Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Tue, Feb 14 2017
Writing and the art of lawn maintenance
Just as writers in snowy spots have to stop writing to go shovel snow now and then, writers in California have to stop writing to go mow lawns now and then, even in February. It's a struggle to keep one's head in the game while filling up the yard waste can with trimmings.
One of ways I make the yard time do double duty is to consider setting details and to notice my characters' habits in depth. Would my characters plant tulip beds or cactus gardens? Would they revel in digging into rich compost piles or would they sneeze and run inside at the first sign of spring pollen?
If you're working on a mystery, you might learn to not have a killer try to bury a body beneath a plum tree, unless you want them to get caught in the process. (Plum trees behave more like shrubs than trees and their roots can be too tangled and dense to bury anything bigger than a field mouse.)
The whole thing does underscore the habit that writers have of making everything about writing, even when one is not actually sitting and writing. Going off into the weeds may be literal, but it doesn't have to be figurative unless you let it.
posted at: 12:13 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Just as writers in snowy spots have to stop writing to go shovel snow now and then, writers in California have to stop writing to go mow lawns now and then, even in February. It's a struggle to keep one's head in the game while filling up the yard waste can with trimmings.
One of ways I make the yard time do double duty is to consider setting details and to notice my characters' habits in depth. Would my characters plant tulip beds or cactus gardens? Would they revel in digging into rich compost piles or would they sneeze and run inside at the first sign of spring pollen?
If you're working on a mystery, you might learn to not have a killer try to bury a body beneath a plum tree, unless you want them to get caught in the process. (Plum trees behave more like shrubs than trees and their roots can be too tangled and dense to bury anything bigger than a field mouse.)
The whole thing does underscore the habit that writers have of making everything about writing, even when one is not actually sitting and writing. Going off into the weeds may be literal, but it doesn't have to be figurative unless you let it.
posted at: 12:13 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry