Control is Where the Heart Is. Or Something.

David Montgomery came back from Thrillerfest last week with a suitcase full of good information. But of the things he shared on his blog, this is what has resonated with me most strongly:

The best way to get your book reviewed, and the best way to have it be a success, is to write the best book you possibly can. And that is the one area of the process over which an author actually has control.

These are important words to remember. It’s too easy sometimes to get swept away in all the coulda/shoulda/haftas that go with being an author. The things that, when all is said and done, have nothing at all to do with why we started writing fiction in the first place. In any case, and as Montgomery points out, a lot of those things are out of our control.

What’s in our control: rediscovering the place that sent us on this journey.

Giving every book the passion and love that is the minimum requirement for creating a book that is good.

Going the distance, always and pushing past complacence until we feel it; until it hurts.