The Fun Begins

 by Catherine Dilts

Don’t we always want to skip the boring parts and get right to the fun? When I have a new idea for a story, I’m tempted to dive straight into the writing. But leaping from the dream phase to the manuscript rarely works out well for me. The same goes for my garden.

Gardening and writing fiction follow similar paths. Phase one is imagining the project. Dreaming. Phase two is preparing for the project. Planning, mapping, outlining. Phase three is where the actual fun begins. In gardening, this is planting. In writing, well, it’s the writing. Telling the story.

If you’re planting a garden, Phase Three is the fun part. You buy plants from the garden shop, order seeds online, or sort through your existing seed packets and saved seeds.

Starting my seedlings indoors is an exciting time, as I set up shelves and grow lights that will take up space in the dining room for the next several months. I prepare the soil for in-ground planting, and refresh the soil in my containers and flower pots. After the last spring freeze, I tuck future flowers and crops into their beds. Water, weed, and wait.

In writing, Phase Three assumes you now have an outline, if you’re a Plotter. Even a Pantser has an idea of where the story is going. You’re ready to start the story’s journey. Maybe you have some little rituals before you type the first word of a new story. You might have to set up a blank manuscript with the proper margins, font, and line spacing before you begin. Or you dive right in, knowing you’ll put it all in the proper format later.

Using the story outline as my map, I begin the journey to a rough draft. I usually have peripheral documents going at the same time. I keep digital research notes close at hand to verify facts as I write. A character list and a series guide are necessities. For my Rose Creek series, I have to keep track of a growing puppy, one character’s pregnancy, the dates and seasons, and names, names, names. Write, rewrite, edit, polish.

When the fun work begins, the garden will eventually bear fruit, and the manuscript will result in a completed short story or novel.