It’s been a long time since my friend has shown his face around here, so I thought I’d bring him back for a visit. When I first started blogging, the Stone Man was a part of my blog banner, a constant reminder that patience is a virtue, that the waiting life requires — especially the writing life — cannot only be endured but met with a smile (though it helps if your face is made of stone).
These days, my waiting is different. I have an agent who helps keep me grounded during quiet weeks on submission. I have projects at various levels of completion to keep me occupied. Now I find myself grateful for moments that allow me to pause, reflect, even step away from my work. But I remember the hope-filled anguish of waiting, those years of maniacal optimism that kept me believing the next manuscript/editor/agent would be it.
If you’re a writer and are waiting, if you’re hoping, if you’re even despairing, I get it. Please don’t give up! Stone Man and I are cheering you on.
Thank you, Caroline! I definitely wish I was made of stone sometimes…especially when I have to open rejections!
Understood! Your day is coming. I know it.
This is a good reminder, Caroline! I’d always seen this guy on your header but didn’t know what he stood for. Lovely!
As the most impatient person in the world, waiting is soooo hard for me. I definitely need to channel pensive stone man.
Thank you for this post Caroline, where I am at now is finishing up a manuscript I have rewritten about four times, and also will start university in Fall and trying to figure out how I will balance it all because I have come so far with my writing and cannot push it aside its become so part of me. But I learned patience is definitely a virtue when waiting, when I began I made so much rookie mistakes as a first time writer sending my novel when it wasn’t ready but if I didn’t I wouldn’t have learned I have no choice but to wait which will hopefully help me in the long run i.e. getting agent/published.
I can relate to your experience, Keisha. For years, I stumbled around on my own, not knowing anyone else trying to write. I checked out books about writing and tried to learn from what I read. I also sent many, many manuscripts out before they were ready.
One of the biggest things to change my mindset and the direction of my writing life came when I joined SCBWI. Finally, I’d found my people! And I felt like a professional at last.
Your writing won’t go away in a new life phase, though it make look different. That’s okay. Please keep me posted on the months and years ahead!
Do you have any background information about this stone man?
He’s in Spiez, Switzerland in the gardens near the castle.
http://www.schloss-spiez.ch/schloss/index.php