by Ane Mulligan  @AneMulligan

Congratulations! You finished your manuscript. That’s so exciting! At the conference you went to, an agent (or editor) you pitched asked to see the full manuscript. When you got home, you polished it and sent it off.

Now what? How do you do pass the time, while you’re waiting to hear back from the publisher? Sitting around twiddling your thumbs isn’t the best use of your time, and you don’t want to send another email asking where the contract is. In fact, you don’t send anything for 3 months, if you haven’t heard back.

I know it’s hard to wait. That’s your baby you sent off, so here are 11 tips to keep you busy while waiting—some really good and some…well, see for yourself.

1. Clean out your sock drawer: If yours is anything like mine, it could use a good cleaning and culling. And while you’re at it, you can dismantle your clothes dryer to find the ones it ate. You might even find the missing mate to your Halloween jack-o-lantern socks.

2. Sort out your bathroom drawers: We all collect makeup and manicure items we don’t seem to use. I’m donating my nail polish to the little girls next door. They like to paint their daddy’s toenails, and I get so tickled at his embarrassment during the summer.

3. Catch up on your laundry: If nothing else, reduce the 6-foot-high piles in your bedroom and the kids’ rooms to 2-foot piles.

4. Paint the deck: You complained to your husband about it last Spring when you wanted to write outside. Now’s a good time. Grab that roller and have at it.

5. Clean the chimney: After all, if Dick Van Dyke could do it, so can you. Just be sure to use proper harnessing in case you get stuck, so someone can pull you back out.

6. Spend hours on social media: Make up for all the time you were writing and stayed off Facebook. Post how anxious you are that A to Z Publishing hasn’t sent your contract yet.

Okay, those are all fairly silly and not all that productive for a writer. Besides, the kids can do most of those—except number 5. Save that one for your crazy Cousin Eddie.

My Best Advice is:

1. Start your next book: While my agent shopped my first publishable manuscript, I started on the sequel. My journey was long, and God clearly showed me He was in charge of the time and place He had for me. So I kept writing. By the time that first book, Chapel Springs Revival, was published, I had book 2 and 3 written. I’ve only ever written to one tight deadline.

2. Write an article for a magazine: Magazines are always looking for articles. Check their guidelines to see what they are looking for. Don’t send a Southern recipe to a European travel magazine, or a hack for fixing a flat tire to a fashion rag.

3. Take a day trip for inspiration: So many ideas come from driving around. I used the name of a fish bait store I saw in the back woods of upper Lake Lanier. It sparked the inspiration for an entire series.

4. Try your hand a photography: No fancy camera needed. Use your phone. You may find you have a great eye for composition, and who knows? You might just snap a suspicious looking person who sparks the “what if” for your next manuscript.

5. Brainstorm: Get together for lunch with some writer pals and brainstorm ideas. You’ll all come away with fiction fodder. And while you’re at it, eavesdrop on conversations around you. I’ve picked up several ideas to incorporate into stories, or characteristics for my next protagonist.

Ane Mulligan lives life from a director’s chair, both in theatre and at her desk, creating novels. Entranced with story by age three, at five, she saw PETER PAN onstage and was struck with a fever from which she never recovered—stage fever. One day, her passions collided, and an award-winning, bestselling novelist emerged. She believes chocolate and coffee are two of the four major food groups and lives in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband and a rascally Rottweiler. Find Ane on her website, Amazon Author page, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, The Write Conversation, and Blue Ridge Conference Blog.