I have learned acceptance a lot in my writing, and it has made me not just a better writer, but a better person overall!