I like to think I’m a patient person, but I am of the generation that grew up on a steady dose of MTV (when it actually used to play music), 24-hour news cycles, and the internet.  I know I’m a lot less patient than my parents, so I’m not surprised that I find myself compulsively checking email as I wait to hear back on stories that I’ve sent off to publishers.

Even though publishing is crawling into the digital—a.k.a. modern—age, it’s still a painfully slow business.  While there are exceptions, it can take months for an editor to review a story and respond.  For someone used to measuring time by Google’s fractions-of-a-second search engine, that’s a long time.  To make matters worse, the responses are generally rejections.   I try to take my mind off the waiting by writing another story: write, submit, forget…write, submit, forget. 

Maybe I’ll hear back on one of my submissions today.  Given the likely response, do I want to?  Of course I do; I’m a writer.  I’ve actually chosen a path that is a gauntlet of ego-deflating punishment.  But I’m also an optimist.  Maybe the next response will be an acceptance that propels me into my happy dance.  Maybe I should check my—no, I should get back to putting words on screen instead.