Waiting is hard. It’s one of the hardest parts of life in general and an even harder part of being a writer. Nevertheless, it’s an important part of being a writer—so it’s crucial to figure out how to win the waiting game.
I know a lot about waiting. One of my claims to fame, although it’s really not a great claim to fame if I’m being honest, is that I once waited a year and a half to receive a rejection on a short story. The rejection was from a now-defunct literary journal (of some fame), but the rejection still stung.
Before that extraordinarily long wait, I had faced similar waiting periods for short stories, to hear back about jobs, for a response on college applications, and a slew of other things that have likely been washed from my memory. You see, the thing is that we often don’t remember the wait. It’s excruciating when you’re in it—like sitting in a hospital waiting room waiting for news that could change your life for the better or ruin it—but once you get the news, good or bad, that’s almost always the part you remember.
I remember that lengthy waiting period because it was longer than the norm, but the thing that stands out the most is the “no” at the end of that year-and-a-half-long period. I also remember a few happy “yeses” that I received when I was querying my first novel. I know a couple of those requests for a full or partial manuscript were almost instantaneous, and a few came months after submission, but the thing that stands out is that rush of happiness when I received some sort of good news.
All of these memories about waiting periods, acceptances, and rejections have, I’m sure, unintentionally informed my own perspective on writing and publishing. And they’ve influenced how I approach the waiting game now.
Because yes, I’m waiting, yet again.
That book I was writing for Harlequin has been revised and resubmitted, and now there’s nothing left to do but wait. For the next several months, I must distract myself from the waiting game that I’m playing with myself and move on to my next project. I have to resist logging into my Submittable account every day to see if the status has been updated from “Received” to “In-Progress,” because it really doesn’t matter when all is said and done.
I have to remind myself that while the wait seems unbearable right now, what ultimately will matter in the grand scheme of my writing career is the answer to this submission, and how I choose to spend my time leading up to that answer. Will I have another project halfway completed by then, or will I allow myself to wallow in the uncertainty of an answer I don’t know when to expect?
You see, I’ve come to believe that way you handle the wait, coupled with the ultimate answer after that wait, of course, is what can make or break your career as a writer. The wait is for working on something new. It’s for learning to write in a different genre, reading a stack of books on your “to read” list, trying your hand at a short story, or letting all your feelings about said wait out into an angsty poem.
Sitting around and waiting is a surefire way to lose the waiting game, but taking this time to keep writing, learning, and creating will mean you win, even if the answer ends up being a “no.”
Here are the places my words have ended up since I last wrote:
Why You Should Start a Newsletter to Build Your Writing Platform published in Inspired Writer
What Happens When You Take a Break From Writing on Medium? published in Curation and Meedium Matters
Your Book Needs a Happily Ever After published in The Writing Cooperative
How to Keep Your Friendships Intact When Starting a Business republished on my blog
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been reading The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. It’s the first in a series all about a group of friends in a retirement community who find themselves in the middle of a murder investigation—much to their delight.
If you know me, you know that this is an entirely different genre than I usually read, so it’s not quite as interesting to me as my beloved historical romances. It’s still a great, fast-paced mystery, however, and I am anxious to find out whodunnit.
Did you know that there is an entire category of YouTube videos created to give you a nostalgic warm and fuzzy feeling while you work? I found out about videos like the one below back in December, when I was recommended a video for background noise that consisted of old Christmas carols coming from another room while the fire is crackling. It creates quite a nice picture, doesn’t it?
This week, I’ve been working with the below video in the background—old Disney songs playing in another room while it’s raining. I’m someone who can’t work on writing of any kind with music I know in the background—the words from the song somehow will inevitably end up worked into whatever I’m writing—so this is a perfect solution when I want some lovely, calming music in the background.