Patience


Is that...could it be...a super-long post?
Is that…could it be…a super-long post?

No one warns a new author (or maybe they do and I wasn’t listening), but one of the character traits that you have to cultivate if you’re to survive without ulcers is patience.

Now, me, I’ve always suspected that I like writing so much because I’m a control freak (reformed, but always relapsing) and writing enables me to create entire universes where I’m Empress of All I Imagine. That is very satisfying for a control freak — until characters insist on doing their own thing!

But to be a published author means working to other people’s timeframes, be they editors, readers, reviewers, publishers, book sellers, etc — and these people can’t be hurried. You have to WAIT and what makes it worse, is the outcome is not guaranteed. They may hate your work.

Other times — and this is almost as hard — you have good news but can’t yet share it. This is where I’m at now. It definitely beats receiving a rejection slip, but I want to jump up and down and celebrate with you. Soon!

This is a super-long post — testing your patience! — but I’m doing a general and self-indulgent catch up. There’s still another month of summer, officially. Unofficially, who knows how long it’ll last. My brain turns to scrambled egg in the heat, so that’s no good for my writing schedule.  Sometimes patience has to be self-directed and I have to learn not to beat myself up for what I can’t control.

I’m not sure if I’ve mention that I post almost daily at my Book Likes blog. That is not a hint to go over and read it! I’m reflecting on the fact that I really am a daily blogger. I stopped daily blogging here because often my posts were/are really flimsy. But over at Book Likes, which has a Tumblr-esque style, that works.

Patience is perhaps as much a case of finding interesting and useful things to distract you as it is a character trait. Fortunately, when you’re an author, almost anything can be the raw material for a story. Here’s a swamp monster 🙂 Google+ is great for that sort of distraction…uh, research.

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10 responses to “Patience”

  1. Always pleased to hear I've brought someone a little laughter. 🙂 I am naturally impatient too. Clearly when they were handing out said patience I was standing in the wrong line. :/ As for those idiots on the road, some days it's really hard to bite my tongue, especially when the kids are in the car.

    You are so lovely. Thank you for your good wishes and your willingness to walk funny for me. Crossing one's toes will do that. I'm working on it being my year. I won a place (possibly two) in an anthology coming out in a couple of months. I believe it's a localised publication though but it's a nice start. Perhaps baby steps is another jab at my needing to work on my patience quota. 😉

  2. Ah, so that's why the universe lead me to writing – to acquire patience. Nothing else has worked so far.

    Look forward to hearing your good news. 🙂 I can't wait. Haha!

    • D, you made me laugh! I'm naturally impatient — writing really does help … well, I won't lie. It doesn't help when I see idiots driving on the road and mutter things. But that's allowed, isn't it? 🙂

      My good news is lovely stuff and I'm waiting for 2014 to be your year. All fingers and toes for the first of many publishing contracts for you!

  3. You had me at the dog. 🙂

    And then you killed me with "you have good news but can’t yet share it."

    You're such a tease! But I'm glad it's good news. Spill it when you can.

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