I am between manuscripts, so I made space for some creative cross training and found my way into the garden. While my hands pruned tomato plants, my mind wandered. I started seeing so many parallels between gardening and writing, so here’s a fun list of ten:
Green as grass. An empty plot of earth is as intimidating and exciting as a blank page. You can just plop some seeds in the earth and see what grows, but you might end up with a weird looking garden. I did this with my first novel. I just wanted to write with abandon. It took an entire year and an embarrassingly bad manuscript to learn that there was a thing called plot structure. Sometimes you just have to get your hands dirty, and sometimes knowing the essentials before you start can save you a lot of time and heartache.
Some seeds are duds. Even after learning craft, not all the seeds you plant will come up. Some seeds are duds and some writing ideas just don’t pan out. It’s helpful to figure these things out early. If a plant doesn’t take root, throw a small fit if you want, but then get another in its spot so you don’t waste an entire season. In the same way, if you can’t manage to get an outline for the idea and the words won’t come, put the idea down and plant another.
Shit is essential. Now, what to do with that dead plant or the ideas that don’t quite work? Throw them right in the compost bin. Along with your pieces of random inspiration and past lived experiences, they will break down and form the nutrients for future plants and projects. Nothing written is ever wasted. Two or three of my failed novel ideas have merged to make a manuscript more original and complex than its pieces.
Keep it interesting. Have you ever walked past a yard full of just one plant or had to eat an entire tomato harvest day after day? These experiences can be stunning and delicious at first, but then they get boring. Variation is just as important on the page. Different characters need to play off one another, emotions need to vary between scenes, and dramatic actions need to escalate to hold the reader’s attention.
Weeding (exasperated sigh). While planting is the fun part, pulling weeds is essential if you want flowers to flourish. Otherwise, the extraneous will crowd, starve, and shade the beautiful. Revision can be tedious, especially getting out the small mistakes with tender roots that spread everywhere, but this is what makes novels great. This is the real work of writers. Also if I am ever confused about which words are weeds and which are flowers, beta readers and editors are super helpful.
Waiting is work. I am guilty of digging up seedlings because I just couldn’t wait. And then, of course, I killed them. Once I complete a draft, letting my writing rest saves its life. It allows me to loosens my attachment to the story and prevents me from ripping the whole thing apart before I see its true beauty. Coming back to the work, I see things with a fresh perspective, which is always better than the old one. After waiting, I can remove the bits that aren’t working and come up with some truly creative solutions. Let your work rest and something beautiful will rise.
Clip your flowers for more to grow. When I first started writing, I hoarded my ideas. I didn’t let my protagonist do something that a future character might want to do. Then I learned to use everything. Creativity is a well that refills over and over again. Plants put out so many more flowers when they are clipped. Use your ideas, don’t save them. Also cut flowers look gorgeous on a writing desk.
Screw the squirrels! Sometimes success depends on the elements and defeat on the freaking squirrels. Having entered the business phase of writing--the pitching, the querying, the marketing--I see that some good books don’t make it to readers for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the work or the writer. The publishing world is a tumultuous and unfair beast, but just because aphids eat your kale, don’t stop planting vegetables. We can’t control certain elements of this process, and that sucks, but you write because you must write. So onward.
Turn, turn, turn. I used to plant in the spring and harvest when things were ready, then start over again next March. Now I’m learning about planting for all the seasons to come. The layers of beauty you can achieve this way are far greater than just touching the soil each spring or plopping perennials in and never coming back. In the same way, draft after draft after draft of a novel will add more thematic development and character complexity. It is tempting to stop, but if a trusted reader or editor says to keep going, give it a rest and see what more can develop over another season.
Let’s live forever. Research reveals that gardening is a common activity in regions of the world where people live very long and satisfied lives. Gardening reduces stress and provides physical activity, Vitamin D, and healthy food. While writing does not provide any of these things and has caused plenty of stress in my life, it still heals my soul. I’ve talked about this before, but it bears repeating, creativity is self-care. So take care of yourself - garden and write :)