While I was pulling weeds this morning, I realized there are six lessons for writers from the garden.

I created the garden three years ago to give myself a quiet writer’s retreat. It had not fulfilled that role until this morning. When I yanked yet another weed from the ground, it occurred to me with unexpected clarity that a garden is like writing and there are lessons to be learned. I’m not the first to notice a connection between the two. For another set of thoughts on the subject, click here.

Lesson 1 – Work

Gardens beckon with beautiful flowers, fragrant scents, wandering pathways, and fluttering butterflies. It is a peaceful, welcoming place, much like a book. Who doesn’t want to wander the pages of a good book enjoying the adventures and sensory experiences? But gardens, like books, take a lot of work.

Sometimes the work of creating a garden or a book is fun and progresses quickly. Other times, it is a back-breaking struggle. The beauty is hard-earned. We face the challenge of dirt and callouses from shoveling or the blank page that mocks our efforts. We labor on because, through the work, will come an accomplishment we can enjoy.

Lesson 2 – Planning

Creating a garden and a book share the common need for planning. Even those who write by the seat of their pants must do some planning to reserve time to write. When I decided to create a garden, I laid out a plan for flowerbeds and pathways. I measured how much edging I would need and decided what type of plants I wanted to fill the garden with. I researched plants and visited garden centers, collecting ideas, and formulating plans.

If you’re a plotter you do many of the same things. You start with the spark of an idea, mull over its possibilities, lay out the plot, and develop your story line. Along the writing journey, your path may take a detour or face unexpected challenges. Just as not every flower planted in the garden survives, so also, not every character or scene flourishes. However, you possess a plan for what it will become in the future.

Lesson 3 – A Niche

My garden sits in a shady corner between the house and the barn. Pasture fences flank the garden on two sides. Overhead, a group of laurel oaks shade the garden. It is a small garden by most standards and hosts about a dozen different kinds of plants, some constantly flowering and others blooming only once a year. It is a niche garden, as many types of plants will not grow in its shady environment and sandy soil.

As a writer, we each explore and find our niche or genre. Many writers can stretch across multiple genres. I am most comfortable in the fantasy genre, ranging from middle-grade to adult, and am currently trying out the narrative non-fiction/memoir genre. I admire picture book authors and illustrators, but that is not my world. Neither are mysteries, romances, or horror. Each author finds their own place in the writing world, using the elements that work best for them.

I tried growing a wide range of flowers, herbs, and vegetables, until I settled on the ones that grow best in the conditions I have to offer. The plants that survived in the limited sunlight of my garden are doing well and have multiplied. The others have withered away. Finding your niche as a writer may be trial and error, as it was for my garden.

Lesson 4 – Weeding and Trimming

Once the garden matured and I found the right plants for the soil and light conditions, a group of unwanted opportunists arrived. Weeds grew freely, sometimes threatening to overtake the plants I wanted. Some of my desired plants thrived and exploded across the pathways I was trying to maintain. Clippers in hand, I trimmed the over-grown branches and pulled the weeds.

Weeding is like revision. As writers, we need to pull out the extra words, sentences, or phrases that slow the story and add nothing to the overall progress of our writing. Trimming with clippers is akin to eliminating a chapter or character that doesn’t advance our plot. Cutting back the undesirables makes the writing stronger.

Lesson 5 – Fertilizer

Gardens need enrichment in the form of fertilizer. When I started the garden, the ground was covered with leaves and vines. I added composted manure to make the sandy soil more productive. The plants thrived in the enhanced environment of the garden.

Writers too need enrichment. It comes in the form of writers groups, critique partners, conferences, webinars, craft books and blogs. Reading books in your genre and outside your genre adds to your understanding of how others use pacing, dialog, twists and so much more. We improve by being life-long learners, continually enriching our minds.

Lesson 6 – Smell the Roses

My garden doesn’t have any roses, but the gardenias filled the air with fragrance when they were in bloom. The night-blooming jasmine scented the garden in the darkness. For all the hard work that went into tending the garden, taking the time to enjoy it is often overlooked. Watch the butterflies float from one flower to another. Enjoy the wonder of nature. Take the time to really look at a leaf.

Writing deserves to be savored too. All the negative self-talk needs to take a rest. Enjoy the story you have written. Look at the flow of words across the page and celebrate the accomplishment of having created that sentence, paragraph, scene. You have strung together a series of letters – nothing more than some lines and curves – to create something unique.

Six Lessons for Writers from the Garden

The next time you have a few minutes to stop in a garden look around and see what lessons you can learn. I’ve watched Monarch butterfly caterpillars devour milkweed leaves, only to be eaten by predators. Some plants had to be transplanted multiple times because a marauder in the night dug them up repeatedly. A garden is a lesson in trial and error, life and death, and a place of creative beauty. Let it be an inspiration for your writing.