An Important Truth to Remember

Here's an important truth for every writer to keep in mind. Are you ready for it? Here it is: Much of the world is outside of your control.  I know pretty obvious? Yet when your chaotic world falls apart (and everyone has things which happen), it is important to remember that you can't control everything. In fact, some days you feel like you can't control anything.

Let me give you a couple of examples from my life in publishing. I recently promoted through my email list and social media, one of my long-term friends. I was using an affiliate link and going to earn money (eventually) from my promotion activities. Then the friend's computer crashed and the event is now going to be rescheduled. The potential earnings and promotion are now delayed but completely outside of anything I could have controlled or foreseen.

Here's another one. Recently I was looking forward to traveling to a live event. The event looked to have a great crowd and the people would be good potential authors for my work with Morgan James Publishing. Then the organizer got laryngitis and cancelled the event. She told me it was her first time to have to cancel an event in the 20 or so she had held before. It will be rescheduled in the spring but again the details were outside of my control.

When you have these types of things happen to your writing life, here's several things to do:

1. Don't let it make you depressed or ineffective. Yes the emotions are real and play into our work but shrug off what you can't control.

2. Change course and keep going in new directions. Our writing world has endless possibilities. If you need a list of possibilities, then download this free chapter from my Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams book (no optin).

3. Determine again to control what you can and let the rest go. Sometimes this is easier said than done. Maybe get outside and walk around the block. The fresh air will help you clear your head and return with new enthusiasm.

4. When you went in a new direction (#2), now dig into your new work. Because you are working on a different area, hope can increase and you can move forward.

As a writer, there are dozens of directions that you can go. Your consistent action and moving forward in the chaos is one of the keys from my experience. Yes there is much in our world that we can't control but we can take control of our own writing. As you faithfully meet your own deadlines and writing projects, you will be able to touch and help many people. If I can help you in this process, let me know. In the meantime, I will be cheering you forward.

When your writing spins out of control, what steps to you take? Are they different than the ones I wrote about here? Let me know in the comments.

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A prolific writer and editor reminds us of an important truth with some practical action steps. (ClickToTweet)

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