Patience in January

Yes, they say patience is a virtue, but sadly, I’ve never had much of it. So much of the writing game is waiting: waiting to hear back from a publisher about a book you’ve sent out, waiting to hear back on submissions or queries – sometimes for a year or more, waiting to hear the results of a contest or grant decision. It seems so little is in our hands. It’s one of the things I like least about the writing life, quite frankly. I’m a “get-it-done” kind of girl, and have always felt that little push from the back of my mind that “life is short – do what you can when you can.” (Or, for a more amusing version of my real feelings, see this e-card for my personal motto, but warning: it has a curse word in it. I’m sure it will ring true to you other A-types out there…)

January in Seattle, even without a week trapped in a snowpocalypse, is a gloomy, dreary stretch of grey days. Everyone catches the flu in one or more versions. It’s a month when I read more than I write (right now, Poets in Their Youth, a memoir from John Berryman’s wife Eileen Simpson about his life and Haruki Murakami’s sprawling 1Q84,) when I find myself watching more dumb comedies in an effort to cheer myself up, when, yes, I miss California’s mild, short, sunshine-filled January days.

So I’m trying to focus on the positive things I can accomplish during this grump-filled, chilly month. Like updating to the Facebook (terrible! okay, I said it) Timeline format. (See Kelli’s excellent tips on that process, here.) Reading “how to buy a house” guide books as there is nothing on the market right now anyway to even go look at; dreaming up decorating plans for said unknown future house. Working on the poetry manuscripts that aren’t yet published; reading and editing other people’s manuscripts. Coming up with ideas for new goals for the year, experimenting with new genres (right now, it’s creative non-fiction and flash fiction. See Anne Petty, Kitsune Books editor’s tips for Flash Fiction here.)
My real drive here is to focus on the things I can get accomplished, and try not to think about all the things I’m waiting to hear back on…hopefully things that will propel me towards the life I love, which I can see vaguely in the distance, out past January…

What are your January doldrums cures? What do you do when the waiting game has you on pins and needles?