Patience, Prudence: Sometimes Writers Need to Learn the Art of Waiting

Dear Prudence open up your eyes
Dear Prudence see the sunny skies
The wind is low, the birds will sing
That you are part of everything
Dear Prudence won't you open up your eyes?
~The Beatles



Dear Prudence,

Sometimes you have to wait.

So you’ve spent several months polishing a short story, and you feel good about this, as you should. You even carefully researched just the right literary journal to send your precious new offering to, and now you must wait. If you are submitting a short story, poem or prose piece to a typical magazine, it can take 2-4 months to receive a response (3-6 months for a book publisher). Having to wait is hard. It just is. If you are sending out simultaneous submissions, you might not have to wait as long to hear about the future of your story or poem. Many magazines don’t allow this though, and to be honest, it makes life much easier, if you simply send one work of writing to one journal at a time. You can send out many different works for consideration, just don't send the same work to more than one magazine.

Some magazines don’t even send you a “no” letter, they simply don’t respond. Waiting is something we must all face. My personal record for hearing back from an editor is 6 hours. (Don’t get excited, this is not the norm.) It was a non-fiction article for a magazine that I submitted on-line, and they were probably close to their deadline and had space to fill. Needless to say, I was doing my writer’s happy dance when that e-mail came through.

The honest truth is … if you feel yourself getting antsy, train yourself to take a breath.  Listen to The Beatles sing about the Prudence you should be – the one who opens her eyes and looks around at the world – and sit tight. A letter of some kind will eventually come. I can’t promise it will be the letter you want, but it will give you the news you need to either celebrate by buying some new pens and blank moleskin notebooks (maybe a nice bottle of something deep red?) or to send this story out to another place. Feel free to have a Beatles break during this article, to find that calm center we all need while waiting. Every time you see the word, Prudence, it is a link to a You Tube video of The Beatles singing, “Dear Prudence.”

What you need to know in your heart and deep in your gut is that your story, article, poem or book WILL find a home. Have the confidence to know this with every fiber of your obsessive, passionate, can-stop-scribbling-ideas-down soul of a writer that you have. I believe in you! You need to believe in yourself too. This blog post is your literary cheerleader, to give you the boost you need to keep going!

I love the article in MORE Magazine, which features The Help author, Kathryn Stockett. She received 60 rejections before finally receiving the “yes” letter that led to her book becoming a best seller and eventually a film. She had to live through 60 editors and publishers saying, “no, this book isn’t for us.”

It takes submitting and re-submitting. It takes realizing that maybe you need to go back and edit that manuscript, yet again, to make it more publishable. Perhaps you are targeting the wrong publisher? Don’t submit a book of short stories about a women’s knitting club to a publisher that mostly comes out with thrillers. Investigate your target venue and find the best fit.

If you believe in your book, others will too. It just might not happen today, so brace yourself for an empty mailbox or inbox.

Besides, while waiting to hear back from a magazine or publisher, you should be spending those precious days creating something new. What is your next project? Map it out – now! Start working on what comes next AFTER you get the current work out there into the world. It might sound like writer’s ADHD, but I always have 3 writing projects going on at the same time. Depending on the day or week, different projects appeal to me. If the poetry collection is leaving me blank one day, I’ll switch to a short story, or writing something on this blog (I promise, that I don’t just come here when I’m bored and can’t think of anything to write about.)

Writer Commandments:

1. Write every day.
2. Keep sending out submissions.
3. Your first draft is never your last draft. Edit and polish your work.
4. Expect to wait, wait and wait some more to hear back from editors.
5. While you’re waiting, keep writing new things and fine tuning your craft as a writer.
6. Never stop writing, just because you’re not receiving the feedback or recognition you crave.
7. Have patience with yourself and your progress. This is not a race.
8. You have to live in order to write. Have experiences – write about them!
9. A writer writes every day, because he or she can’t imagine a time when they would ever stop writing.
10. Writing is a way of life. Whether you have had huge success with being published or your slips of paper with words are stowed in a drawer, like Emily Dickinson, never doubt that you are a writer. If you are reading this blog post, connect with its message and regularly keep a journal to write in, then you are a writer.

OK, now stop reading this blog and just write! What are you waiting for?

Peace & poetry,
Cristina M. R. Norcross