Gardening & Writing Redux: Sunshine & Rain
Posted on 15:23, May 19th, 2009 by
EKSwitaj
Read my latest story, "A Tale of Two Birthdays", at 52|250.
As I cleared ivy and sowed seeds, I thought about the ways in which my gardening resembled my writing. Since then, the weather has been perfect for plant growth (which means more weeding and transplanting—revising—as well as more to harvest eventually): not too hot and not too cold, with soil-drenching rain broken up by enough sunny days to prevent flooding and let young leaves go to work. The lesson of moderation in temperature is simple enough. The alternating rain and sun might seem to have an easy analogue in writing too: the necessity for periods of retreat and contemplation (creative indolence to put it in Keatsian terms) to be interspersed with external action and experience.
For me, however, that is not an appropriate comparison: I have never associated rain with a time to curl up and hide from the world. I grew up camping under blue tarps and have made a habit of dancing or running in the rain. Excessive heat may drive me to inner contemplation; sun used to keep me in the shade at least, but I’ve learned to cope.
No, the lesson for me is simply in this: the need to seek out a balanced set of stimuli so that my writing neither drowns nor burns (though occasionally having to hold one’s breath longer than is comfortable or burning the edges is certainly more acceptable in verse than it is in gardening).
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- Writing the Flow
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