I'm not very patient. I try to be and when it comes to my kids, I don't do too badly. When it comes to my writing, it's a different story altogether.
I wrote my first manuscript quickly, as it was my attempt at NaNoWriMo in 2006. When I wrote the last word, I put it away for a month before I reread it and started on the revisions. It was a long month. When I did finally pull it out, the work seemed to take much longer than it should. Having never revised anything of that length before, I had to figure out what sort of revision process would work for me and how to go about it.
Once the revisions were completed, I handed it out to several people to get opinions on it and unearth further problems to solve in future revisions. I'll admit, I wasn't very good at waiting for people to read the book. On one hand, I didn't want to know what they thought. On the other hand, how could I keep working on it if they didn't get back to me?
If I thought that was bad, there is the whole submission game. Waiting to hear from publishers has turned me into a compulsive checker of email and phone messages. So if I didn't have patience before, the whole writing process is teaching me to sit back, take a deep breath and move on to the next project.
In the last month I've exchanged a few emails with one publisher and now I'm waiting to hear more from them. During this month I'm discovering I haven't developed as much patience as I thought I had.
Since I've done my revisions on my current WIP for the day and finished editing a friend's manuscript, it's time to walk away for awhile. I'll have to work on this virtue for one more day. It's just another way I get to grow as a writer.
3 comments:
LOL Stephanie. I like how you say "one more way you GET to grow," lol. That's awesome.
I was nodding my head in agreement through your whole post. I'm right there with ya.
But YAY on the publisher showing interest. That's very, very cool. Good luck!
Ah, yes. Patience. It's a fun process, isn't it?
That's great to hear about your exchange with a publisher! Hope it works out for you.
The best way to be patient is to work on the next manuscript. You'll get so into it that you'll stop thinking so much about the first one. Really.
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