While perusing the pumpkin “patch” (shelves) at my grocery store last weekend, this one struck me as the roundest, cleanest, most pumpkiny pumpkin of the bunch. In fact, I was so pleased with nature’s work that I considered leaving it alone and letting its bright orange hue be all the decoration I needed.
So pretty. Why would anyone want to mess this up?
That thought lasted about a day. While there was nothing wrong with my pumpkin — some people might say it’s a damned good pumpkin and why on earth would you mess with perfection? — I decided to hack it up, scoop out the messy parts, and polish it into something unique.
Kind of like a novel.
Every writer knows the first draft is just that — a first draft. You need dive in headfirst to separate the solid guts from the gooey bits that are just gunking things up.
Adverbs, passive voice, and extra dialogue tags be gone!
Once you really get into it, you discover writing the novel — or picking the pumpkin — was the easy part. Creating something good enough to present to the world takes loads more time, patience, and knives… er, red pens. If you’re like me, you may be tempted to shove that baby out the front door while the guts are still cooling, but a third, or even fourth, pass is probably necessary.
Did you catch every goopy string? Cut away all the pencil marks? Grab the extra pieces off the floor before the dog ate them? (or text a photo to a friend to make sure it’s really as good as you think?) Because only then is your creation ready to be unleashed to the world.
Want more Halloween? My post A Smurfy Package is up at An Army of Ermas.
He’s adorable! And it’s a very good analogy.
Thanks Janna!
I love this analogy! And you did a dandy job with the pumpkin. How did the seeds turn out?
The pumpkin seeds turned out well. I haven’t eaten many since my tastebuds are on the fritz this week, but they’re waiting for me patiently.
Awwww….. What a cute pumpkin. I’d publish him in a second!
Hey Robin! I’ve missed you. 🙂
It’s awesome! i especially love how she not only got her face done, but her hair did too!
Cute! We have a couple of 50+ ponders still in the garage that Val never cut into! Wonder if we will… I wanted seeds dernit!!!
That’s a lot of seeds!