It’s amazing the results you can get, when you give something what it needs.
The trick is, figuring out what that is.
This little Madagascar Palm is our Exhibit A for flourishing in our new environment. The picture on the left is one I took this morning and the one on the right was from last summer. Yes, I did repot it into a much bigger planter (which was free with Bunny Bucks from Jackalope – woo hoo! love this town!), but the palm demanded repotting within a few weeks of our moving here, it was growing so large, so fast.
I should also mention that the picture on the right is pretty much how that palm looked for something like 15 years. I kid you not. In the early years of our relationship, when we had practically no money, David and I would take road trips for spring break. We’d head to the desert Southwest to get as warm as possible as quickly as possible. Often we’d end up somewhere in Nevada where the casinos provided very cheap lodging. (Harrah’s in Laughlin for $19 per night – ah, sweet nostalgia.)
We would also buy cactus.
It sounds funny now. I don’t know why we liked to buy cactus. Except that they were unusual plants that we didn’t see in Laramie. And they were inexpensive and fun. We bought quite a few over the years and most died. The Madagascar Palm hung on, but now I suspect it was kind of in stasis. The palm version of cryogenic freezing, in hopes of being awakened in a better future.
Several people made interesting comments on my last post, about changing the physicality of writing when you get stuck.
Keena said she does as Marin suggested, and actually does move to paper and writing out longhand. Marin mentioned a writer who always writes longhand because it slows him down, causing him to be more careful. This is a diametrically opposite approach to the “fast draft” or “shitty first draft” method that many writers like to use today.
I suppose the point is that sometimes you have to mix it up. Try new things and see how they work.
You never know what might make you really flourish.
Note to self: Get a bigger pot
Wonder what the ratio is for speedy-crap-draft : editing revisions versus slow-soul-draft : editing revisions?
Maybe it's not quantity of revisions but total time spent revising? Hmm.
Going back to writing my slow-soul-draft on a PC now (because my handwriting is utterly illegible).
You know, KAK, I was wondering the very same thing. It would be an interesting survey, to see if the faster drafters spend more time revising. I write slowly, too. I like it to feel polished as I go. But if I'm getting stuck thinking of a third way to say "step" then I give myself permission to just use the damn word again and fix it later!
"step" "step" "step"
I'm with you on that. There are a great many furrowed brows and glittering eyes in my first drafts. Maybe after my twenty-third book I will be a breathing thesaurus and no longer require the "find and replace" revision step.
Maybe. Not likely.
I found one scene during revision where he stepped up, she stepped back. He took a step. She stepped in. It was like a freaking square dance! Next time I'll add in a "swing your partner with a furrowed brow and glittering eye… and do si do!"