Friday Challenge!

Hello dear readers,
Today is a rainy coolish day. I'm fine with that because I'm home all day and want to get more writing than gardening done! As you might know - I'm in my first week of revising. My schedule is for seven weeks but it might take more and it might take less. Today and for probably the next few days, I'll be working on writing three or so summaries of my novel. Each will be about three thousand words long and I'll choose the best to be my map for my second draft. I'm a bit nervous - the whole thing is somewhat tenuous - with streeling strands of plot. In fact, it is quite a bit like my garden - my flower garden that is. Haphazard and not planned - I will take free perennials when offered and plunk them in anywhere. This garden is in it's fourth year. As I look out the window I can see phlox that is blooming today when it wasn't yesterday. Several irises are about to unfold in their most gracious and queenly way. Bachelor buttons are still in their tight bloom phase - ready to spring forth and entice even more bumblebees and hummingbirds. Through it all - forget-me-nots flourish and take-over. I have no grass anywhere - I'm anti-grass. I think it is evil. Daylilies are the most prolific of my perennials - I have hundreds of them and the possibility of hundreds more if I take the time to subdivide.
It is a mad confusion BUT it isn't really without an underlying plan if you can see that far. It is far more pleasing than it was a few years ago and it is moving slowly and surely to a carefree and wonderfully gorgeous garden.
The Challenge today is to find a metaphor for your creative discipline. Mine is the garden, obviously. So find your metaphor and write down the lessons you learn from it that are transferable to your creative discipline.

Here is mine:

What my garden has taught me about writing a novel!

1. Writing a novel is a long process.
2. Showing up daily to work is necessary in order to see the results you are after.
3. When establishing a garden don't be shy about putting things in that you aren't sure about. They can be moved or given away or saved for another spot easily.
4. Sometimes, a plant that is flourishing and beautiful does not add to the overall affect you are after. It must go!
5. A gardener must look upon the garden from a distance and from close up too. Only by moving between these two vantage points can a gardener see the overall design and the details that comprise it.
6. Do not allow weeds or things that you see as weeds (so subjective really) to take over your garden. Be ruthless in your weeding and thinning or you will have a mess not a lovely disorder!
7. At various times along the way, a gardener will feel overwhelmed with the work at bringing things to a cohesive whole. Do not despair! If you keep at it with great diligence you will see grace emerge.
8. Building a garden is a choice that you have made. Enjoy the process as much as the finished product!