'What if we valued the behind-the-scenes labor of our writing as fruitful, too? ' I loved this - and your orchard metaphor!! It's such a refreshing idea to think of all the things that contribute to our writing, rather than chastising ourselves for the time spent 'not writing'. For me, it's often the times when I'm doing something unconnected that I have the ideas to take back to my writing. Thank you for this : )
Thank you for this lovely letter, Kate! I recently have gotten obsessed with fruit trees (figuring out which ones to plant in my garden; learning how to grow them), so this analogy felt all the more relevant and clear. I love how encouraging your letters are. I am also very excited about your new cross-genre orchard. :)
I also like the orchard metaphor for what it implies about how we have to learn to tend it -- you can’t go out and grow apples without understanding a bit about the conditions they grow best in, what nutrients you soil contains (and is lacking so you can supplement it). And even once you start growing apples, it will take you time to learn these specific trees... not to belabor the metaphor even more but I think there’s a lot here about being gentle and curious and treating your writing process as a practice that you will always be tending to
'What if we valued the behind-the-scenes labor of our writing as fruitful, too? ' I loved this - and your orchard metaphor!! It's such a refreshing idea to think of all the things that contribute to our writing, rather than chastising ourselves for the time spent 'not writing'. For me, it's often the times when I'm doing something unconnected that I have the ideas to take back to my writing. Thank you for this : )
Thank you for this lovely letter, Kate! I recently have gotten obsessed with fruit trees (figuring out which ones to plant in my garden; learning how to grow them), so this analogy felt all the more relevant and clear. I love how encouraging your letters are. I am also very excited about your new cross-genre orchard. :)
I also like the orchard metaphor for what it implies about how we have to learn to tend it -- you can’t go out and grow apples without understanding a bit about the conditions they grow best in, what nutrients you soil contains (and is lacking so you can supplement it). And even once you start growing apples, it will take you time to learn these specific trees... not to belabor the metaphor even more but I think there’s a lot here about being gentle and curious and treating your writing process as a practice that you will always be tending to
Oh I love this so much!