What My Greener Thumb Taught Me

I while back I mentioned that I'm going to try to become a gardener because A) I watched Food Inc,  and I wanted to eat fresh, organic vegetables, and B) I believed that the project would speak to me on a deeper level-- you know, getting in touch with the land and your inner self.


Well,  B is true.  This is a pic of my brand new 8 x 8 baby garden.

Four things I learned that apply to my efforts as a writer.

1) There is a lot of LABOUR up front.  Before you can actually plant anything you have to build structure. You have to plan. You have to have all the parts. And a truck.

2) There is a COST.  When I add up the cost of landscape ties, soil, and seeds it comes to over 200.00. I could buy a lot of vegetables for 200.00! But, the savings come later on. Like, next year, when all I have to buy are the seeds.  There is a cost to pursuing our writing dreams. Blood, sweat and tears. Paper, ink, and the occasional course or conference. The pay off comes afterwards.

3) This LOOKS a lot easier than it is. That didn't just happen in an afternoon, that's all I'm saying.  Non-writers think writing is a lot easier than it is. Any one who has written a book--no, let me rephrase that--written a good book-- knows it's a lot harder to do than it looks.

4) There is WAITING involved.  I've built the structure, poured in the soil, planted the seeds, watered it---but still no vegetables. No, I have to wait for that.  Anyone out on query or submissions knows what I'm talking about here. 'Nuff said.


Still there's more. There are WEEDS.

See my older strawberry patch as an example.

Here we have more weeds than strawberries. This is problematic. Much like our first draft in revisions. We need to pick through our manuscript, pulling out weeds--things that clutter, like bad style, plotting, voice-- and make room for the actual story to emerge and develop.


Sometimes a little sweetness--an fresh idea- shows up unexpectedly.

And eventually,  you end up with something like this:

Ah, much better.  Not quite ready to send out. Another few read throughs, a bit more time for the fruit to grow, but closer. Much closer.

How about you? Are you a gardener?  Old hat or new like me?  What have you learned by gardening or any other task that takes you out of your writing room?