I've been doing the "Writing Mistakes" series for a good long while now, so I think I've covered most of the basic mistakes writers make. It's time for a brand new series, this one titled "Writing Has Taught Me…" Pretty self-explanatory, right? This week, I want to share how writing has taught me patience. Patience has NEVER been my strong suit. I'm the kind of guy who makes up his mind in a few seconds, and I like to get things done NOW! If it takes too much time, I hate doing it and will look for a faster way to do things. With writing, speed is one of your worst enemies! Not only will it cause you to get sloppy in your writing, but you'll make mistakes that can ruin your story. There are many things about writing that has taught me patience: Struggling to find the right word. There is always that one sentence that you just can't figure out, whether it's how to use the right syntax, how to avoid the use of passives, or how to say what you really want to say. Last week, I spent 30 minutes on TWO paragraphs, trying to make them say as much as possible with as few words as possible. It takes a lot of patience to keep looking for that perfect word until you find it, when all you want to do is move on to the fun parts of the book. Re-drafting and making edits for the fifth time. I HATE EDITING! I'm sure most writers do. Sadly, it's part of the life of a writer. Editors and beta readers mark up your book, forcing you to go over, and over, and over it again. By the time my books even see an editor, they've been through about 5 revisions. That takes A LOT of patience! Waiting for beta readers. This is by no means a complaint about my beta readers, but it's just a part of life. Every one of them is busy, and the fact that they're gracious enough to invest their time into reading my work is something I cannot thank them enough for. But it's still hard for me to sit and wait for them to finish reading so I can get back to work on my "baby". Publishing with enough time to set up a proper launch. I finished writing The Last Bucelarii (Book 1): Blade of the Destroyer in late November, and the launch isn't going to happen until May or June (publisher willing). That takes A LOT of patience, just waiting on the edge of my seat until the date that my finished product is released. In waiting, however, I've had time to set up a big launch, which will in turn increase the success of my book when it finally is released. Here's hoping my patience will pay off! Doing the book right. Who doesn't want to write a single draft and simply release the finished product? Every writer dreams of having their books go straight from their (proverbial) pen to the bookshelves, but that's NOT how it works. To do a book right takes long hours of correcting, editing, formatting, and more. Hurrying it up to get the finished product faster would result in a poorly done product, so it's important for us writers to be patient. Getting feedback. I have posted passages of my WIP and had people give me feedback a week later, when I had already moved on. It was kind of annoying to have to go back and re-edit the portion I had thought was finished, but when I looked at it again, it looked much better post-feedback/correction. Sitting and just writing. I write for a living (30 to 40 hours a week), so you can imagine how difficult it is to write as a hobby as well. It takes a lot of patience to sit back down at my computer and write after a long day of sitting at my computer and writing. Has writing taught you patience? Leave a comment below with ways that you've learned a bit of patience through your efforts to write…