Architect or Gardener

George R.R. Martin once wrote: “I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they're going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there's going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have, they find out as it grows. And I'm much more a gardener than an architect.”

This is an intriguing analysis of the writing process and it made me think of my own writing. After writing the Chronicles of Eirgalon, I would have to say that I am much more of a gardener than an architect. This is not to say that I don't have a plan for what I write. I do. Just as a good gardener will have a plan for his/her garden, so I have a plan for what I write. But I have come to learn that a story grows as it wills, seemingly to take on a life of its own. Sometimes it becomes my job to prune it back and sometimes it becomes my job to nurture it to greater growth.

I enjoy building things, but I like to nurture growth more. I'm a gardener.