{"id":446,"date":"2008-01-22T07:56:05","date_gmt":"2008-01-22T15:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=446"},"modified":"2025-03-02T19:44:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-02T19:44:15","slug":"the-only-thing-you-can-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/the-only-thing-you-can-control\/","title":{"rendered":"The Only Thing You Can Control"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Toil\u00ading away on index cards has a way of putting things in per\u00adspec\u00adtive.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-451 size-medium\" title=\"deepinlib\" src=\"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/deepinlib-300x240.jpg\" alt width=\"300\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/deepinlib-300x240.jpg 300w, https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/deepinlib-375x300.jpg 375w, https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/deepinlib.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\"><\/p>\n<p>Whether you\u2019re hunched over a cubi\u00adcle deep in your local library, or lying on your stom\u00adach atop your bed with the cards spread around you, scrib\u00adbling on 3\u201cx5\u201d pieces of paper forces you to immerse your\u00adself in the process of writ\u00ading.<\/p>\n<p>It also helps you to let go of all of that oth\u00ader \u201cstuff\u201d that hangs over you.<\/p>\n<p>Now that I\u2019m deep into a new project, I\u2019m see\u00ading again how much of this thing called \u201cwrit\u00ading\u201d is out of our con\u00adtrol:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You can\u2019t con\u00adtrol the vicis\u00adsi\u00adtudes of the mar\u00adket.<\/li>\n<li>You can\u2019t con\u00adtrol whether edi\u00adtors are going to like what you write.<\/li>\n<li>You can\u2019t con\u00adtrol whether anoth\u00ader writer is work\u00ading on a book \u201cexact\u00adly\u201d like yours.<\/li>\n<li>You can\u2019t con\u00adtrol whether or not a genre is deemed \u201ctoo crowd\u00aded.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>You can\u2019t con\u00adtrol those agents look\u00ading only to rep\u00adre\u00adsent \u201cbreak\u00adout\u201d books or \u201cbest\u00adseller-lev\u00adel mate\u00adr\u00adi\u00adal.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>You can\u2019t con\u00adtrol how your friends, your par\u00adents, your neigh\u00adbors or even your sweet dog are going to react to your sto\u00adries.<\/li>\n<li>You can\u2019t con\u00adtrol the size of your read\u00ader\u00adship or the depth of your \u201cplat\u00adform.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>You can\u2019t con\u00adtrol nasty, half-wit\u00adted, prej\u00adu\u00addi\u00adcial com\u00adments in the blo\u00adgos\u00adphere about you and your work.<\/li>\n<li>You can\u2019t con\u00adtrol whether or not read\u00aders are inspired by you.<\/li>\n<li>You can\u2019t con\u00adtrol the U.S. Mail, FedEx, UPS or any oth\u00ader deliv\u00adery ser\u00advice.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-477 size-full\" title=\"stmp29\" src=\"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/stmp29.jpg\" alt width=\"259\" height=\"266\"><\/li>\n<li>You can\u2019t con\u00adtrol the ever-increas\u00ading price of stamps.<\/li>\n<li>You can\u2019t con\u00adtrol your fel\u00adlow writ\u00aders\u2019 writ\u00ading habits.<\/li>\n<li>You can\u2019t con\u00adtrol whether or not your writer friends take your advice.<\/li>\n<li>You can\u2019t con\u00adtrol the out\u00adcome of con\u00adtests.<\/li>\n<li>You can\u2019t con\u00adtrol whether or not peo\u00adple are going to laugh at your wit\u00adty line.<\/li>\n<li>You can\u2019t con\u00adtrol whether your sto\u00adry will be accept\u00aded by a jour\u00adnal.<\/li>\n<li>You can\u2019t con\u00adtrol how peo\u00adple in your com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty might per\u00adceive you when they find out you\u2019re a writer.<\/li>\n<li>You can\u2019t con\u00adtrol the myr\u00adi\u00adad tasks and nui\u00adsances that mys\u00adte\u00adri\u00adous\u00adly show up the moment you become immersed in a new project: snow shov\u00adel\u00ading, den\u00adtist appoint\u00adments, job respon\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adties or argu\u00adments with your land\u00adlord or spouse.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-453 size-full\" title=\"writing_desk_sm\" src=\"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/writing_desk_sm.jpg\" alt width=\"450\" height=\"299\" srcset=\"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/writing_desk_sm.jpg 450w, https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/writing_desk_sm-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\"><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Maybe it\u2019s the work\u00ading close-up, maybe it\u2019s the micro\u00adscop\u00adic print, maybe it\u2019s the card\u2019s ten\u00adden\u00adcy to draw more and more detail out of you, or maybe it\u2019s all of these things. What\u00adev\u00ader it is, work\u00ading with index cards for the past few weeks has got\u00adten my mind off the long list above and taught me once again what I think is the most impor\u00adtant les\u00adson about writ\u00ading:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>The ONLY thing&nbsp;you can con\u00adtrol as a writer&nbsp;is your writ\u00ading.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Whether or not you do it every day. How pre\u00adcise and apt your obser\u00adva\u00adtions are. How true your dia\u00adlogue sounds. How many words you write. The tools you use. The media you work in. The qual\u00adi\u00adty of your nouns and verbs. The vari\u00adety of sen\u00adtence struc\u00adtures you employ. How much you <em>give<\/em> to a read\u00ader.<\/p>\n<p>If you DO the writ\u00ading, if you keep your focus there, where your pow\u00ader is, those oth\u00ader con\u00adcerns will take care of them\u00adselves.<\/p>\n<p>Get into the writ\u00ading. Love doing the actu\u00adal work of typ\u00ading, scrawl\u00ading in pen\u00adcil, chang\u00ading words, mak\u00ading sen\u00adtences.<\/p>\n<p>It sounds like some\u00adthing the vil\u00adlage idiot would say, but it\u2019s true:<\/p>\n<p>Love the writ\u00ading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Toil\u00ading away on index cards has a way of putting things in per\u00adspec\u00adtive. Whether you\u2019re hunched over a cubi\u00adcle deep in your local library, or\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,19,7,8,63,68,13,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-craft","category-fiction","category-personal","category-publishingandthemarket","category-rejections","category-rewriting","category-writers","category-writingexperiences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9221,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions\/9221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}