For an author, waiting for a contract is a frustrating, painstaking process. But the waiting time is inevitable and it will occur regardless if you’re ready for it or not. What you do during the time in between when you submit your book proposal with your fingers crossed and get that contract to publish your work, is up to you.
This mini-series of blogs will help you with constructive ideas on how to successfully pass through the dreaded, sometimes very long, idle moments in between.
Advice: Do something you need to do or have procrastinated/put on the ‘back burner’ for a rainy day.
Let me tell you, my friends, that ‘rainy day’ is here.
If there’s something you’ve postponed or haven’t started, now is a good time to get that project checked off your to-do-list. Sometimes, it can be as simple as calling a friend, writing a long overdue personal note or letter, going to visit someone dear or maybe it’s finishing up some some chores or delving into house projects you need more time to complete. At least get it started. It’s a great way to take your mind off your focus of getting a contract and it’ll make you feel like you’re accomplishing something and progressing forward, in the meantime.
Spending time with friends is always fun though it’s hard sometimes to come up with free hours in order to do so. Now that you have submitted your polished manuscript and are waiting, you have some extra time. Being with friends, people who understand and support you, will uplift your spirits too. But if it’s impossible: your schedules conflict and you can’t come up with a mutual time and day or if you and your ‘bestie’ live too far away from each other then maybe you can resort to the old fashioned tradition of writing a letter.
Whether it be e-mailed, typed or hand-written and mailed, writing a letter to a friend can help us too for when we are writing, we are expressing ourselves, our worries, our hopes, and we can get into some deep stuff we don’t often divulge when face to face with someone.
So whatever you’ve been ‘putting off’: that’s important to you, is necessary, or will help you in some way, go ahead and do it now. During this time of dreaded inertia, it is important that you continue to take care of yourself, progress forward and enjoy life.
Take care, my friends.
TK Lawyer 