Watering Your Garden
I haven't been watering my garden lately. Or my lawn. We're in the middle of a drought where I live. The trees are already shedding their leaves--and it's not even Labor Day--because it's so dry. Patches of lawn look like a dustbowl. My flowers are wilted. Even the guys OBSESSED with their lawns . . . have dead lawns. In fact, the only people with nice lawns are those watering them--and frankly, given the environment and resources and the drought, I don't think ANYONE should water their lawn.
In my writing life, I haven't been watering my proverbial garden either. It's been difficult all around. Demon Baby is on a Naked Strike, meaning he is nude 24/7 . . . and he has been in a particularly clingy state, I think because Oldest left for college. When we web-cam her on Skype, he thinks she can walk through the computer screen and come home. Last night he tried to put pennies in her hand. He doesn't get it, and I presume in his Demon Baby little mind, he thinks I can vanish into the computer too--after all, I spend so much time here. So he clings.
Add to that my dad going through a rough patch, and my time commitments for volunteering . . . and school starting for the middle two . . . and . . . and . . . and I think I have a mental garden, but I need to water it. I always know when I am in a drought because everything gets on my Last Raw Nerve. You know that nerve? Even the Naked Strike . . . yup. Last Raw Nerve. Apparently, I have one.
Watering my garden, for me, means knitting. It means shutting OFF the computer at night. That's a tough one. I am a computer 24/7 gal . . . but I also know it can be unhealthy and encourage workaholism, so off it goes. It also means indulging Shiny New Idea Syndrome, just for the heck of it. Just to get that energy. It means meditation. It means getting back into walking. It means reminding myself of the things I have to do to take care of the writer soul.
So how do you water your garden? And how do you know when you NEED to?
In my writing life, I haven't been watering my proverbial garden either. It's been difficult all around. Demon Baby is on a Naked Strike, meaning he is nude 24/7 . . . and he has been in a particularly clingy state, I think because Oldest left for college. When we web-cam her on Skype, he thinks she can walk through the computer screen and come home. Last night he tried to put pennies in her hand. He doesn't get it, and I presume in his Demon Baby little mind, he thinks I can vanish into the computer too--after all, I spend so much time here. So he clings.
Add to that my dad going through a rough patch, and my time commitments for volunteering . . . and school starting for the middle two . . . and . . . and . . . and I think I have a mental garden, but I need to water it. I always know when I am in a drought because everything gets on my Last Raw Nerve. You know that nerve? Even the Naked Strike . . . yup. Last Raw Nerve. Apparently, I have one.
Watering my garden, for me, means knitting. It means shutting OFF the computer at night. That's a tough one. I am a computer 24/7 gal . . . but I also know it can be unhealthy and encourage workaholism, so off it goes. It also means indulging Shiny New Idea Syndrome, just for the heck of it. Just to get that energy. It means meditation. It means getting back into walking. It means reminding myself of the things I have to do to take care of the writer soul.
So how do you water your garden? And how do you know when you NEED to?
Labels: care and feeding of a writer
posted by Erica Orloff at 8:40 AM
12 Comments:
Hehe. Well, no shortage of water in Florida at the moment. Tropical storm Fay made sure we have plenty, thank you very much. You can sit on the porch and watch the grass (and weeds!) grow another inch in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.
I water my writer's garden by reading. Good books usually inspire me; and, even if they don't, reading passes the time until something comes along that does inspire.
Jude:
I forgot to list that. I trot out my physics books. Also, I went to the planetarium on Sunday. Love that!
E
It's been way too long since I've been to a planetarium. I should do that soon.
Catch a movie, re-read some favorite books or read something really new and in a new genre, feed my brain, go biking, go kayaking.
Oh yeah, Shiny New Idea Syndrome, or what I call Eureka Moments. Sometimes it's a good idea to just indulge them and say, okay, I've got 10 ideas bubbling in my head, let's give each one 5 or 10 pages and see if I get totally caught up in one.
Sometimes I've found that less is more...especially when it comes to keeping some of the water in those roots for the dry spells.
This summer was my writing drought. When I wrote I did so for many, many hours at a time. It was like Tucson during monsoon season -- it rains so hard and so fast that nothing actually soaks into the ground, it just floods.
For me that mean one day of 12 hours of writing and then nothing for, oh you know, like a month.
Now I have a newly indoctrinated schedule...and of course when/if I am rewriting and/or editing on deadline, things can change. But two hours of fiction writing per day, no matter what, from 10 to noon, leaves me wanting -- needing more. It's like a sun shower that can happen every day. Yesterday I got so much actual good stuff written in my two hours I was amazed. I could have gone on and on and on. And on. But I knew if I did then today my enthusiasm would be washed away.
After fiction I move onto my non-fiction essays and articles -- so if I get an idea for fiction I jot it down and go back to the project at hand.
I also water my writers garden by reading, and by playing with the dogs, cooking a good meal or meandering through a book store.
Mark:
I like indulging new ideas, too. It keeps things fresh.
E
Hi Amy:
With four kids, my writing can go like you describe--eight hours of outpouring, and then a drought.
E
I have this little oval-shapped flower garden off my porch. Now, it's burned flowers and weeds. TN is really dry now, and I haven't taken the time to pull those nasty buggers out. Looks like rain today, and that's a good thing.
I'm on a writing schedule again, but it's smaller sessions throughout the day. A new story, and I haven't been swept away by the current yet. LOL. I water my garden with grandkid hugs, great books that speak to me, and gratitude. It keeps all the good stuff flowing.
I love DB, he's a hoot!
Ladonna:
Demon Baby has been inserted into a pair of pants three times today. He is now naked again. He also, courtesy of Baby Girl, has a tattoo on his back of Rita's Italian Ice. So . . . he is ridiculous!!!
E
I go home, shut the door, turn off the phone, computer, tv, etc. Make a big pot of tea and sit and read or nap. Then I take Belle for a nice long nap. It works every time.
anti-wife:
Sounds like a slice of heaven. Tea is highly underrated as a soothing ritual. I love a nice pot of jasmine tea. I will put that on my list of nice things to do for myself this week.
E
Long hot baths, walks, unwinding to watch some TV on DVD (cause I refuse to watch regular television because of all the commercials. And I don't approve of people just dumping propaganda into my brain.)
And LMAO @ the naked strike.
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