I am enjoying writing these but I have started to ramble. So from now on I am going to restrict the words. It will be good discipline. Of course I’m not going to tell you what the magic number is because then I couldn’t exceed it if I wanted to! After all it is my blog.
This week I want to talk about pruning. Now Britain’s favourite flower is the rose. Mine too if I’m honest, though I do like to contrast them with astrantia and harebells. Big, blousy, multi-petalled flowers with scents to die for. One of mine has a lemony smell that I would like to bottle. I never used to grow them because I wasn’t sure how to prune them. The fig is the same. My sister has a tiny fig, about the quarter the size of mine, but with multiple, healthy fruit. She is a really good gardener. The ends of my apple trees have gone curly and I’m sure I read once that you could trim away the branches that didn’t bear fruit. It’s the same with writing. Be harsh with the delete key, keep the words tight, keep them working. If they are flowery, lose them. If you think it sounds like Dylan Thomas then cut and cut and cut again.
I am a lazy gardener. But I am not a lazy writer. Next week, self-seeding and how that relates to words …
