by Oleander De Winter

Each day, before I get on the bus to work, I try to find a seed. I look everywhere, from the nooks and crannies of my apartment, to the parks and streets of my neighborhood. I search for something, anything, out of which I can coax some small form of life. When I find one, I take it onto my first, almost empty, morning bus, and I start to grow that seed. I plant it, give it water, and make sure it has enough sunshine. Now, I know what many of you are thinking at this point. How exactly are you growing a seed on the bus, De Winter?
I’ll tell you.
As writers, we are always looking for new ideas, are we not? Well, for me, those ideas are very much like the seeds from which we grow our food, or the plants that decorate our houses. We draw sustenance and beauty from these wonders, but not without sustaining them first. It is the same for any writing that we do. The idea starts as something small and minor in our heads. Yet through nurturing it, it becomes something wondrous. Poems, short stories, and novels can come from something when written down is as small as a mustard seed. The Lord of the Rings trilogy came from the single seed of one line written by J.R.R. Tolkien while he was grading essays. “In the hole in the ground, there lived a Hobbit.” So, dear writers, if we are to be good writers, we should start by finding these seeds, and nurturing them. We need to become mother (or father) to our ideas.
Finding Seeds
Now, where does one find the seeds that can be used for a story? The answer is, of course, anywhere! People, objects, places, and shows will all have their secret seeds that they will yield to you, if only you are willing to search them out. If you are walking to work, and on the way, you see a tree that you find particularly beautiful, take its seed. Or, if perhaps seeing a homeless person wrapped in a blanket on a cold day touched you, do not reject the seed of sadness they offer you. An object in your home may hold some special significance for you, and therein is your seed. The most important thing in your daily writing life when it comes to seeds is to be active in seeking them out all the time. Always listen. Always look. You’d be surprised at the results you find.
Planting The Seed
When you find a seed that you like, make space for it your mind. Till the garden in the part of the mind where you’d like it to be planted. This simply means to spend time thinking about your seed, and how a story might be created it. If you noticed a tree on your way to work, perhaps a story of a tree house in its branches would be a good place to start. Two lovers could have had their first kiss under it, and maybe even their last one. This is very easy to do on the morning commute, especially with headphones. All that’s necessary is for you to withdraw into the garden of your own mind, seed in hand, and imagine all the things that the seed can become. Professionally, I believe writing teachers call it soft time. When what you’re thinking of puts a smile on your face, or plunges you into a deep sorrow, you’ve got the makings of a story.
Water and Sunlight
But thinking about the seed isn’t enough. Once you’ve planted in your mind, you’ve got to give it the nutrients so that it can grow. So grab your watering can. And by your watering can, I mean your writers journal. Which should be with you. Anywhere. And Everywhere! Once you’ve got that seed in the ground, you have to put the work into it. Nurture it right away, or you might lose it. And that means, it’s time for what writers call hard time, the time spent writing words on the page. A seed must be watered regularly to grow, and even more carefully as it becomes the plant. So too must you write regularly. The water you give will be the words you put to the page, providing the seeds with its nutrients. It’s the beginning of letting your story grow, but not all there is to it.
Your seed, your growing story now needs the attention of the sun. Yet the sun does not have only one ray, but many. By reading your own story, your ray shines down on it, as you add and remove parts of your growing story to make it beautiful. Others too, when they read your work, will offer their own rays in the form of suggestions and critiques. As your plant grows, some leaves and buds will wither and fall off, making way for new ones. But without the two necessities of sand and water, of production and critique, your seeds growth may be stunted and never reach its actual potential.
New Life
So, why are we doing all this, De Winter? Why even bother to look for seeds and to put all the effort into nurturing them. Quite simply because we, as writers, are creators of life. The characters created hundreds of years ago still live today, as much as any real person does. They influence people, bring them joy or sorrow, and even coax people to fall in love with them. What better reason, what better purpose, can our lives be for, but for the creation of life like that? So be mindful, dear writers, in your daily lives, of the seeds strewn about. Pick them up. Grow them. So that the great creation of life that is literature in our society may continue.
Recent Comments