Do you have something you’re waiting for?

Maybe you’re waiting for an agent to reply to your query. Or you’re waiting for your next school break, so you’ll actually have time to write. Or you’ve sent your first chapters to a critique partner and you’re waiting for him or her to respond with their thoughts.

Something I didn’t understand before I was published is that waiting is a part of the writing life no matter where you are in your writing journey. I thought I was just “waiting to be published,” and then after that moment, my days of waiting, of having to be patient, would be over.

But just like when I was a kid and thought, “I can’t wait until I’m an adult because then I can do whatever I want,” the whole “once I’m published, I won’t have to wait anymore,” thing is a myth. Yes, I was done waiting to be published but there were many, many more things lined up behind that for me to wait for. Like waiting for my editor to send me edits, waiting for the book to release, waiting to hear if Publisher’s Weekly liked it, or waiting to see if people would buy it.

Waiting is part of the human experience. The way I’ve come to see it, you have two main options for how you wait.

Option 1: Fixate on what you’re waiting for with such intensity that you’re not able to enjoy the present.

Option 2: Find a worthwhile way to invest your time as you wait.

If you’re like me, you want to pick option 2, but you default to option 1 more times than you’d like.

Here are 6 worthwhile ways to invest your time while you wait for this next milestone to come:

Worthwhile investment #1: Keep (and do something from) a “someday” to-do list

You possibly have one of these lists started already. These are tasks that aren’t urgent, but you know it would be good for them to happen at some point. Like building a website, joining Goodreads, or finding a critique partner.

An example from my someday list is “Add a store to GoTeenWriters.com.” For a while, Jill, Shannon, and I have talked about setting up a way for you to buy personalized, signed books directly from us. Since there was no real urgency, I added this to my someday list, and it finally got done last week:

You maybe have a number of these kinds of, “Someday, I should . . .” type tasks. Keep a list of your writing-related ones to access easily.

Worthwhile investment #2: Identify your “drips in a bucket” items.

Another list I like to keep (I’m alllll about lists) is a “Drips in a bucket” list. These are recurring tasks that need to happen daily, weekly, or monthly to achieve a big goal.

Let’s use “Grow my author platform” as an example. Most writers know that if they want to be traditionally published or successfully self-published, they need to be growing their reach as an author. Many new authors start worrying about how they’re going to promote their book . . . when release day is next week. Growing your reach as an author isn’t something you can do in a week.

Instead, it looks like this:

You guest post on a blog, and you pick up three new email subscribers.

You join several authors in an Instagram giveaway. You gain five new followers.

You write a topical article that you post on your website, and when friends share it, you gain two new followers.

These are drips in a bucket. Drips are easy to underestimate because the growth is barely perceivable, but if you’re faithful at adding drips in the bucket for several months . . . for a year . . . for a year and a half, it’s amazing how that bucket starts to fill up!

Worthwhile Investment #3: Mix and Mingle

If you want to be making more connections with other writers, your “waiting” time is a great opportunity to invest more in those relationships. You might be in the Facebook group and see a fellow Go Teen Writers community member looking for a critique. Use your waiting time to help them out. Or if you have friends with blogs or YouTube channels, take some extra effort to leave comments or share their stuff.

People are nearly always a good investment of our time, and being intentional during a slower season for you can go a long way down the road when you don’t have as much time.

Worthwhile investment #4: Learn all the things

There are sooooo many resources out there for writers. It’s glorious. Other than the fact that you can be so busy taking classes about writing, listening to podcasts about writing, reading books about writing, and joining communities that focus on writing that you forget to, you know, ACTUALLY WRITE.

And the really sneaky thing for me is that because I’m learning so much about writing, I feel like I’m being productive, even though I’m not. Learning about writing can become super sneaky procrastination.

So, when I come across resources or classes that I think will be useful to me, I add them to a list of “Things To Learn From.” Then while I’m waiting, I watch that YouTube video on starting a podcast or take the course on Amazon ads. This way, learning about writing doesn’t become a distraction to writing itself.

Worthwhile investment #5: Read that thing you won’t normally let yourself read . . .

Most authors I know have “reading rules” for themselves when they’re working on projects. They either avoid reading published books in the genre they’re currently writing, they purposefully read books in that genre, or they don’t read novels at all.

I’m in that first camp. If I’m actively drafting a contemporary YA novel, then I avoid reading contemporary YA. For me, it messes with how I think about my own project. I compare my first draft with their finished product, and I feel discouraged. But I love reading contemporary YA, so as soon as I’m not actively working on my project, I’m scooping up the closest one I can find.

Now, Jill is the opposite (if I’m remembering correctly) and loves to read whatever genre she’s currently writing in so she can stay in that headspace. When she takes her break, then she lets herself pick something different to read.

. . . or write that new idea you weren’t letting yourself write.

A variation on this is writing. Often if I’ve been pushing myself to finish a manuscript, I’ve had one or two other story ideas trying to distract me. When my focus needed to be on my current work in progress, I limited myself to just jotting down the idea. Now that I’m in a waiting place with the WIP, though, it’s a great time to explore that new idea.

Worthwhile investment #6: Replenish yourself

Waiting for replies from agents or a critique from a friend is an ideal time to make sure you are filling yourself up creatively. You might do this by being outdoors more, exploring hobbies or other types of art that you love, watching your favorite movies, spending time with people you enjoy, and so forth.

For me, cleaning is part of my replenishment when I’m waiting. My living and working spaces have often become messy as I focused on my book, and I feel joyful and peaceful as I tidy up.

A rhythm of replenishing ourselves is important, and taking extra care to do that during our breaks can help sustain us!

Do you have ways you like to invest your time when you’re waiting? What other ideas would you put on this list?