I don’t think I have enough gardens to write and edit my books.

When I’m mulling a storyline, or a plot point, or a conflict in a work-in-progress, like a lot of writers, I can’t sit at my desk and stare at the computer and find a solution. Sometimes re-reading what I’ve written or my notes doesn’t help. Writers have many different ways of coping with these creativity issues. What works for me is the mindless task of weeding/cleaning my gardens.

But as I tackle the revisions my editor wants for my novel, Christmas Bells, Hanukkah Lights, (and there are a LOT), I realize that ALL my gardens will be perfect before I reach the end of the edits.

Here are the gardens I’ve cleaned and weeded: these are the two in front of the house:

This is my soon-to-be herb garden:

And these are the pool gardens:

The side of the shed:

I only have two more gardens left to clean and weed; my dragon garden:

And my meditation garden. (Thankfully, it’s big enough to maybe get me halfway through my edits.)

Once it’s warm enough, I’ll be able to plant my flowers. Maybe that will get me to three-fourths of the edits. From then on, I’ll just have to power through to the end.

Although… Do you think the neighbors would mind if I weeded their gardens?

(P.S. in the fall, winter, and early spring, when I can’t work in my gardens, I clean out closets, wash windows, paint a room; more mindless stuff. In case you wanted to know.)