I have decided that I will no longer refer to myself as a writer. I am now a waiter. Not in the sense of delivering dishes to your table, hot and without finger marks in the gravy. Rather in the sense of waiting by the mailbox. Or the inbox, as is mostly the case.
I know that waiting time is writing time. All good writers send off submissions â manuscripts, proposals, pitches, library membership application forms â and then promptly forget about them, throwing themselves immediately into their next project.
I try. I really do.
But Iâm an impatient kind of a girl. I canât help checking my inbox daily â okay, several thousand times a day. I canât help wondering â aloud and ad nauseum. And I find it really, really hard to concentrate on other things. LikeâĻ well, anything really.
Itâs bad enough when youâre waiting for one thing. When your knickers are in a knot over several things at once â as mine are at present â it makes it really hard to walk. Not with any elegance, anyway.
Iâm lucky. I have good friends who are excellent writers and they talk me down from the ceiling on a regular basis. Be patient, they advise. Keep busy, they suggest. Donât call, they insist.
So I donât. Instead, I spend my time devising the writerâs rules for waiting.
- That all-important email is not stuck in cyberspace. So it does not matter how many times you click âget mailâ. Desist. You do not need RSI at this point in your career.
- Everything will happen at once. So be ready.
Thatâs it. Waiting is very debilitating. See how itâs draining my inspiration. When you canât even write a 10-point list, you know youâre in trouble.
Iâm not alone, I know. Everyone is waiting for something. Godot, for example. But waiting, like writing, is a lonely business, full of self-doubt and insecurity.
On the other hand, itâs a whole lot better than rejection.
But thatâs a subject for another day. Probably the day my waiting ends.
Which is, apparently, never. Sigh.
Really enjoyable post and informative comments that made me feel I’m not alone. And I’ve only started subbing. Lucky I’ve got 4 kids to pass the time…
Ooh, this is very timely for me. My mouse hand is getting tired from refreshing my inbox. Self-doubt creeps in and I wonder whether my inbox is empty because I have stuffed things up or simply because it’s the weekend.
I can’t even blog about it and this is so very frustrating.
I see from your comments that you are still waiting. I hope you get what you are waiting for. You deserve good things to come your way–such a talented writer!
Aaaargh the waiting. And even waiting for rejection is still so deliciously anticipatory, isn’t it?
Visiting from Rewind, worth the wait… My Granny used to say:
Patience is a virtue… which none possess.
She was a wise one, My Granny.
Great post. At first, I love waiting. It gives me something to look forward to. It gives me days and days of daydreaming material. But then when nothing comes of the waiting, rejection seems imminent and I feel like a twit. Nothing is as good in real life as in my head.
I hate waiting and unfortunately I seem to do a lot of it. For everything. But waiting for a response for something in particular or that has a big importance is definitely one of the harder things in life.
Great post, thanks for stopping by my blog đ
Aren’t we always waiting for something? The kids to grow up, the kettle to boil, the bank balance to increase (not necessarily in that order). Right now I am waiting for hubby to come home, missing him xx
But then again, waiting is hoping. It’s the rejection bit, or at least the fear of it that’s harder.
I let the anticipation linger. Shut down and go do theraputic ironing or something.
Who am I kidding…
xx
I’m with Maxabella…anticipation all the way! Oh the dreams you can dream in the not knowing! Having said that, I check my email more than a sane number of times a day. Tragic.
hehe!! Here I am, nodding my head in agreement. I’m terrible at pressing the “sync” button, just hoping a new email will come in, rather than getting out there and tapping away at the keyboard. I’m (slowly) learning to turn the email off (and social media) and just starting… even if it leads to nothing.
Feeling your pain! xx
@Cate – no. But you have inspired me to start again… particularly motivated by point 5. đ
@DeerBaby – would you believe we are? On the same things. Further down the track, but still…
It sounds a bit like listening to check there is a dial tone when you are waiting for a phone call.
I don’t wait well….
Loved this post.
Oh god, your list is driving me crazy!! How can you just stop at 2?? Can I at least round it up to 5 for you…
3. spend time re-writing article to suit style for at least twelve other prospective magazines
4. assume manuscript has been accepted at work on updating CV
5. assume manuscript has been rejected and work on finding out home address of editor…
oh that feels so much better now đ
Did you ever come up with 10?
xxxCate
I am chuckling as I made recent reference to Godot in a post involving airports. But I digress. Totally relate to the impatience. Envious that you have actual projects that you are waiting on. So you clearly spend much time actually writing and not just climbing walls.
Remember this post from the first time round. Are we all still waiting?
I can’t handle waiting for a bus thats running on time, let alone being strung out waiting for responses that I’m not even sure I am going to get. The way I get with waiting makes me think I need to check myself into a monastery or something and take some depth breaths for like, 10 years or so….
Embrace the delicious feeling of anticipation that you get to experience daily. For some, it’s barely there more than three times in a lifetime!!
I know how you feel. Who doesn’t hate waiting? It drives me completely nuts too.
I’m sure that was why I was pushed into the publishing industry… to TEACH me patience. Trouble is, I still don’t have it! But my publisher is always very generous with her time, when I have my mad melt-down moments, gently suggesting that I be… patient! *wails, noooo*!
Oh Alison, I can’t possibly write the book now. You know I can’t cope with that. I have a breakdown if no one comments on a blog post within 7 minutes of it being published.
“They” (whoever that is) say that fear comes from the unknown. Unfortunately, I think the known is just as scary. No amount of knowing how long it might take makes it any easier.
I have no advice other than give up writing and become a busker – rejection is instantaneous there. Who knows, if I can convince enough of the GOOD writers to give up, I might have a better chance đ
I don’t hate anything the way I hate waiting. Not knowing is just horrible.
Oh dear, that sounds like absolute torture. Do these people know the pain they put you writers through, making you wait? You have to be distracted while you wait…. keep writing…. they will all arrive at once, for sure. A-M xx
Yes! Why is it that after all the waiting, everything happens all at once and deadlines collide like particles in a superconductor? And then, after you write like a fiend for a few weeks, you find yourself waiting … again.
Knickers in a knot indeed.
I believe in Cosmic Weather. Sometimes the cosmic winds blow what we are waiting for towards us, and other times we face an unfortunate head-wind, so don’t worry, the wind will change. Go and make a cuppa.
What a great post! And yes, waiting is the writers game. Until it’s not. Long stretches of nothing happen and then one thing happens, and while you are focusing on that one thing, BAM, six other things fall down on you. Writing.
Time between sending the query letter for my second book to an agent and getting a response… 7 months.
Time to then have her read the whole thing and pitch to a publisher… 3 months
Time to hear back from publisher… 3 months
Time to get contract… yep, another 3 months
Additional time until the damn thing was published… 9 months
Book publishing moves at a pace that makes glciers look speedy- so waiting to hear from mags is good training for when the *real* waiting will begin. I finished my second novel last September… the contract has only just gone through now, in May. AND that’s with an agent & publisher already on baord! Oh, and then you don’t even get all your advance until the thing is published, which usually takes about 12 montsh after the contract goes through. No wonder so many of us starve in garrets in the meantime…
No news is good news my mother always said. But I don’t agree! I don’t have this problem as I hardly ever send anything off! Maybe they have got yours and are re-reading and reading again, engrossed.
I am actually waiting on the results of a short story competition and I know they won’t notify me unless I am one of the top three. It’s been a while. The story will be printed in a summer issue. I know magazines work at least three months ahead. It is not looking good. Still, doesn’t stop me hoping.
My novel is stalling on a plot point.
Clearly I need to email you.
Or phone you.
Or maybe both.
How’s tomorrow?
You’ll probably be busy working on developing all the articles after your pitches that will be accepted and flooding your in tray in the morning.
But
if not
call me.
xoxo