A Story is Born

To grow anything takes time. Even grass doesn't happen in minutes. Have a bare patch in your lawn? Till it up. Add some black dirt and compose. Sprinkled seeds over it. And within a few days the grass begins to sprout. But it will be weeks before it looks like a lawn.

Same with fruits, vegetables, and grains. Farmers and gardeners alike will work feverishly in late winter and spring to prepare things for their plants. But often it will be weeks, or even months, before they reap the harvest. Assuming no disaster has occurred to prevent it.

It takes weeks to build a house. Months, if it is important to you.

Generally, rehearsals for a new play go a month or two. While these are taking place, set designers are working with construction workers to finish the set.

The same is true with storytelling. Whether the story is in poem form, consisting of just a few lines, or a thick novel, using hundreds of pages and thousands of words, the cycle must be worked in order. And to put a story out before it is truly finished is like serving unripe fruits and vegetables. Oh, sometimes it can be pulled off. Ever have green tomato pie? One piece is actually good. Two pieces not so much. A third piece will make you gag. But no one I know puts green tomatoes on their BLT. (Someone probably does, but it's not regular.)

Stories are like that. How many times have you read a story, or listened to someone tell it, or watched it on film, and thought, this needs more work. It's not ready.

You can tell that the premise is good. It's interesting, and maybe even exciting. But it was released before it was ready, and so it does not satisfy. In fact, it is tossed aside like garbage.

Stories are not like bananas, which you can set on a counter and they will ripen on their own. Stories are more like apples which, once plucked from the source of their nourishment, cease to ripen and begin to decay. Few stories - even good ones - stand the test of time. Those that do are magnificent indeed.

Some of us get impatient at times with our writing. I do, so I expect there are others like me. I like to think of myself as unique, but the truth is there is nothing special about me. Too often I have put forth some work of mine before it was ripe. There was so much more I could, and should, have done with it.

On the other hand, just as fruit and vegetables can be harvested too soon, so can they be harvested too late. The time for some things is now, and if they are not ripe, they will never come to market.

To some degree we control the speed of our story/poem's fruition. Personally, I believe inspiration plays the largest part, but I also believe that once one has taken hold of inspiration it is possible to consciously extend it's stay. Different methods work for different writers.

For those who do not write, the belief is that harvest time is the greatest time in a story's life cycle. Not true. Harvest time is the most stressful time. So many things can go wrong at harvest. Yet even if all goes well, there is the fear that this could be the final harvest. What if inspiration is gone and not to return? No. Like sex, conception is the fun part. The writing of a story can become very uncomfortable as it grows and begins taking control of our lives. The actual birthing is often painful - and life threatening when the subject is politically charged.

The problem is, though, that unlike fruits, vegetables, houses, and childbirth, knowing when a story/poem is ripe (finished) can be most difficult indeed. Even for the Author.

And some seeds should never be planted.