Control the process, not the outcome.
Before my first book was published Steven Spielberg optioned it. This was awesome for, like, two days and then the pressure mounted. Will you meet with this screenwriter? Have breakfast with these producers? Everyone wants to know how quickly you can get the manuscript in, Paul. And what will the critics say? And what will the early sales figures show?
It freaked me out. I was responding to questions for which I didn’t have answers. I was attempting to control things beyond my control.
Eventually — and this took months — I stopped doing that. I realized the only thing I could control was the quality of my work. So I took the time the reporting demanded. I wrote the book that met my high standards. I figured out what was within my grasp.
In other words: I controlled the process, and not the outcome.
Approaching your writing that way frees you. Focuses you. Calms you. This is true whether you’re writing a book optioned by Steven Spielberg or a 1,500-word feature for a weekly newspaper in Montana. There will always be external pressures, external realities, beyond your grasp.
For instance, I could not control the rave reviews The Saboteur received in The New York Times and Washington…
