How to Survive the Wait: Free Advice

The wait.

Sigh.

Yep.

The wait truly is the hardest part. The hardest part of being a writer. Uh, okay, one of them.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMyCa35_mOg?rel=0&w=420&h=315]

If you’re a writer, you probably know. Waiting is involved at every stage of the writing journey. You wait in the trenches while querying agents. You wait while submitting to editors. Even after you get that sale, you wait to hear from editors on your revisions. So on and so forth. A lot of people in the industry have mentioned this, but the whole publishing process really is a series of waits and then random burst of HURRY YOU MUST MEET THIS DEADLINE NOW NOW NOW and then more excrcutiating waits.

One of the reasons why the wait is so difficult is because while you’re sitting on your hands waiting, other people are flying past, grabbing big book deals, getting awesome covers, movie deals, fan pages, book tours and what not. And of course, if you’re just a newbie writer starting out you’re looking at all that and going “take me with you ;_;” only to have to go through more waiting.

It’s okay.

It sucks, but it’s a part of the process. To a reasonable degree, you just have to be patient.

How do you survive it? By burying yourself in a new project of course!

It doesn’t have to be a writing project, but if you’re a writer, yeah, it would be a good idea to write something new. Go crazy! Forget all about that other story still trapped in the waiting gridlock – write another one! And then, when that story enters the gridlock – write another one! See how it goes? If you can completely forget about the other story’s existence by diving into a new one, then you’re doing something right!

Case in point: I have a YA Fantasy waiting in the wings. Very exciting – it’s a story that’s totally for the geeky girl otaku in all of us. But in terms of the submission/publishing process, it’s still in the early stages. Because of that, I’ve totally shifted my attention onto an exciting new fantasy story that’s unlike anything I’ve ever done before while still being so totally in line with the geeky stuff I’ve always loved. It’s a challenging project, but awesome nonetheless. And strange, I’m loving it so much that I can forget, for little spurts at least, the pangs of the wait.

So that’s my advice: don’t just sit on your thumbs, get going on other stuff! As hard as it is, try to pretend that other stuff doesn’t exist. Trust me, it’ll work out. Out of sight, out of mind. Give it a try!