One of the skills I’ve been really building lately is patience. Every step of the way in the publishing process, waiting is involved. Get an idea. Patiently type out each word until the book is done. Set it aside, even though you want to edit it NOWNOWNOW. Realize edits will take much longer than you thought, even though you really wanted to submit it right away. Rewrite, edit, repeat. Submit it! Oh wait. First you need to write the synopsis and query letter. Okay, then submit it!
Then wait.
And wait.
And wait.
I didn’t realize that all of that waiting was actually great practice for when the acceptance letter finally arrived. The publishing process takes time, and it can be months until your work hits the shelves. Months full of rushing to meet deadlines, then waiting to receive the next ones–short bursts of activity followed by long weeks of wondering what to do next.
It’s important to remain productive during the limbo periods. Patience will serve you well throughout each step of the process (and probably in your non-writing life as well!).
Yes! Yes! Yes! I am there waiting for notes from my editor. And it is hard to focus on other things, even though I know I should work on other things. Blah.
That is an invaluable skill to cultivate. With my first experience with edits, Holly had the MS for a week, then I had it for a week, and we passed it back and forth. In the weeks when she had it, I kept myself busy writing the sequel. I had to be able to jump back and forth to stay productive—otherwise, I would have sat around refreshing my email all day and lingering on social media 😛 Patience seems to be useful to avoid procrastinating for me. “Let it happen in its own time and focus on the things I can be accomplishing.”
Ack! That reminds me, I’m supposed to be setting up my home office 🙂 All the lovely peoples are just so interesting…