Be Patient

“A man who is master of patience is a master of everything else.” 

- George Savile

E.L. Doctorow once said that “writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” You don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see your destination or everything along the way. You just have to see two to three feet ahead of you. This is right up there with the best advice about writing, or life, I have ever heard. 

Your life isn’t a one-click action, so is your dream. Initiative is necessary, as it is the foundation of your dream castle in your promised land. The promised land is your own acre; As long as you don’t hurt anyone, you really get to act with your acre as you please. Knowing that you have a ballpark and solid foundation, you’re in the ready-set-go mode. It doesn’t mean anything if you don’t take action to realize it. It is a vision in your head. You could brag about it all the time, to your friends or to your family. They might be impressed by your great dream. But, after several years, they will regard you as some kind of cowards who dream big, but never take - actions. 

So, now you have a vision. You have your dream castle in your mind. You sometimes see it whenever you blink or sometimes you do not. It is still a dream in your head. You can’t realize your dream by simply pressing that send button. It takes courage to take that first step, but it is followed by thousands of steps down the road to the finish line. 

Then you might wonder “where to start?” The ballpark is too big. Here is the tip, start anywhere that captures your attention. As long as you’re in your own acre, you won’t go wrong. Let’s build it brick by brick. 

Being an author in the 21st century needs more than 26 alphabets. Where do I find my agent? Where do I publish my book? What should be the content for my book? The list of questions goes on and on. I can’t have all the answers at once. I need to answer it one by one.


Read the next chapter: Avoid the College. Learn the Knowledge

Or table of contents: Brick by Brick