Patience...Hard stuff!

Man, they tell you all the time that "patience is a virtue." Well, thank you, Mr. Perfect, I know that. But did anyone really say that impatience was a vice? My patience has been put to the test lately - basically through my own doing and so I decided to blog on patience for all of you peoples out there who are as impatient as me or at least a little impatient.

Recently, I went to a writer's conference and met probably the nicest agent I've ever met. She was friendly, VERY nice during my pitch session (which was good because I was super duper nervous) and wrote me a really sweet card because I helped her out with making some copies. I mean, talk about a really good experience!

Trouble is, she asked for a proposal. Now I know all you people out there (and my writer group people) are all like 'that's fantastic, at least she wanted to see it!' and, yes, that's how I was at first as well. All, woo-hoo, bring it on, she wants a proposal, happy dance around the dorm room. Yeah. I happy danced. A lot. Called my mom, told my writer's group, told facebook, twitter, etc.

But now comes the patience part I talked about earlier. This particular agent was nice enough to send me an email saying she'd got my proposal and she'd hope to get back to me within six weeks. Uh-oh. Start the patience meter, my gut's saying it's gonna run out in about 6 DAYS. And it kinda did. I'll find myself thinking about my proposal at the oddest times, wondering if she's looked at it yet, trying not to get the hopes up, realizing that's impossible and even daydreaming different scenarios. Yep. I'm a nutter.

Then, I started thinking about it. This agent is more than likely super busy. She probably gets like a zillion proposals a day. Plus, she does consulting work as well so that takes time. Six weeks is probably a SUPER short time compared to other agents. It's just my fault that I'm impatient naturally.

So I've come up with some ways to get my mind off my proposal and figured I'd share them with you in case you were curious about how you can spend your time - other than crossing off dates on the calendar, working down to the six-week mark (yeah, I did that...)

1. Do something else. *Light bulb moment!* If you're waiting to hear on a proposal, don't just stop writing. Me, I'm working on my sequel so I'll have something to back up my novel once I do get it published or contracted. An agent/editor doesn't want a one-book wonder. They want someone who has more in the wings. So write.
2. Try not to think about the proposal. Now, that is harder said than done. Number one, don't get your hopes up. Don't decide the agent/editor is going to say no but don't decide your proposal is so awesome, they'll put you on Regis & Kelly tomorrow. Just don't think about it.
3. This one is most important. Pray about it. If it's God's will, it'll happen. I've been trying to do God's will for my life, not only in this but in all things. So I'm just praying that if God wants my story out in the world, He'll get it there in His own time. Each morning I pray that His will would be done with my proposal. It's still hard to wait but I can do it. And if I can do it...so can you!!

Patience is hard. But it's not impossible!

Home from Blue Ridge

Whew! This is exciting. I've had a blog before (and will continue to post on it) but it is more for mundane everyday stuff. This will be a blog for my writing. At least, more so than the other one.

I just got back two days ago from Ridgecrest, at the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. Try saying that five times fast! Anyway, it was a blast. Here's some things I learned.

1) I have not arrived. Try jumping in a lake. Do I walk on water? No. I am not nearly as good as I think I am.

2) I'm not that bad either. A good bit of the advice that they gave in the classes, my book employs successfully. Some not. But it gave me renewed hope.

3) I finally found a genre for Willing to Die. Turns out it is supernatural military suspense. Go figure.

4) I learned how to write suspense, sitting at the feet of the master, Steven James. I'm serious, if you haven't read his Patrick Bowers thrillers, go to your public library right now. Or better yet, the bookstore, as you're going to want to keep them when you're done. I know I'm beating myself up for not buying the Knight as well.

5) Improv is amazing. I love improv.

6) Editors and agents are not as scary as they seem to be - at least not the ones at this conference.

7) And, finally, I learned that this is my dream. I want to write and I love to write. Therefore, I am going to write until my imagination runs dry - and that shouldn't be any time soon.

Now, I am feverishly rewriting so that I can submit and I'm not even feeling overwhelmed.

Word of advice. If you do a complete overhaul of your manuscript, save it to a hard drive. You never know when your computer is going to crash two days after a conference. Praise the Lord that Philberta Bones from the HP online chat with a technician service was able to help me restore my computer and save my files.

And that, friends, is all for now.

michelle