Wednesday, April 27, 2011

W is for Waiting

A-Z Challenge is almost over! I'm so close. Y is scheduled, but I need to write X and Z. Hmmm.
 

We wait in line. We wait in doctors' offices. We wait for our kids to finish their homework or to get out of an after school activity. Writers wait for responses to queries. We wait for people to read our manuscripts. We wait for rejection. We wait for acceptance.

Writers need to learn patience. There is waiting in every part of the publishing process.

If you can learn to work on new projects during the times you're waiting--or if not a new project, take a walk, start a blog, read a book on the craft of writing, play a word game, volunteer to critique someone else's work, read a new genre.

There will never be a time when you're not waiting for a crit partner, beta reader, agent, editor, publisher, illustrator. But if you can use the waiting time productively, you'll save yourself some craziness.



How do you use your waiting time productively?



Used with permission from Debbie Ridpath Ohi at Inkygirl.com
http://inkygirl.com/comic-use-policy/

10 comments:

Tatum Flynn said...

LOL love that cartoon :D And this post reminds me that someone's waiting for a crit from me, better get back to it!

Bkloss said...

Ha...nice cartoon! You are so right...the "waiting" never ends. And I, unfortunately, never get better at it!

I spend my "wait time" catching up on the books on my ever-lengthening reading list, blogging, and working on other projects.

Heather Kelly said...

Thanks for the hanging out last night!! I can't wait for the next one!

Laura Josephsen said...

HAHA! That cartoon is brilliant. :D

You're so right that waiting is a part of writing (and everything else in life, LOL). Sometimes it feels like writing/publishing is a huge frenzied rush and then long periods of waiting, followed by another huge frenzied rush, and then back to waiting.

Kristine Asselin said...

Girl--glad I could remind you! LOL.

Barbara--thanks. I thought it was pretty cute, and relevant. :)

Heather--me too! So nice to catch up in person.

Laura--I'm not sure it gets any easier, but I hope it does!

nutschell said...

i hate waiting! especially when it comes to waiting for query responses.:p great post!
nutschell
www.thewritingnut.com

Theresa Milstein said...

Reading. I bring a book everywhere. When I query, I also try to write or revise something else.

Kristine Asselin said...

Thanks nutshell and Theresa!

Carolina M. Valdez Schneider said...

I'm the least patient person I know. But I'm also easy enough to distract. So when I'm waiting, I throw myself into something else. It's really the only way to get through that waiting game.

Good luck with all your waiting!

Julie Musil said...

Kris, this is so true! I busy myself with another project, whether it's something new or another round of revisions. If I'm busy, I don't obsess too much over the waiting.