Working While You Wait

Want to know what an author's least favorite word is?

It's not copyedit. It's not proposal. It's not outline, research or rewrite.

An author's least favorite word? Wait.

And if you're wanting to become an author or you are already established as an author, you'd better get used to waiting.

A lot.

You wait for an agent to get back to you on whether or not they'll take you as a client. Once they say yes, you wait for them to look over your proposal. Then, they make suggestions, you make changes and you wait for them to okay it. Then the hard waiting comes. You wait while they propose it to publishers.

And you wait for a response. And wait and wait and wait.

In the words of Indigo Montoya, a character from one of my all-time favorite movies The Princess Bride, "I hate waiting."

But then I notice how many other things God has us wait for. We wait for husbands. We wait for kids. We wait for dinner, vacations, promotions. And I wait for Christmas starting December 26th every year.

"Wait on the Lord," the Bible says over and over.

Be still. Wait on the Lord.

But being still does not necessarily mean being inactive. Writing through the wait is not only cathartic (I'm still writing!), but it is also a smart idea. Try your hand at new ideas. Experiment with different cultures and times. Listen to what the Holy Spirit is teaching you and write about it.

Not only will you then have a bunch of other ideas and proposals on the back burner should the current proposal not pass with the publisher, but you will have grown that much more as a writer.

So what are you waiting for? :) And how will you work in the midst of it?