Tending the Garden

In this week's Storyteller's Inkpot post alum Donna Jones Koppelman* talks about how gardening and writing have a lot more in common than one might think.


One beautiful spring day last week, I got impatient about planting my garden. Impatience turned to impulse, as if often does, and I bought a rototiller!  I love it.  It’s petite as a hummingbird but does the job like a bulldog. I love to plan my garden, plant my garden, tend my garden, and harvest my garden, but many of those aspects of gardening are vulnerable to conditions I can’t control—like weather. Tilling up the soil is something I can control, and with my own rototiller, I am unstoppable.

Gardening is a perfect metaphor for writing. I reflect on the parallels as I wait for the seed of an idea to germinate, as I edit out the weeds that impede the growth of my prize plant, and as I pray the hailstorm of my insecurities don’t ruin that last chapter. So what is the rototiller in this metaphor?

A rototiller prepares the soil for a luscious garden. It stirs up all that’s hidden, so I can spot weeds, roots, and shells I couldn’t see before. It makes my garden inviting. It beckons me to come and plant, and I like to think well-tilled soil is a glorious, comfortable place for tiny growing seeds.

In writing, my rototiller is my routine. My daily routine makes my work space a fertile place for ideas to grow and blossom. I have a friend who says she cannot write until her whole house is clean. That is not true for me (or I wouldn’t have written a word in twenty years). I just need a clean surface on my desk. I need white paper and a really good pen. I need brushes and paints or drawing pencils close at hand. I need my favorite craft book, THE WAR OF ART by Steven Pressfield, from which I read a chapter every day. I need a poetry book, from which I read a poem every day, and lastly, I need a scented candle.

Whew. Sounds really neurotic, right? But the process of gathering all these things and placing them just so gives my brain the time it needs to shift from who is driving sports carpool to what story I will tell today. Clearing my desk clears my mind. Setting up brushes and drawing pencils signals my brain that it’s time to get creative. It’s time for fun. Mr. Pressfield reminds me it’s time to WORK, and poetry shows me that work should be lovely. Lastly, I choose a scented candle with a smell that fits my work for the day. Smells are powerful stimulants for my memory and thought process. I like to think E.B. White chose a cotton candy scented candle to write those marvelous scenes at the fair. Or maybe it was a pig scent? Or perhaps he had a completely different routine.

In graduate school, I studied routine in schoolchildren, particularly homework routines. Students who followed the same routine at homework time every day had significantly higher grades than students without routines. They finished their homework much more quickly than students without routines, so I know routines are effective.

What is your routine? Be intentional as you till up the garden of your mind. Get the pesky weeds out of the way, so you can nurture those good ideas. Harvest day will come.



*Donna Jones Koppelman graduated from Hamlin's Masters in Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults in 2015. She is represented by Alyssa Eisner Henkin at Trident Media, and she adores her new rototiller. 

Thoughts on Writing: Connecting and Routine

Welcome back after our Summer MFAC Residency!

We've got a lot of news to share about The Storyteller's Inkpot, starting with new types of posts!

We'll still have our regular publication announcements, Meet the Grad features, and general blog posts, but we'll also have a featured topic each month that our community of Hamline bloggers can engage with. August's topic will be revision, one of the most critical (and challenging) skills for any writer to master.

To start things off, author Molly Burnham* has offered to share her top six thoughts on Writing and Mindfulness with The Storyteller's Inkpot. Her post was simply too good to giveaway all at once, so we'll be breaking it into three parts.

This time Molly talks to us about how connecting with others and establishing a solid routine can help you break free from a writing (or revising) rut.

1. Connecting
The first year out of grad school sucked. It was really hard. Really.

I was revising what I had worked on at Hamline, but it felt like I was spinning my wheels. This led me to apply for a weekend away with Stephen Roxburgh that focused on Editing for Writers. It was a very interesting retreat about looking at our work with distance so we can edit it as writers.

I felt this was important because in the two years I spent at Hamline I hadn't grappled with this issue-my writing was still very fresh. I was creating, but I needed to learn more about what to do after I had a book. How do I work with a whole draft?

I found that for me it was important to connect with kids. Not only because I write for them, but because I have fun with them. I needed some fun that first year out of grad school!

When in doubt, focus on one element of craft that you need help with and find people to help you. Really good people-like Hamline people if you happen to live close to them.

2. Routine
The other thing I did was to establish a routine for my writing. I woke up at 5:00 am so I could write before my kids woke up. I was working and needed to have that time. This was not easy, but I really liked it (and got the idea from a Hamline faculty member who recommended the book From Where You Dream by Robert Olen Butler).

As I said, getting up that early was not always easy, so I had this little phrase I'd say that went like this:

"I'm the kind of woman who gets up at 5:00 in the morning to write. That's the kind of woman I am." 

It would make me laugh but was also a positive affirmation. I find positive affirmations are so important. (A lot like mindfulness). 

Choose affirmations that have a bit of humor to them; it really helps.


That's it for today, but check back on August 13th for Molly's thoughts on Demons and Distractions!

*Molly B. Burnham graduated from Hamline in 2010. Her first book, Teddy Mars Almost a World Record Breaker came out March 2015. It will be followed by two more Teddy Mars books. She lives in Northampton, MA with her husband, two kids, and a dog. She tries to be mindful, but is remarkably unsuccessful most of the time. Luckily she learns a lot from her failures.

To learn more about Molly and her writing please visit her website.