The Beauty of Waiting in the Writing Life

I first met Rachelle Rea (now) Cobb 10ish years ago at a writing conference where I was giving free critiques. This darling 18 year old sat across from me waiting to hear my reaction to her story. Of course it wasn’t publish-worthy at that point, but there was so much potential and desire in this sweet girl. I encouraged her to keep at it. We kept in touch via social media. She grew up and had novels published. She even copy edited my indie novellas. But never did I imagine I’d get to be more intimately connected with her publishing journey. I was honored to be hired by her publisher to be the editor of her latest release, Follow the Dawn. So meet my friend Rachelle. I hope you enjoy her and her books as much as I do!

I can’t seem to sign a book contract without wrapping a big life event around it! I released my first novel the summer I fell in love with my husband, the second around the same time he proposed, and the third dangerously close to our wedding day. And now my fourth full-length novel is releasing two short months before our baby girl is due to arrive!

Isn’t that just like life, though? So often the writing life can seem like a journey punctuated by “hurry up and wait” as we writers wait on inspiration … and then scurry to write, wait on feedback … and then hurry to implement, wait on our query letter to receive a positive response, wait as our book goes to committee, and then wait for the happy days of contracts and confetti!
 
But the Beauty of Waiting Isn’t in the Waiting

In college, when I was tired of writing papers (and as an English minor, I wrote a lot of papers!), I turned to writing a story … then another … then yet another. The stories I wrote then later became my first published books.
 
The Steadfast Love series was borne out of a love of history and a passion for true love. I still love history and true love (especially sharing sappy posts about my man on Instagram!). But I also now work as a freelance editor, coaching other writers like me on the path to publication.

In my latest novel, Follow the Dawn, the heroine Anna has a choice to make: she can either wait for life to happen to her, or she can choose to pursue the life she wants, the sister she hasn’t spoken to in years, and the dreams she has for her own future.

I geek out teaching writers how to structure their writing so that they can make more room for the art and heart of whatever story they’re telling. And sometimes I get to encourage fellow writers as they wait for their writing dreams to come true.
 
Because the truth is, the beauty of waiting isn’t in the culmination of whatever we’re waiting for … it’s in what we do in the meantime as we wait.
 
So How Are You Spending Your Wait?

Perhaps you find yourself at a similar place, waiting for inspiration or feedback or a positive response or the book contract you’ve always dreamed of (or the next one!). May I encourage you today to not sit on your hands as you wait? It can be all too tempting, I know, to want to wait for good news and not spend the waiting time meaningfully because, well, what if something goes wrong? What if all your dreams are dashed and that waiting time is wasted?
 
Even so, I encourage you to keep writing as you wait. And maybe even wrap some big life events into your waiting time so you don’t have to pile them all together at once as I did! 🙂 
 

So what camp do you belong to–are you in a period of waiting or …not? Share in a comment below. 

About Rachelle
Rachelle Rea Cobb is a freelance editor, an author of six books, and a voracious reader. She married a man with the same name as her first fictional hero, and they are now living their happily ever after in a fixer-upper by the sea, where they are awaiting the arrival of their first daughter this spring. She’s a fan of chai and lemonade (though definitely not together).

You can find her on Instagram, Facebook, and on her blog.