I Sense a Theme . . .

What can I say? It's spring.

Yesterday, you all got a long-winded story of the transvestite canary known as Zen. Today's spring theme? My garden.

House plants? Brown thumb. I forget they're there. I have two bamboo plants, but that's it. I realized that house plants were beyond me, accepted my limitations indoors . . . and turned my attention OUTdoors, where, now that I live in a temperate climate, I am having great success. I read everything I can on gardening--and have thus chosen shade plants for the shade and full-sun plants for up front. I have Roma tomatoes, and lemon grass and basil and oregano . . . and lots of flowers.

And let me tell you, judging from my aching back after lifting heavy bags of mulch yesterday? It's hard work.

But I am never so content as when my hands are getting dirty in the earth.

Which brings me to writing. So much of gardening isn't the hard work of digging and turning the earth and planting . . . it's what you do once your plants are already in the ground. Like fertilizing (I'm going green--COMPOST). And "dead-heading"--which means plucking off the dead heads of flowers to push the little plants to grow fresh flowers. And that is like writing.

I had to figure out what worked and what didn't. I had to nurture what did work for me--and mercilessly dead-head what didn't. Dead -eading, for me, means:

• Killing my darlings--and learning what that really means
• Not keeping scenes just because I think they are clever unless it advances the plot
• Not keeping dialogue--same reason
• Pruning single words that just aren't necessary--like too many adjectives and adverbs
• CHOOSING my verbs and adjectives carefully so I can use one, not three
• Knowing when I am forcing it and letting a story grow on its own

So . . . it's spring-time. What have you had to dead-head in your own writing? What about life? I've pretty much rid myself of negative people . . . life's too short. It's spring. Time to dead-head!