the waiting game
One of the hardest parts of an author’s job is the waiting.
Quelle surprise, right? You’d think it would be the deadlines or the revisions or the fear of never selling another book. And those are all there, believe me. 
But there’s nothing worse than hurrying to plot a new story, work up a synopsis or proposal, rushing to send it off…& then having to WAIT to hear back.
Will the editor like it? Will I need to make any changes? Did I dot all my Is, cross all my Ts? Is there enough sexual tension between the hero & heroine, & do all my plot points make sense?
At the moment, I am waiting—rather impatiently, I might add 
—to hear back from Editor C on the outline I turned in for my “Dynasties: The Kincaids” continuity book for Harlequin Desire.
Is he taking an exceptionally long time in getting back to me? Not really. In fact, if I weren’t watching the clock like a husband timing his wife’s contractions, I probably wouldn’t be giving it a second thought.
But I happened to turn my outline in a full week before they were due, & I suspect the editors were waiting for all of the proposals to arrive before they started reading them, since the stories are so closely linked. Which means I unintentionally created a full week of extra nail-biting waiting time for myself.
Yeah—way to go, brainiac! :ubermad
And I’m so darn eager to start this story that I really want to know if my outline is okay. If it isn’t, I’ll have more work to do, of course. (Fingers crossed that isn’t the case, since I’ve got my brain really firmly wrapped around the current idea. LOL) But if it is, I can start writing. I could be writing already!
But alas, I cannot do anything until I get the okay from TPTB.
To paraphrase Alvin & his chipmunk brothers, “Hurry, Charles! Hurry, fast!”
Comments
15 Comments • Comments Feed
Laura J. says:
See this is another reason why I can’t be a writer. I have 0, zip, zilch, nada, no, none, patience. You could probably even say I have -10 level of patience. I want it and I want it right now!! Now, NOW NOW!!!!!
On March 10, 2011 at 9:24 am
Laura J. says:
Yes, you can call me Veruca Salt.
On March 10, 2011 at 9:25 am
mary k says:
Yeah I don’t have any patience either. I want it now, I want it done now and it just irritates me when everyone else doesn’t feel the same way. lol
On March 10, 2011 at 11:36 am
Leigh Duncan says:
I hear ya, Heidi! I have one full proposal with my editor now, and she & I talked about another one yesterday. It’s definitely nail-biting time.
On March 10, 2011 at 12:09 pm
Jessica Lemmon says:
Hi Leigh! :hi I read your debut novel way back, will have to check out what’s new with you!
On March 11, 2011 at 8:10 pm
Jessica Lemmon says:
I believe that. …And am going through it – though on a different level than you are, for sure. :notworthy
Yesterday at 1:10 p.m. my query, synopsis and first chapter arrived at Harlequin… and now I wait and wonder and worry about lots of things – mainly about receiving another xeroxed generic rejection like I did the first time they reviewed the full MS. EEK!
So I wait. And try to look busy. :stalker
On March 11, 2011 at 8:07 pm