TIERNEY JAMES

Lipstick & Danger

My Blog

Digging for Stories – The Garden Way

My
garden finally looks like Eden. The lilies are just about to pop open in
various shades of color, everything from orange to black. Wildflowers I allowed
to grow in the crevices of my rocky path grew tall and sparkling white. Those weeds
sneaking up through the gravel I poured, get a chance to bloom. There’s a time
limit. If they don’t dazzle me I’m going to yank them up by the roots, spray
them with Roundup then toss them in a trash bag. The vegetables look
respectable, orderly and hold the promise of bountiful meals of my favorite
summer delights. When I post pictures my friends just marvel at the beauty, the
entangled colors not normally paired. Somehow it just works. They think it is
so easy.

I
write like I garden. I enlist colorful characters that in real life might not
be a good match for each other. Sometimes they’re like weeds that need to be
yanked out of my story and destroyed. You do what you can to spread a little
fertilizer on them to make them grow, be something other than a seed of an
idea. If you wait, keep writing, hope that nature will take its course,
sometimes an amazing thing happens. You create a story, a novel or manuscript
of incredible beauty and self-satisfaction. Characters become so delicious in
your imagination that a sequel demands to be written. This happens to me all
the time.
With
every season the garden changes, giving me an opportunity to envision
another scenario, Spring – young love, 
Summer – spring into action 
Autumn – A conclusion to what you’ve grown over thousands of words  Winter – The End. It’s time to drag out the
seed catalogs and search for that next story. 
When
all else fails me at my desk, I have but to stroll through the garden and rest
my eyes. The peace sways me into emptying my cluttered thoughts so that I can
keep writing.

0 Responses

  1. Thanks for the comments. When you have to get the line trimmer out and get all sweaty and dirty it is the only thing that looks good. Me? Not so much.

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