The Waiting Game : Like A Faucet Drip Filling A Bathtub

I am learning that submitting work to agents or publishers is even rockier than a roller coaster. It is more like multiple earthquakes. At least a roller coaster has predictable peaks and valleys. The writer’s experience is more like a series of unexpected upheavals. Sometimes twenty minutes or two weeks apart. One minute possibility is ignited by a publisher's response to a pitch, and the next day it is dashed when the same person rejects that manuscript. Or an agent sends a rejection, which puts me into a stupor but then raises my spirits by asking me to send a revision.

Right now, there is calm on earth. After completing a picture book writing course at Children’s Writing Academy, my heart swelled. As part of the class, we created a pitch for one of our manuscripts. A well-respected, well-liked agent chose my story pitch as a Golden Ticket Winner. I polished and sent my manuscript to her. Now I am in waiting mode — a frequent and prolonged stage in the writing process. The pace of publishing is equal to the time needed for a faucet-drip to overflow a bathtub. I am not complaining since I can keep my grasp on hope. There is no rejection to loosen it.

Today I go on writing because I want to and I have to. No matter the outcome.