Waiting, A Writer’s Skill

There are many skills a writer needs. Many of them are obvious. All can be learned. Some are learned whether one plans to write creatively or not. They are not all needed at the beginning. Many are learned just in time, as the writer recognizes his need for them. This is the nature of learning to do creative work. Primary among these skills is the skill of waiting. While writing and waiting are done in parallel—they’d better be, if one is to achieve a body of work at all—the waiting the writer learns to do is just as present and persistent as the writing; it is a secondary craft. 

There is the waiting as manuscripts are read by beta readers and agents. Then there is the waiting while these same manuscripts are read by publishers—hopefully by several at a time. One’s creative work goes out the door and into this world of necessary critical readers and all the time the writer—still at home writing—has no idea how his work is fairing, whether it is being read or waiting to be read or if word on its future will arrive tomorrow, this week, next month. Or perhaps never. And if one is successful, there is the waiting as a book is created, as others practice and perfect their own literary and creative crafts. Waiting is a skill to be done well and done with intention. Good writing leads to waiting.

It is important to note that a writer does not wait to write. There had better not be waiting for inspiration or waiting for an idea. The writer fails if he waits until he has time to write. For if he does, he is no writer at all. These waitings lead nowhere. They are dead ends.

So, the productive writer waits. He waits after and while he writes. And he learns another skill—not to focus on the waiting, but to focus on the work.