Last night, I had to re-do the bodice of a dress I’m sewing three times before it looked right. It was annoying and frustrating, but in the end, satisfying. I was glad I took the trouble to make the dress hang well on my body.

This morning, I tried to remind myself about that while working on a particularly difficult section of my novel. I’m just re-doing the bodice until it fits with the rest of dress.

This takes a considerable amount of faith. You have to see past the momentary irritation and despair and believe that it will all come together in the end. But even more, you have to believe that the finished dress will look good enough to make all the trouble it took to sew it worthwhile.