Language is Our Landscape

March 24, 2009

The original version of this post was written last October for Write to Done.

3355654120_e64957ece2Flowers feed the fire in our souls like little else, stirring several of our senses in a single swirling second. Language is the landscape, populating the white space of an otherwise empty page. Our ideas are the seeds we plant and our words are the blossoms in spring time.

I worked in a flower shop for a dozen years, back in the first few chapters of my adult autobiography. In those years, I arranged flowers one by one into the perfect bouquet; peeling petals, laying layers, and designing displays intended to halt the heartbeat of whoever happened to see them.

Now I’m a writer and so I do this with words.

I was young when I first nudged my heels into the shoes of head designer, eighteen as a matter of fact. Circumstance had set me there when everyone ahead of me fled in the middle of the night for some rather nefarious endeavors. I had no experience, but I was hungry, and had an innate belief in myself. Without training, I could only rotate my wrists according to instinct, slowly bringing every bloom into brighter focus. I ignored the rule book, following only intuition.

Within two years, wedding seasons were thriving.

Flower design is about color and texture, married in immaculate measure, not too different from writing great copy. Each of us sees the world through a different prism, the view prepared by our own million moments. Individual interpretation dictates design. Just as we all see color a little different, so do we hear the hues of language.

The way in which we string our syllables is our art to share, with no two thoughts the same. I am thankful I never sat for a class in flower design.  I would have spent countless hours in earnest study of all the things I should never ever do. Instead, I discovered there are no limits.

Again, I would argue that writing is no different.

Each of us has what it takes to be a better writer. It is already sleeping inside us, waiting for its salutation. For some, this means discarding the rules the gatekeepers have handed down and listening to the quiet whisper of our instinct. Only we know how we view the world, and it is us who best understand how to make our thoughts sing with all our soul.

I’ve been writing now for a year and a half, each day arranging my words with a better measure of color and precision.  Now I am a ghostwriter. Whether I am penning my next post or working on a novel, it is I who ties the bow around the bouquet.  Let’s close our eyes and forget what we think we know.

We do not think of the book of love when we whisper to our lover.

When we speak through our heart, as our fingers dance across the keyboard or glide across the page, then we can make every post as pretty as a bouquet, each word placed as perfect as a posy.

Writer Dad

Sean Platt is a Ghostwriter and creativity consultant who knows a thing or two about potty training help.

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  • you have made this blogger happy and emotionally touched by your comparison of flower designing with writing. true enough, sometimes we just have to follow our hearts and hear our voices.
    thank you for this wonderful piece of writing, jan made a link on this.
  • Marc: True that. I never saw flowers as art while I was immersed in them. Only after moving on to words can I see my short sightedness.

    GreenJello: EXACTLY! Writing has led me to an enhanced appreciation of what I used to do. I didn't realize that I was missing the stoking of the creative side of my brain until I started writing last year. It's wonderful to feed what's inside us.

    Janice: Janice, here is your official invitation to get carried away. I would expect nothing less.

    Terry Heath: I totally agree. I read Strunk and White because I had to, but Stephen King because I wanted to. Nuff said.

    Patricia: My pleasure. I hope the cuppa was good.

    Randi: Exactly. It's like when you play Tetris for a long time and then start seeing blocks floating through the air. With flowers its the constant combination of colors With writing its the formation of prose forever swirling in my head. At least my mind is in motion.
  • I loved how you compared writing to flower artistry. I have often made the same comparison in my mind, but with scrapbooking and writing. I used to have subscriptions to three different scrapbooking magazines until I realized that every time I made a layout, I would throw out the template suggestions and wing it! Instead of following the rules of graphics, I would take paper or photo in hand then arrange and re-arrange with embellishments and journaling until I had that moment where I looked at it and said, "It is finished."

    Beautiful photo.
  • I love flowers and I love writing....just came to celebrate these two loves in my life and have a cuppa!

    Thank you
  • Of course, Strunk and White might disagree . . .

    I sort of side with Stephen King on this one, that a decent writer can learn to be a good writer with a little focused study.

    Study isn't about closing doors on your creativity, it's about opening them.
  • janice
    For anyone who hasn't clicked the subtly placed Write to Done link at the top, Sean's over there today as well!

    I'm resisting the urge to comment on today's post, Sean. I am so flower and bouquet obsessed, in my life and my writing, that I wouldn't be able to stop myself getting carried away!! I'm going to click Submit now before I'm tempted...
  • Both flower arranging and good writing tap into the creative side of the brain. When we let the juices just FLOW, we get the best results. :)
  • Language is our landscape, writing is our art.
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