Growing My Writing
I was outside gardening this past weekend.
Now I’m not terribly skilled or know all there is to know about gardening. Yet, when we inherited a home that had beautiful landscaping already built in, a small spark was lit inside of me.
Basically, I didn’t want to fail the lovely shrubbery, trees and plants that grew all about the yard. And, I admit, I enjoyed it.
So every year, I put on my best gardening gloves and pretend like I’m a pro.
Well, while I was out there in the sunshine, I got to thinking about my Novel. Writing is very similar to tending a garden.
In gardening, you have your seedling.
It needs to be sown somewhere suitable where it can take root.
It requires nutrients and water in order to grow and blossom, not to mention continual attention to pruning.
Writing is the same.
You can have an idea, but rarely is that “seedling thought” perfect in its form from the start. It needs to be “planted.”
It demands “water editing” if it’s going to become anything more than an idea. Trimming and pruning the excess is essential for a real chance at life.
As you nurture both garden and novel with your time and care, you grow in your appreciation and ability to see the big picture.
How will the garden benefit from this coloured flower? What will happen if I remove this episode in the story and instead make it a part of a conversation?
Great pleasure comes in seeing the stages of growth unfold before your eyes.
A tiny shoot in dark ground can lift the spirits the same way a positive response to a chapter can.
Fashioning a character from scratch into a living breathing person you can see and hear is just as rewarding as that bright full leafy bloom.
In fact, both gardening and writing can aid and inspire each other.
In the calm of the leafy shade or with hands deep in moist soil, ideas can spring forth and enliven a writer. In composing a poetic prose on flowers, one can be enveloped by the urge to get outside and plant.
And I’m not the only one who thinks so. Consider those writers who actually unite the two by building writing sheds in the middle of their gardens.
Neither is an easy trek.
Both take time, patience, and clarity of thought to facilitate any progress yet are gloriously fulfilling in achievement.
It is in that decisive goal that the gardener seeks to pursue the sweat and toil of it all.
So too, it is in sleeplessness, stress and toil that the writer even bothers to push forward.
Ultimately, I hope I may succeed on both fronts.
Spring has sprung. Wish me luck 🙂
Paula Antonello Moore, Thoughts, Copyright: Monday, May 4, 2015.
Image: Top, Sprout in book from Innolect Inc.
Image: Middle, Watering can from Garden Guides.
Image: Bottom, Garden office from No Wasted Ink.
Oh yeah! Creativity inspiring creativity. A definite connection. Great piece, Paula 🙂 B.
Thanks. T’is the season.