To have a harvest, you need to plant, to tend.  This as true—even more true—about writing than it is about gardening.

The photo above shows Garden Inspector in Chief, Fava O’Pig, with our most recent garden harvest.  Much of this was picked on Monday morning, although the beans were picked over a number of days, and the squash at the end of last week.

Last week also featured David Weber and myself on the phone, working out the details for the sixth Star Kingdom novel.  As I cut eggplant on Monday morning, I found myself thinking about the similarities between planting and tending a veggie garden so you get a good harvest, and writing a complicated series of books.

With the Star Kingdom series, some elements were planted long before the first book was written.  These shaped all our future decisions, just as with a veggie garden knowing where the sun will hit, which plants need extra shelter, and other details shapes the eventual harvest.

There are also the “moisture” and “nutrients” that Weber and myself have each brought to the project.  Weber has an enormous amount of Honorverse material packed in his head, as well as a lot of “real world” history, technology, and science.  I contribute a tight focus on this particular series, as well as a lot of knowledge about history, technology, science, although often with a different emphasis than Weber’s.  This is a definitely a case where two heads make for a richer growing medium than one.

Weber is more likely to have madly wonderful “shiny” moments.  I’m the one who is better at seeing how the elements need to be fit together.  Not that either of us doesn’t do both jobs.  In fact, one of the times I have the most fun is when we both see how disparate elements are weaving together into something we hadn’t yet seen.

These planning sessions don’t happen just once, any more than a garden magically grows from a seed poked into the ground.  There’re lots of watering, occasional replanting, and even pruning.  But in the end, we’ll have an abundant harvest of rich and enjoyable story.

Or that’s the idea…  We’re still in the final stages of outlining and arranging.

Those of you who read my FF know that last week ended with me catching something or other that  left me rather sick.  I’m still achy but on the mend, and certainly all this fresh produce—garden and creative alike—should help me along the way.