Storytime

I garden therefore I am a gardener, of a type....a kind of bit of this there, some over here, what on earth is this and should I let it grow kind of gardener. But I do get out there and dabble. I've done this for years, dabbling as well as gardening...and one of the most important lessons learnt (apart from what I think the end result will look like is nothing to reality) is to have patience. Why else would we plant seeds and seedlings with the hope that they will grow into something huge, or in some cases, delicious? We plant ----we give as much love and care as we can ----and then we wait. Sometimes it's not that long, a few weeks and we are rewarded with flowers or fruit. Sometimes we know we are in for the long haul...shrubs and trees demand time. So does having a big picture in mind. I am attempting (must be old age) to have some cohesion, some sense of style and design. Not simply buy anything that interests me then find a place to put it...and pray it...

For me, the first draft is  fun. I have an idea, I begin to write and blah...yes blah...out it comes. Sometimes in dribs and drabs...sometimes in a sudden rush....sometimes it dries up till putting down the word a is traumatic (it might be the wrong word after all!) And yes there are times when the first draft doesn't actually eventuate...the idea peters out before the story is told. Or if I'm more honest, I lose my excitement. But once it is written...and left to percolate, hopefully for at least two months...then it is time for the hard work. The second draft. I find this very boring and horrid because I am not a planner. I am more a seat-of-my-pants kind of writer. I'll begin with an idea or an image, sometimes only a vague character...and the Nanowrimo novel that I wrote a few years ago began with the thought 'what if all I had known about my mother was a lie.' I had no characters, no plot, no plan....just a phrase and I wrote blindly from there. ...