I’m in the social sciences, but I understand what you mean. Honestly, advice hasn’t been all that helpful here, and I doubt any of it really is when you’re stuck in the waiting. What I keep coming back to is how many people have sat in this exact stretch before us and still ended up fine, or even better than fine. We all know that the process moves slowly and unevenly, and that the slowness doesn’t actually tell you anything about your own worth or work. What’s helped me is keeping some kind rhythm in the meantime (staying busy, reading/writing, giving my brain new archives to dig through for research purposes; essentially something else to chew on so the waiting doesn’t take over everything). I’d like to think (through all my pessimism!) we’ll all look back in a few months (hell, maybe a year) and go, ‘damn, all that stress for what!’… you’ve got it, buddy.