Hurry Up and Wait—A test of patience

There’s a lot of waiting in writing.

During the first draft, you have to wait until the answers to the plot come to you. Most books don’t arrive fully formed, so you plod along, sometimes getting stuck and spinning your wheels until one day while you’re walking the dog—DING-DING-DING—the light bulb appears above your head, and you hurry home to scribble down the solution.

I see that as a good thing. Your brain continues to work on a problem behind the scenes while you go about your day, and it presents the solution whenever it comes up with it.

This is why rushing through a project is never a good idea. You have to give your neurons the time and space they need to formulate their best storytelling.

When the manuscript enters the editorial process, there are more significant wait times. Weeks and sometimes even months.

Once you’ve brought the manuscript to a “ready” place, you send it to your first readers. Yay! Now you have to wait for those kind volunteers to return it with feedback.

This can take anywhere from a few days to a month—or longer. For the writer, this can be a difficult time. Not only one of insecurity—because you’re eager to know if anyone likes the book—but also impatience, because you are fully steeped in this project and want to keep working on it.

This is where I find myself right now.

My brain wants to keep working on the book. I’m excited about it, and eager to take it to the next level. But I have to wait, to stop myself from opening that file. Otherwise, what is the point of sending the manuscript to beta readers? If I’m going to be my own editor, it’s likely I’ll miss most of the problems that others easily see. I don’t want to spend time and energy polishing up what’s there when it may end up being cut or otherwise manipulated.

A part of me thinks that this would be a great time to start another book. I have a whole month where I could be knocking out at least part of a first draft. I already know what novel I will write next—Book 2 in the Angel of Death series—and I even have a rough outline for it.

Many writers work on multiple books for exactly this reason. And yet I hesitate. Do I want to send my energy into something new, to start the momentum rolling in that direction, to take up precious bandwidth that the current book might soon require?

I tried to work on two books at the same time a couple of years ago, but I started them at the same time, and it did not go well. One of the stories took over and left the other on extended leave. Then again, the timing would be better this go round because the two projects would be at staggered stages.  
 
Pros of working on more than one book at a time:
Free time waiting for beta feedback and developmental editor feedback could be used to work on manuscript number two.
 
Cons of working on more than one:
Not enough bandwidth, no breaks, no extra headspace, momentum is lost.
 
I think I’ve answered my own question, but that doesn’t mean you feel the way same way. Weigh your own pros and cons to figure out where you stand on the issue. I’m going to stick with one novel at a time, and if I really need something to do during the waiting periods, I’ll pursue flash fiction, something I’ve enjoyed in the past and never have time to do anymore.

No matter how I look at it, it will be an exercise in patience.

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