Creativity is like a growing plant. A writer must nurture it, water it every day, and fertilize it with a balance of ideas from many sources. If you do this, it will grow.
But what about acts of nature that sabotage your garden? What about the hailstorm of the loss of a job, or the flood the death a loved one may cause, or even the sunshine drought of visiting relatives preventing the proper care of your creativity?
My latest manuscript suffered a few acts of nature this year, and like one of those misshapen cucumbers that starts out fat and juicy at the stem end and tapers down to a shriveled, moldy blossom end, the manuscript has become inedible.
So I have decided the best thing to do is pluck the fruit and discard it before it sucks the energy from a plant that could produce more cukes. My writer friends have been like pollinating bees, and a new fruit has set in my mind, swelling with potential. Much as I might want to find a way to use the old manuscript, the best course of action is to redirect my creative energy. It is sad and exciting at the same time.
Have you ever had an act of nature sabotage your creativity? Were you able to save your fruit? Or did you find it best to put your creative energy elsewhere?
2 comments:
Great metaphor! Yes, I have had freaks of nature threaten to wipe out the fruits of my writing. I just stepped away from the project, and worked on something else. Much to my delight, i have recently gone back to it and found the enthusiasm that was missing. Wishing you the best on your own gardening!
I've sure wanted to chuck that rotten fruit out a window-but I always seem to hide it under a bed or in the back of a file cabinet. Hope springs eturnal that that gem of an original idea is salvageable.
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