Plan to Wait

I hope that the summer’s posts on inspiration kept you going!

Welcome to September! I know some folks for whom September is the month to schlep groaning into the school year. I like September for the same reason I love a Monday. It is a fresh start.

You know what I like to do during fresh starts? You guessed it! Plan.

Right now, I am working on a few projects, all of them at various stages of completion. Planning, then, must include the waiting periods: waiting for an editor, waiting for copy-edits, waiting for page proofs, waiting for a cover, waiting for ideas to click. So, how does one plan to wait?

Planning to wait is not (as much of) a problem if you consider that waiting is active. Waiting does not mean that you aren’t doing anything. If your project is part of a larger creative and intellectual oeuvre, the waiting is an opportunity to improve your craft, learn about your contemporaries and/or your forebears, and explore your intellectual and creative horizons.

I sometimes stuff my down time on one project with another project. That option works because my ideas kept begetting ideas, so I wanted to take advantage of the urgency I felt, the desire to know, the push to write. That feeling persists. So does the strategy.

Here are some practicalities.

I wrote about six articles/book chapters over the past few years, none of which are published yet. We’re nearing the projected publication times. So, I emailed each editor/project manager to ask where we were in the timeline. I needed to know whether I should expect to receive an assignment from them (edits, copy-edits, page proofs) during this semester. Each promised that this was a 2025 problem.

My debut poetry collection, What Had Happened Was, comes out from Duke University Press in April 2025. Just in time for National Poetry Month! I’m thrilled! And, I also am doing the first push for publicity. (By the way, if you want to review the book or book me for a poetry reading, please let me know!) So, I have a rough calendar from Duke about what to expect over the next few months.

I am currently at work on three book length projects. One is postponed until the winter where I will teach a class on the material. I have chosen to work on the second one by honing my craft. As Kiese Laymon says, “we’re not good enough to not practice.” Honing my craft looks like reading, sleeping with the dictionary, transcribing sentences, free writing, listening to podcasts (I’m loving Deesha Philyaw and Kiese Laymon’s podcast right now), collecting information, using invitations to write as opportunities to practice, and talking to myself. (A good jouska or a bout of lalochezia does wonders for the creative mind.) For the third project, I am simply reading to keep the genre in mind and applying to fellowships and residencies for the express purpose of working on that project.

How do you plan to wait?