My latest manuscript, Letters To My Yesterday is close to my heart. I’ve put my soul into it, it’s my baby and I want it to be published so badly. In short, I’m desperate and that desperation is my worst enemy. The hardest part about being a writer isn’t the writing (although of course that isn’t easy) – it’s learning patience. Most publishers take from two – six months to respond to your submission. So, dropping from the high of finishing a manuscript, to the low of waiting is… hard. I knew all of this, I was prepared – I’ve done it before! Yet only a few short weeks in, I was already driving myself crazy. It started with over-refreshing my email app. I was checking it too many times to count. So, I deleted it from my phone and have promised myself to only check it once a day. (I break this promise every day). I went to see a tarot card reader (yes really!) hoping to be told I would hear from a publisher soon. Unfortunately the tarot reader was wise and sensible and told me I had to ride the journey out and wait. My daughter owns a magic 8 ball and way too often I shake it, hoping for the ‘absolutely!’ to respond to me. I was in a downward spiral to crazy-town and a few weeks ago I figured out why. I’ve handed over all of my power to the prospective publishers – as though all I can do is sit around and wait. No way! There is so much else I can be doing, I wrote a list and set off. I had already started a new manuscript to distract myself, so I’m getting straight back to that and am now 30k words in. I’ve been thinking about another project I want to work on and I’m diving into it (can’t wait to share more with you about it soon!) But the most important thing is I’m reminding myself (many times a day) that I never give up - the world won’t end if a publisher says no. Truly successful people keep trying until they get there, despite rejection, despite fear. And I am trying my hardest to be one of them.
