Waiting and waiting and waiting

Really, I shouldn't have gotten into this writing biz. I have too little patience.

A week ago today I sent my first packet to Rita, my advisor at Vermont (she actually lives in New York somewhere and is probably buried under two feet of snow). She said something about taking eight days to get back to me. I didn't pay close enough attention to that part when she was explaining how she handles packets. I was more concerned about what I had to send her, not when she'd get back to me. So it's kind of like watching the mailbox on the earliest possible day you might hear from an editor--if the world were perfect.

Meanwhile I had an idea for a new non-fiction book, something that's actually related to my 9-to-5 job. Amazing. I never thought it would happen. So I've been researching that idea for the last few days, and it looks like a good one. There's been one adult book published about it, but it didn't get great reviews, and no kids' books on it. And I know where to look for primary source material.

So far, noodling a non-fiction idea doesn't get in the way of working on fiction. I've found it very difficult to juggle two fiction projects.

The key to waiting is distracting myself with other projects.

But inbetween sending the first packet and receiving Rita's comments, I wasn't sure what I should be doing exactly. Which is probably why I started on the new non-fiction idea. Probably I should be revising stuff, but maybe I'm supposed to revise work I just sent Rita after getting her feedback. (This all sounds very disjointed and ridiculous.)

During the residency I wasn't sure this MFA thing was for me. Now I'm sure. It's really fun.