Of Harvests and Horses

In my last column, I encouraged all writers to really assess their work and make sure to remove passages and lines that don’t fit before the publishing process is complete. I discussed the difficulty in this and how the work a creator creates is never very easily exiled to the trash bin of our computers.

Today, I’m going to contradict myself a bit.

Well, maybe not a blatant contradiction, however I will raise the question of timing in deleting such work. In 1984, Thomas Green wrote a non-fiction book titled Weeds Among the Wheat: Where Prayer and Action Meet. The book argues that human beings' deficiencies are sometimes like weeds; If plucked to soon, the good stuff, or the identity we are destined to live by, would be plucked as well, damaging and destroying the potential harvest inside us. To alter the metaphor, it’s like the training of a horse; though a young one may be overly energetic and zealous, it is actually the beginnings of the very spirit that we will one day look upon with wonderment. Be patient through the youthful enthusiasm, and you’ll have a spectacular steed soon enough. Rush nature’s course and over-train in order to control, and you’ll lose the spirit.

Whether one considers a harvest or a horse, the philosophy is an interesting one. It is in direct conflict with many adults' manner of raising children, which often involves a litany of do’s and don’ts. The more patient philosophy of leaving the weeds, or letting the young horse break things while he grows to maturity, could be used as an excuse by less responsible people to do the wrong thing. Admittedly, it takes a special relationship between mentor and pupil to be able to trust this type of rearing. The same tenderness must be applied to a crop if a farmer expects a rich reward at the end of his toils.

To think of harvests and horses can be healthy when a writer is working on a manuscript. The writer must be totally invested in his work in order to recognize not only the weeds and the wheat, but more importantly when to pluck the one in order to enjoy the other; when to exact harsher discipline on the wayward horse.

When is the perfect time to delete unnecessary passages? I would suggest delaying it as much as possible. Put a text box around it as a reminder and wait. Then keep writing. Something is going on there. As good as it is and as proud as you are of it, the least you owe yourself is to wait and let the natural progression of revisions run its course. Oftentimes, passages are there to lead you to something else you haven’t quite thought of yet. Pluck those passages too early, and you’ve lost the connection. You’ve lost that which would have inspired a more spirited and rich exchange between you and your readers.

Jeff LeJeune is the author of The Final Chase and Postmarked Baltimore. After a deadly disease during college redirected the course of his life, Jeff became a teacher at St. Louis Catholic High School in Lake Charles, LA where he was recently named a Claes Nobel Educator of Distinction.