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| Insecure Writer's Support Group Meets 1st Wed of Every Month (or in my case ALL THE TIME) |
query train, but I just Couldn't. Wait. Any. Longer.
The waiting was driving me crazy. I kept fiddling with my manuscript. Tweaking it, refining it. I'd already done two self-edit passes, one round of beta ( thanks betas!!! ) followed by extensive revision, more edits, more beta, more self edits and .... well you get the picture. My manuscript (a YA Futuristic Fantasy) went from 120K to 99K to 89K as I polished and refined. It was ready. I needed to push it out the door into queryland or I'd drive myself batty with the tweaking and second-guessing and waiting.
And then guess what I discovered?
Queryland is just more waiting! Lots more! I researched agents from my Big List O' Agents, went to Query Letter Hell and back again, and finally sent out my first batch of six shiny queries at the end of November. And then I waited ... and waited ... and then it was nearly Christmas Time.
Silence.
But then I started to hear back! Turns out that agents like holidays too. I got some requests for partials, and of course eagerly sent them out. A few rejections on queries trickled in and my heart drooped a little. The New Year came. I sent out more queries. More rejections, more requests. Some of the partials turned into fulls. In January and February I entered #PitMad and Cupid's Blind Speed Dating and MSFV Secret Agent. There I got some great feedback, made new writerly friends, and got several more requests from agents! I did *happy dances* and sent out the manuscripts.
And that was the end of February. So that's where I am now. Waiting ... waiting ... again.
Every minute feels like too long. It's hard not to be impatient. As the days go by, my excitement at the requests is hard to keep hold of. The fact is that sitting in queryland limbo is tough. It's hard not to have these thoughts keep running through my head ... maybe they already read it and hate it ... maybe they just don't know how to break it to you ... maybe everyone will hate it ... maybe that genre is just too over-saturated to sell ... maybe the writing isn't good enough ... of course it's not good enough, what were you thinking?? ... maybe you're not good enough ... maybe you should just abandon your other WIPs .... maybe ...
This is not healthy.
While I'm waiting, I really should be working on my PhD dissertation. I really should be polishing up those articles to send out to academic journals. I've got my adviser's feedback. I have everything I need to start buckling down. But my index finger keeps wanting to hover back over that pesky [ Inbox ] button...
What do you do to cope with the waiting game? What do you do to keep yourself sane and focused on not-your-inbox?
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