It’s a holiday this week here in the US, so I’m going to keep this super short and sweet (pun intended.)
One morning this weekend, before temperatures exploded into the triple-digit range, I took the kids and dogs on a walk around our neighborhood. As we began walking, we noticed that the yards and yards of wild blackberry brambles were starting to fill with ripe fruit. I quickly ran inside to get a bowl so we could enjoy the sun-ripened berries.
But, if you’re unaware, blackberry picking isn’t…super fun. There’s a reason these babies go for so much in the grocery stores: Because they are not easy to harvest.
We managed to get quite a few, the kids and I eating their fill along the way, before it became too boring or too hard for them. So I continued on my own in my front yard. And as I did, my mind started wandering to writing and stories, as it often does, and I drew a conclusion:
Taking an idea and spinning it into a book is a lot like picking blackberries.
How? Let’s find out…
It can be painful.
If you’ve ever picked blackberries, or found yourself brushing up close to the brambles, then you know they are full of thorns. Hard-to-avoid, prickly, thorns. As I picked blackberries, I pricked myself numerous times, sometimes drawing beads of blood as I did so.
Writing a book can be the same. As you already know by now, it’s hard. And between the rejection, the self-doubt, the fear, and the exploration of personal wounds, it can hurt. We can get pricked along the way.
It can be messy.
As I pulled overripe berries from the vine, the dark red juice dribbled all over my hands and fingers, staining them purple. Sometimes the berries fall apart or burst, and there’s just no way of escaping it (at least not that I’ve discovered).
Writing a book—especially a first—draft is messy. There are half-developed characters or plots, loose threads in need of knotting, less than stellar prose, groan-inducing dialogue…and the list goes on. We make messes before assembling the pieces into something beautiful, or sweet. And for many of us, that mess can feel hard and overwhelming.
The unripe berries aren’t ready to be plucked.
Unless you enjoy your berries bitter, too-tart, and hard to chew, then it’s important to wait until the blackberries have ripened to their dark shade of juicy black. Because that is when they are going to be the best.
Like blackberries, ideas for your book(s) are best when they are ripe. When they aren’t half-formed or not fully fleshed out. Sometimes, the longer you let your ideas for character, or backstory, or plot points—or whole books—ripen, the better they turn out.
Sometimes you must stretch really far to pick the ripest ones.
They don’t call it “low-hanging fruit” for nothing. Sometimes, the berries closest to the ground are the first to go. Anyone can get ‘em. But often, you might notice, that there are some wonderful dark clusters of ripe berries higher up, closer to the sun, or away from the eager paws and beaks of some critters.
Ideas are common. It’s normal for multiple people to have similar book ideas. So why not stretch further for the high-hanging fruit? Sure it might be harder, more painful, messier…but maybe, just maybe, the fruit will be better, unique, more special.
If you don’t pick it when it’s ripe, it will either wither on the vine or get snatched up by someone else.
What is going to happen to those blackberries I missed? They will not last forever. Either a critter will eat it, or another person might harvest it. Or, maybe it will just turn to rot or shrivel up and die.
Ideas are like that too. How many books are started and stopped, abandoned? How many ideas pass on to another creator? Countless. That’s why, when you have a ripe idea for a book—one that is fully fleshed out—you must seize it. They can be fleeting.
The sweetness is worth it.
Those berries, sun-warmed, tart, and juicy, that burst on your tongue with sweetness…they make the harvesting worth it. It’s worth the mess, the thorns, the reaching and struggling.
And so is writing a book. When you muddle through the tough stuff and come out on the other end with something you are truly proud of…well that is a sweet feeling indeed.
So, what can I say, besides get out there and write your book. And pick some blackberries. Think of what you will make!
If you're in the States, I wish you a fun, safe holiday. Until next week!
Happy Writing!
Karyn
Harvesting Stories