Productive Waiting?

Every once in a while, I get to thinking about our blog's name, "The Paper Wait" and how very appropriate it is in this business we're in.

As a writer, sometimes it feels like I'm always waiting...

waiting to hear about the latest submissions my agent sent out, waiting to get the contract or the revised contract that will be on its way soon, waiting to hear my editor's feedback on my latest revision.

Yep, there's a lot of waiting in this job of writing. And I try to use the waiting time productively. I really do. But I admit it, I sometimes spend too much time wondering about the thing I'm waiting for. Instead of doing something else productive. Something else that could help to move my career and my writing forward.

So recently I made a list of things I really needed to do. And I got to work doing them instead of focussing on the waiting.

I started arranging school visits. And, as I excitedly await the publication of my second picture book, I went back to this post from right before my first picture book was about to come out. And I used that blog post to make a list of all the things I could start working on-- a whole lot earlier this time.

It felt good to get moving in productive ways. Also, once I got moving, other things got moving too.

I checked in with my editor and she wrote back that my latest revision is in great shape. Hooray!

And after I started arranging school visits, my son's teacher contacted me to arrange for a visit to his class and some older grades as well. Once I started working on it, it felt like the universe was helping me out. Yay!

So, there will always be waiting, but I am really going to try to focus on it less, and keep myself doing the things I need to do more.

(But I still am busy waiting for this month's awesome SCBWI Western Washington annual conference! Now that's a once-a-year treat worth waiting for!)

So how do you wait? Are you able to keep yourself productive? How?