Mind the Chicken

that's my chicken!

My friend and colleague Joseph Bentz  is an incredibly talented writer. He just did an online interview with Patricia Hickman, and in it, he mentions that when I have projects that are “on hold,” I file them “under the chicken.”  I actually have a plastic inbox for these items, and I actually have a large ceramic chicken that I set on top of them all.

When projects seem to be languishing (waiting for a response to a query, waiting for the publisher to take action, waiting to recover from the bruise of a wrong-headed review, waiting  for a vague idea to come into focus), I am tempted to get impatient, stomp my little foot, spit, fume, and complain. Instead, I look at the chicken, smile, and realize that sometimes things just take a little more time.

To read Joe’s interview, go to http://wordsunwired.blogspot.com/2009/03/lessons-learned-from-ceramic-chicken.html.

To find out more about Joe’s books, go to http://www.josephbentz.com/

Persistence, flexibility, and p-a-t-i-e-n-c-e.  That’s what makes Joseph Bentz a great writer.