Say you're writing a story about Flint Flake, an orthodontist. Flint's a gambler. But you can't begin because you just keep staring at the friggin blank page all day. It's like sitting beside the place where a seed has been planted and keeping your eye fixed on it and expecting something to come up immediately, like a bubble to the surface.
Even so, writing is a lot like gardening. Wouldn't you say so? Why, in the same way a gardener prepares the ground a writer prewrites. That is, you as the writer write nonstop and record whatever comes into your mind before you begin any piece, fiction or non. Then the gardener waters the ground well just like you begin to focus your efforts and know exactly what it is you want to say. When it comes time to plant for the gardener it comes time for you to start your first draft, genius. Ah, but did you till the soil?
Anybody who has been around a garden knows it goes something like this. This is only an abbreviated version.
Now then, why is writing like gardening? I'll list just a few ways here in the time-honored style:
1. Pick the type. Is this going to be a flower garden? A vegetable garden? An herb garden? Or do you have a soft spot for perennials, those plants that have shorter bloom times but come back year after year? Good writing starts the same way. When thinking about starting a project you need to contemplate which form of writing it will be and your purpose with it as well as the length and audience. You can tackle journal writing, personal writing, subject writing (searching and reporting). Or do you prefer creative writing, which is the process of inventing something new and different, something made-up? There is also reflective writing (exploring and speculating), academic writing, or business writing.
2. Pick a spot. The sun is so vital to a plant growing that it needs six full hours of it each day. Once you've picked a spot and watched how the sun moves across that space, make sure it's near a water spigot so you won't have to drag the hose to the hinterlands. Some plants tolerate shade. Others do not. As a writer, where you write should be taken seriously. A park bench or a library cartel or a bus stop is a no-brainer. Distraction is the enemy. John Cheever wrote in the basement of his Park Avenue apartment building, but you're not John Cheever; you will do your best work in a place all your own. It doesn't have to be fancy, but it needs to be a serene atmosphere. Wherever you choose, it must have one thing above all others: a door you are willing and able to shut.
3. Clear the ground. Dig out all the sod in the area you intend to plant. In writing, simply starting to write your first draft will almost inevitably lead to failure. After having selected a meaningful subject you need to shape it by recording whatever comes to mind. Write nonstop for at least 10 minutes and see how many ideas come to mind about your subject.
4. Awaken the soil. Invariably, soil needs a little pick me up. Two to three inch layers of compost - decayed leaves, dry grass clippings, old manure - are good. This is where you till the soil. In writing, "read a lot, write a lot" is the famous dictum. I really believe there are many excellent writers who have never written because they don't read. Unless you're the next William Faulkner I'd say you're not above it, and neither am I.
5. Pick your plants. Will it be marigolds, impatiens, geraniums, or black-eyed Susans this year? Or maybe you like the perennials: Russian sage, lamb's ears, and purple cornflowers. The fiction writer picks many things, such as first-person narration versus third-person, style, and theme. Will it be the autobiographical memoir this year, Jeeves, or will it be completely invented? You have to determine what in her main character inspires sympathy, identification, and empathy. She also has to decide what single event will light the fuse and disrupt the false sense of security that begins almost every work of fiction whether on TV or at the movies and certainly the written word. Who are the characters and what do they want? I could go on and on, but time would fail us.
6. Put them in the ground. Plant them. Tomatoes and most annuals, however, get a little touchy about the cold, so don't plant them until your sure the last frost of the winter season has passed. Some plants, such as kale and pansies, don't have that problem. Write that first draft. The best practical advice that can be given on this is, start and don't stop. Begin at the end if you want: begin in the middle, but put black on white. Forget for once that you're trying to write something lofty and underestimate the magnitude of the task, as if it were just a note, a fragment, a nothing. Only begin.
And there you have it. This is by no means an exhaustive list. But time is failing us and I don't want to keep you. But truly writing and gardening are somewhat birds of a feather, wouldn't you agree?