Impatience Made Me Do It

The reasons I don't regret my writing mistakes...

I wrote the first scene of my novel in October 2023 and, like every writer, I’ve been impatient… to finish the first draft, to query* literary agents, to publish.

*A query letter is sent to agents to pitch your book. Also called ‘querying agents.’

You may imagine that I have an out-of-control creative ego but you would be wrong (believe me, very few writers have an ego).

It’s my story that is setting the pace.

My debut novel spans 1947–1973 and is set between India and England. The story follows an intergenerational Punjabi family through twists and turns as their intricate web of lies, woven over the years since Partition, unravels.

Get ready for the book blurb… not quite pitch perfect yet, but I need to get used to sharing it!

Two brothers, who are driven in opposing directions by the brutality of Partition, emigrate to England to forget a guilty secret. Their wives endure hardship to protect their children, who come of age in an incomprehensible world. A young bride is banished from her home in Punjab with her dreams shattered and arrives in England to marry into the family.

As the family strives to create a brighter future, splintered bonds expose their broken relationships. Can they overcome the demons of history, or will those dark shadows forever define their destiny?

With the 80th anniversary of Partition in 2027, it feels appropriate to explore the experiences of the early Sikh immigrants, like my grandparents.

My maternal grandfather was a Police Officer in India and, during Partition, he greeted refugee trains in Amritsar and helped fleeing Muslims safely board for Pakistan. My paternal grandfather was in the British Army and was stationed in Singapore in the 1950s when he decided to emigrate to England with his family.

But 2027 is years away, you say, so why the rush to publish?

Because publishing is slow. Painfully slow.

At least six months of querying literary agents before knowing if you’ll be signed. If you’re one of the 1% who makes it out of the slush pile, there will be multiple rounds of editing before your agent submits to publishers. Then, if you secure a publishing deal, it can take another two years (or more) before your book is on the shelves.

So yes, there’s urgency. And that urgency, my impatience, led to plenty of rookie writer mistakes.

But I don’t regret any of them.

Why be patient?

Ask any experienced writer, and they’ll tell you impatience kills good books.

Writers rush to publish before their manuscript is ready, only to look back and cringe at what they sent out. (I’ve had my fair share of cringing!)

They query agents too soon and burn their chances. They self-publish before their book is the best it can be.

Impatience, they say, makes you blind to your own flaws. You think you’re ready, but you’re not.

And I see their point. I’ve made mistakes I could have avoided if I’d been patient.

But here’s the thing no one tells you: impatience also keeps you moving forward.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Mistake 1: Entering early drafts into competitions.

I sent my first draft to a national competition. You know, the one full of one-dimensional characters and plot holes.

I went away on holiday and then read it again. The burning shame almost drove me to set fire to it in a metaphorical bin.

Even so, it still stung when I got my first rejection.

But not enough to stop me entering my second draft into an international competition. Before it had been read by beta readers. Before I’d even learnt to edit.

The rejection stung just as much but I didn’t let it stop me. I applied for mentorships, first 500 competitions, just about any free opportunity I could find.

Why?

Because I could see that the process of formatting submissions, crafting pitches, and putting my work out there was its own kind of education.

It gave me deadlines to work towards and, more importantly, built up my resilience to rejection, something you need bucket loads of for querying.

Mistake 2. Taking on the wrong writing advice.

I signed up for a writer’s conference in July 2024, I had my fourth (and in my naive mind, final) draft completed.

At the conference, my query submission package* was reviewed by two different agents.

* This is what you send to the literary agent – your query letter, a one-page synopsis and the first 5000 words of your novel.

Agent 1 loved the premise and prose but made minor suggestions for improving the synopsis and query letter. Agent 2 didn’t connect with the premise or prose at all but praised the synopsis and query.

Their feedback completely contradicted each other.

Guess which one I fixated on? Agent 2.

I let my inner critic take over and harshly edited the first three chapters based on the negative feedback, believing that would be the key to securing an agent.

Then the truth hit me hard: publishing is subjective. Art is subjective.

My job wasn’t to rewrite my book to please every agent I met. It was to take the insights from both agents and use them to sharpen my story without losing its heart, its authenticity.

That was the moment my manuscript became the novel it is today.

Photo Credit: Simi Sidhu

Mistake 3: Researching agents before the book was finished.

Even before I finished my first draft, I started compiling a spreadsheet of agents. I spent hours and hours, over ten months, researching and learning about literary agents and their role in the publishing world.

As only 3% of those who start writing a book actually finish, the usual advice is to not waste time doing this before you have a query-ready manuscript.

Looking back, I could’ve spent those hours writing or editing, but I don’t regret the time I invested.

It meant that by the time I was ready to query, most of the hard work was done. I wasn’t scrambling to research agents or trying to figure out who was open to submissions. Instead, I was fine-tuning my submission package and personalising my submissions to agents who truly represented stories like mine.

The spreadsheet became more than just a tool, it’s given me a sense of control over the process, and that has helped to keep me on an even keel.

Querying is a rollercoaster, with soaring highs and sudden lows and my methodical approach has made the process feel more manageable and less personal.

Mistake 4: Sending out agent queries too early.*

*Once you query an agent, you can’t submit the same book to them again even if you revise it, unless they ask you to which is called a Revise and Resubmit (R&R).

Okay, it would have been better if I hadn’t done this. But I don’t regret it.

After the conference, I sent out a few early queries at the end of July. Then I stepped away from my manuscript for a few weeks. (I did actually get one full manuscript request out of the five I sent, but that wasn’t until November.)

For me, I needed to send out those early queries to ease myself into the process. To manage the anxiety and make a few mistakes to learn from.

On re-reading the manuscript I decided it needed another deep line edit. The story was good, but it could be better. I cut 6,000 words. And it didn’t even hurt (much). Even the prose I was most proud of, the sentences that made my heart sing, were ruthlessly axed if they didn’t serve the story.

I look back at the impatience that drove me to query too soon, and know it pushed me forwards and took me from first word to query-ready in just 12 months.

How did I know I was ready? Because one of the first agents I emailed asked to read the full manuscript.

My writing journey started years before I wrote my first scene, you could say that I’ve been writing this book all my life. Want to know more? Read about my journey here.

Was it worth it?

Patience is valuable. But so is momentum. So is courage.

So is the ability to put yourself out there even when you feel like a fraud.

Impatience made me take risks. It made me learn faster. It forced me to push through fear and doubt, to keep going even when I didn’t feel ready.

As I write this, I’m almost at the end of the querying process and I hope to be sharing my exciting news with you soon.

So, impatience, thank you for teaching me to leap when I felt unsure, to test my limits, and to move forward when fear would have held me back.

Want to know my querying stats? The highs and lows? The lessons I learned? You’ll have to wait for my next newsletter.

Photo Credit - Simi Sidhu

What do you think?

Have you ever rushed into something before you felt ready? Did impatience set you back, or did it push you forward in ways you didn’t expect? Did it help you learn faster or take risks you might have otherwise avoided?

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