Patience, patience, patience…nope, no matter how many times I say it, I’m just not a big fan of the word. Sure – patience is a virtue, good things come to those who wait, you can never have too much patience, blah blah blah. Guess it’s quite clear – patience and I just don’t go hand in hand.
I’m pretty certain I never have been too terribly adept at the waiting game. I remember spending an incredible amount of time and energy not wishing to wait as a young child, especially when my mother was on the telephone. I’m not sure why, but it seems as though a lot of our mother’s used to engage in very lengthy phone conversations with the neighbors back in the 1970’s. And it never failed, once she got on the phone I had to talk to her and I had to ask her a question. She would snap her fingers, shush me with her lips, and probably lightly swat my behind, but I couldn’t wait. I’m sure my issues were minimal. Perhaps I wanted a dish of ice cream, or one of my brothers said something to annoy me. Whatever the incident, it absolutely had to be dealt with right away.
And then I turned thirteen – the time of boys and dating and teenage angst. If I liked a boy I more or less wanted him to know right away. And then if he liked me I wanted to get any and all initial discussions over and done with so we could settle in to the ‘going out’ part. I never liked the pre-dating game. Additionally, if an event loomed on the horizon – like my sixteenth birthday and the day I planned to get my driver’s license – I could hardly stand it. The day simply could not come fast enough.
I’ve remained rather impatient into my adult years. I don’t like to wait to hear the results of tests; if I need to talk with someone I’d prefer to do it now; and if there’s a concern or an issue to resolve then let’s not waste any time but get the job done. And if someone is evaluating my work? Well, all bets are off. That’s when I really begin to lose all fortitude and fall into a mess of jittery intolerance.
Yep – and that’s my current world – the one of a beginning and struggling author. The writing, the re-writing, the editing, and the days of pulling the hair out of my head are endless. And that doesn’t even include the submission process! Query an agent – and hurry up and wait. Will they respond favorably, or worse – will they respond at all? It’s quite the conundrum, especially for someone like me who very much prefers to hear the feedback and get the results immediately – even if they might be negative. I want to get an answer and move on. If they like my work I’m obviously exalted. If not, then I want to pick up the pieces to my battered ego, much less to the manuscript that now contains my heart and soul, and move on to the next potential agent. But, patience is the name of the game.
So I wait. But I do not wait idly. I continue to work, I continue to submit, I continue to strive to reach that final goal of a book sitting on the shelf of your local book store. And I think that’s what it comes down to in the end for all of us. Yes, patience sucks. There is no doubt about it. But, we can’t get around it. We can’t force people to respond or for events to happen any more quickly than they will. We get impatient to meet the partner of our dreams, anxious for the birth of our first child, and restless because we need that job but won’t hear until the next week. But patience isn’t about doing nothing. Be productive while you wait. It helps the time go by at least a bit faster, might help you achieve your goal, and usually makes the waiting not quite so painful.
As for me? I’ll make every effort to keep this blog in mind as I continue to wait. I’m not sure I’m ever going to like the word – patience – but I will push through. And I suppose it’s true – sometimes we simply just have to hurry up and wait. After all, patience is a virtue.
Shelley's Sagacious Slants 