Writing and the Waiting Game

All aspiring writers probably know about this ridiculous waiting game. Writing a novel is already a time consuming experience. I truly believe it takes a full year to write a good novel. Sure, a writer can probably write an entire first draft within a three month period, if they can put the hours in everyday to get it done. I've done it myself. But it certainly doesn't mean a novel is finished.

To have a good novel you absolutely have to reread it over and over again. And each time you have to revise it and make it better. That will take the rest of the year. I'm talking about ten drafts or so.

And once that manuscript is polished into the semblance of a very well-written novel, you enter the waiting game. As if the long wait for completing the novel wasn't enough already. You have to wait for agents to respond. And if you're unlucky enough, none of them will, or they won't respond positively. Especially if you are an unknown person.

And then there is the waiting game of finding a publisher. Mostly they won't respond either. But if you are lucky enough, as I was, to find a publisher who wants to publish your novel, then you have to wait again for them to finally get it done.

There's no solution to the waiting game. Just have a life, and have a career, have a family, and live to the fullest. Get other projects done. The time will pass, and you have a lot to look forward to. That's where I'm at right now.

It's just the way it is.