GROWING A BOOK GARDEN
By Jessica Haight & Stephanie Robinson
Step One: Tend the Story
You may be a brilliant writer, but no
author can edit their own book. As the creator, you know who the characters are,
how they arrived on the scene, what the setting smells like, but no one else
does. It’s vital to get reliable feedback from readers and digest their
critique with the understanding that a new perspective will expand your story’s
horizon.
By Jessica Haight & Stephanie Robinson
— Once you’ve planted a story seed, it
will grow with the flow of your attention. Just like how gardeners prepare the
soil, writers plot pages. Both are excited to experience the fruits of their
labor, but first, they must create.
A good gardner knows the
manifestation of fruit requires focus. Your favorite author would say the same
about books. Rows of sentences plant scenes in readers’ minds, linking
meanings and ideas. Words connect worlds, and writing books is like having a
direct line to the head boss. Catching the reader's mind's eye shapes their reality in that moment.
Reading a story that moves you is
similar to devouring delicious food, and hungry minds like to eat. When a
writer delivers, the reader feels full and satisfied.
Step One: Tend the Story
This is important! When a seed isn’t
fertilized, it will lay dormant, just as a story won’t develop if you don’t pay
attention to it. Writing comes first. Validation is found in the process of
honing your craft. When an author compels words onto a page, they’re driven by
a force of insight, and the reward is watching a project evolve through success
and failure, or rather, trial and error— the main two ingredients in progress.
Step
Two: Fence in Creative Space
You can’t write without a comfortable
place to work. External forces thrive in a literal ocean of information. They
are distracting, and it’s easy to forget about your project. But, if your wish
is to bring a book to life, it’s important to maintain self discipline and keep
a sacred space where you can create in peace and comfort.
Step
Three: Thicken the plot
Writing a book is realizing a dream.
Stories are clouds of inner vibes before they’re scribed onto the page— this is
raw, creative magic. But conjuring the
right words into fluid scenes is the key to delivering a story; here is
where you’ll need two real eyes, and
the will to perfect spelling.
If you take your writing seriously, and
work with professional editors, you’ll feel confident that your message will
have a good reception, and you will have successfully delivered a book!
Now, you just have to publish it, but
that’s a whole other story.
Tune in for our next article in the
“Birthing A Book” series:
Writing Resources
Editors
Writing Tools
A Writer
Moments that arise
may be a book birth in disguise. There are those with eyes to see all a scene
can really be. They ask, "what if?" or "where'd it go?'- this
person will imagine it so. A blank page is the space where they'll shave the story's face. Stringing words in lines, meanings point to signs. Inner space
cosmonauts, creating with inky thoughts.
Book bugs can be very helpful when they eat stories. They thrive in the garden of your mind, so feed them well. 😀
Catch our feature articles on
WRITING MYSTERIES
WRITING MYSTERIES
Critique, Editing your MS
Working with editors, Collaborating using Google Docs
Skeleton's poetic interpretation on formatting a book
Origins of a story, Creative process