How Editing and Bonsai Pruning Yield Similar Results

I have been assisting with editing the stories for the upcoming Amelia Island Writers’ Anthology. It will have a more creative name, but suffice to say we are thrilled our little book about encounters with nature on our beautiful island is coming together. Sometime in the next year we will all be very excited to hold it in our hands and share our stories of neighborhood peacocks, island cats, green anoles, pelicans brown and white, gators, and more.

In the meantime, we are doing the hard work of getting this baby in Chicago style, and editing it in such a way that it is easier and more interesting to read, gently cutting longer pieces to fit the page limitations and be of the utmost interest to readers.

As we go through this process, I am reminded of an important lesson I learned ten years ago when I was unemployed and my sons gave me a seventeen-year-old bonsai to take care of, because they thought I needed a distraction.

Like any hobby, the distraction cost me money and time, but I did enjoy it. Had I not entrusted Jennifer Juniper to a wicked house sitter some years later, I am certain I would still be raising her.

One of the key things I learned in bonsai care is that in order for the tree to grow stronger and keep its shape, it must be generously pruned on a regular basis. When I took my tree to the bonsai master, he brought out sharp shears and began removing branch after branch, much to my shock. I had been growing it for several months and I was quite proud of the growth. He removed all of the new growth, and more.

Something we writers can easily forget is that our new growth, or creative writing, does need to be honed so that our end result is healthy and not overburdened with words or branches that get in the way of the health of the work and the readers’ comprehension of our intent.

Much like bonsai care, a written piece, whether it is a short story or a chapter of a novel, must be pruned in order for the other parts to be appreciated properly, for the roots to breathe and for the best to be showcased. This is a concept that is difficult for many people who write from the heart and are very proud of their work and detailed research.

Sadly, like the beautiful new growth on my bonsai, allowing our work to grow too much, or adding too many details, takes away from its overall beauty and the ability of others to enjoy it.

One of the difficulties we have had in preparing our stories for final editing is the resistance of some to cut back on facts, in some cases gleaned from painstaking research, in order for the beauty of the story to come alive for the reader. When we are too close to a bonsai or a story we have written, we lose perspective and reality as we take it all a little too personally.

A tree is incapable of pruning itself and we writers cannot see the pruning needs near as well as our beta readers and editors. Remember that with all editing, the intent is to make your work shine. As with the bonsai, we want it to be beautiful for years to come.