TREES AND FICTION

I love trees. You may know the feeling. There really are very few things in this world more beautiful and more captivating.

I love the perpetual nature of a tree's growth cycle. I am fascinated by the fact that this cycle of growth can truly only be affected by Mother Nature and how much sun and water and unexpected weather she might choose to bring into a tree's world day to day. Sure, I can give the trees that I have planted extra water during a dry season, and I can prune any dead branches. I can spend time out in the mini forest that is now a part of my backyard and believe there is genuine communion between tree and human. But once a tree has taken root, it will magically sprout leaves in the spring, flower some weeks after, and spread its seeds come summer. It will gain a foot or so in height until it reaches its prime. It will grace the world with autumn colors and loses its leaves in the winter.  Truly a marvel of birth and rebirth.

Producing a work of fiction isn't, at least for this author, all that different. There are cycles that seem as perpetual as the trees I've planted. The plot idea that I plant going into the process is rarely fleshed out. A character is just a piece of the puzzle when I first dedicate a name, a profession, a bit of physical description, and the first semblances of a state of mind and a personality.

Like the pear tree or the maple, I might have a fair idea of the shape and the eventual outcome, but the trip in between is governed by where I am in my thought process every day when I turn on the computer. A phrase here or there can shift the dynamics going forward, and that is amazingly exciting.

I might have an idea about the final product, but the final product in many ways has a mind of its own, just like the tree in the backyard. That's why I plant it.