You’ve got to be tough to be a writer. If it isn’t the waiting for a publisher, editor or agent to get back to you about your work, you’re sweating over a deadline or receiving potentially unflattering reviews. You might even be getting bad news.
You hear the stories about writers who had to submit their work dozens (hundreds???) of times before they finally found the ‘One‘. You know, the publisher who finally agrees to put their work in print.
Hearing the stories and living them are two totally different things.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I’ve submitted my stuff dozens of times or even a dozen times. Still, each time I receive a rejection it’s another stone slamming into my personal battlements.
As you may or may not know, I had one of my books out in circulation. I sent out query letters to several publishers and I have received three replies asking to see some of the work. The first publisher who read my three chapters and synopsis asked to see the entire manuscript. Very exciting since I’ve never gotten that far before.
Unfortunately, they came back to me yesterday and said the book was not for them. It was REALLY hard waiting too; I think it worked out to about 2.5 – 3 months wait. Obviously, the news wasn’t what I was hoping to hear, but I take solace in the fact that the book made it that far. I also know that I’ve got two other publishers already interested in seeing more.
So, I’m sending out the book again; the next publisher wants 3 – 4 chapters only. That will be in the mail this week and then the waiting begins anew.
I don’t think the waiting would be so bad if I were in the middle of another project. Actually, I should say “in the middle of another writing project”. I am actually working on something, but it is an editing project and that is totally different. The creativity isn’t quite there… at least not yet.
But I will be soon. Once I pass the initial outlining part of the edit I’ll be writing again. I’ve also got a couple of cool story ideas percolating in my brain so I’m thinking of trying something a little different: working on more than one story at a time. The theory I’m testing is if I’m working on several things, none of them will get stale and I’ll get even more creative. I’ll see if that actually plays out or if I get hopelessly muddled.
Either way, I’m going to soldier forward and not look back; instead of dwelling on what hasn’t happened, I’m going to push towards what will.
