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January 12, 2008
Farmers, Fertliizer and Tilling the Soil: In my time of thought and mediation this morning it occurred to me that a writer is a lot like a farmer. Farmers till the soil, use fertilizer, choose what to plant and weed out the bad things that crop up. And they have to work hard at it.
Spread around the fertilizer. That can bring up some images. What is it to a farmer? It’s a substance that gives his planting a better chance to survive, and helps them grow stronger and faster. What is the writer’s fertilizer? What gives your writing a better chance to survive? If your purpose is to sell your writing – or to create writing the is meaningful to others-- you must write something that produces food (for thought). The fertilizer part of the writing gives your writing some kind of boost. It could be your unique voice. Are you clever in your writing, whimsical, witty, crass? People would rather listen to an old codger tell a story laced with colorful images than a Ph.D. droning off the results of a scientific analysis. Listen to writers when they tell you the story of the development into success – many time a part of that story is their epiphany of finding their unique voice. It’s like discovering the right fertilizer that works on your bean sprouts. They used to grow slowly and produce little fruit – now with the whiz-bang fertilizer the plants are healthy – they grow faster and stronger and they produce more fruit. What fertilizes your writing? Have you found your voice?
Weed your field. Every writer writes bad copy. I hope this article isn’t one of mine! If it is, I’ll yank it out of the typewriter and crumple up the paper and file it in the circular file under my desk. Okay, I don’t use a typewriter any more – but you get the picture.. Nevertheless, every writer – every good writer – knows that some of his writing is junk. Like weeds in a garden, it should be pulled out and put on the recycle pile. If you leave the weed among the good words, they will drown out your message, they will hamper the growth of your crop, you will see less success. I say it again – throw away the bad writing. What if you write ten pages (or a whole novel) and only one page is good? Much better to have that precious one page – and don’t think of the others that are “wasted” – weeds are inevitable – accept them – deal with them – and them forget them. When you take out the weeds, you will end up with crop that stands the best chance of survival. Give you writing that chance.
Choose what to plant. All the preparation in the world will not benefit a farmer if he plants the wrong crop. There are two ways to plant the wrong crop. First, you could choose bad seeds. Good farmers purchase fresh seeds – seeds that have been prepared for his type of climate and soil. He knows that these seeds have the best chance of germinating and surviving. He must also choose the right plant. Alfalfa may grow well is his field, but what if the market is glutted with alfalfa farmers. He must be wise in his choice. He must look down the road and predict what will be in need when the crop is ready to harvest. The farmer keeps track of this market through farmer’s publications. He may know that because of a drought in Russia they will be needing wheat in the coming year – so that’s what he plants. In the same way, dear writer, observe trends in the literary marketplace. The popularity of certain topics runs in cycles. During the presidential primaries publications may be open to pieces about running for office or on topics of current political interest. But if your “crop” of writing is timed to come out after the election, it may have no market. You have to think months, sometimes years in advance if you want your story to be relevant. Of course, there are some crops that may always have a market – if your writing is as precious as truffles or as marketable as fresh salmon you may be able to plant the same quality crop year after year – it is different for each farmer and for each writer. The point is – wisely choose what to write about.
Till the soil: You’ve selected a crop, your fertilizer is ready to be spread around, and you are good to go. However, no farmer produces a crop without work. A farmer plows row after row. A writer writes line after line. Nothing will take the place of diligent, smart work. Almost every successful writer I know tries to write every day – honing his craft, improving his voice, creating new material, learning something new. Hopefully this blog will be a part of your learning something new about the craft and business of writing -- and it will help you get your works published. Now get to work.
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