Patience, Patience and More Patience!

When you're writing you have to have the patience of a Saint. The name of the publishing game is waiting. And waiting and oh hey, waiting.

The first time to wait and be patient is for inspiration to strike. Sometimes it strikes instantly and you get straight into it. Sometimes it takes a little bit then you're off.

Of course there are days when you're sitting patiently waiting for the words to come and some days that's an intolerable wait and your patience wears thin. The cursor is blinking at you, almost like its mocking you, saying, "Come on, you know you want to. Write something!"

Then it's the waiting patiently for the comments from your critique group. You wait for the words "I love it!! It's an awesome story, but you need to fix this, this and this." That wait is probably one of the most valuable.

Now you've edited it and it's shining brightly like the sun hitting a piece of glass. You've polished it and then you take the plunge, you send it off. Then you either wait for the mailman to bring a letter, or you wait for the email or you wait for a phone call. All the while you are doing this patiently, thinking each day the phone doesn't ring, or the email doesn't ping or the mailbox is empty - No news is good news - right! Each wait becomes more excruciating each time and your patience is probably non-existent.

And when you're published the waiting doesn't go away but by then you should have mastered the art of patience. That's what I'm trying to master now, patience. I'm not succeeding so far, I'm still checking the email every five minutes for an email. Something I'll need to work on as I go along this journey.

Nicki