The Waiting Game

I feel like I'm always waiting these days. And I'm not a patient person at the best of times - just ask my kids about the bus stop each morning. Being in limbo is a waste of time, and I don't like wasting time. I have little enough of it as it is. I think learning how to wait is an essential lesson every writer needs to learn.

Every time you submit s story, a query, a partial, a full, you end up waiting. Sometimes for a VERY long time. I have one story that has been out for almost 200 days now. That's a long time to wait. I also have 2 queries that have been out for a long time (over 6 weeks anyway) and a full that's been out for about a month. Plus the 4 stories I have entered in contests and am waiting on the results. That's a lot of waiting.

Add in the waiting for critiques on your work by those in your critique groups and there's more. What's an impatient girl like me to do?

Well, write more. Revise more. Try to forget the babies you've sent out into the world. They'll come home when the time is right (probably needing a hot meal and their laundry done). I just started doing more revision on Prayer and Prey, even though I know the full is out there. I know the answer on that one is most likely to be a no, so I figure I should use the time to make the book better. And I'd like to get through another round of editing before NaNo.

How do you you manage the waiting time? Do you forget about the things you've sent off? Or are you a serial email checker? Can you write when you have things submitted, or does the knowledge they're out in the world make you too snaky to sit at the keyboard?