Composting Your Stories

​I was cutting up a bouquet of  wilted flowers, ruminating on how the bright blossoms that are so cheerful when they’re blooming are so sad when they wilt. But it was comforting to think that the dead flowers go to good use as an ingredient in  compost that will help new flora grow.

Composting works best when you have multiple ingredients – a blend of “greens” (bits of vegetables, grass, small weeds and bush trimmings), “browns” (small sticks, chopped leaves, and even paper from the shredder), occasional eggshells for calcium, and moisture.  And if you stir it  regularly, you'll be rewarded. 
 
Like the flowers, discarded story ideas can be put into the bin or file to compost and combine with other elements. With any luck, the “brown” of discarded ideas, characters and random writing sessions, combined with the “green” of observations and themes from real life will help fuel the imagination. You can add moisture and stir them by expanding your horizons -- reading, trying something new or attending a workshop. 
 
So if you want compost, keep adding layers of green and brown to the bin, add water and stir. If you want to write, keep adding to the notebooks, making observations, and trying to write something new.  Keep at it, you'll be rewarded.
 
If you like this post,  please share it.  
​Have a great week!