February 13, 2016

Two of these things belong together by T.L. Wiens



Before I get into my sheep experience, I want to send a shout out to Connie Inglis for her midweek moments. I’m not one to comment much but I do appreciate these uplifting tidbits. After reading about the humming, I realized I’d lost my hum. Working at getting that back. Thank-you Connie and to anyone who hasn’t checked them out, you’re missing a treasure.

My family raises sheep. It was never my plan to get into this but I am so glad we did. Recently, my husband and I attended a sheep conference. I’m not sure if it helped more for raising sheep or for writing. One of the first things that struck me as similar was the concept of culling the herd.
Last year, we had issues with our lamb crop. It was a big job to keep the lambs alive those first few days. We discovered it had to do with the grain we were feeding. We ended up with a few bottle fed lambs. It’s always a temptation to get attached and keep the ewe lambs of this bunch. But at the conference, we were warned not to do it. These sheep started weak and would most likely have weak offspring. They needed to be sold.
It reminded me of a writer friend of mine. He loves little tidbits of knowledge thrown into his manuscripts that he thinks are gems. Often they have nothing to do with the plot. Like the bottle fed lambs, he keeps them because of his own attachment. The strength of the manuscript suffers.
As a writer, it’s important to recognize the things that need to be culled no matter how near and dear to your heart they may be. This can be something as small as a repetitive word or phrase or as big as chapters or characters.
I’m not quite as ready to apply this knowledge to my sheep as my writing. It’s hard to let go of things that mean so much to you. However, I’ve come to understand sometimes to build a strong manuscript, you have to be able to hit the delete button.
My Miracle Lamb

16 comments:

  1. Tammy--I had to come back to your post to read your sheep analogy (I loved your metaphor btw). But I read your first paragraph and it got me teary-eyed and I had to stop. I had a rough night because of some chronic pain and was feeling useless this morning. Then I read that first paragraph. Thanks for the encouragement. I needed that today. God knew.

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    1. And that, my friends, is the joy of belonging to Inscribe! Blessing one another as led by the Spirit. Priceless!

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    2. I'm so glad God could use me to encourage you. I know too well the feeling of useless. It's my anthem most days. Hearing from you was just as much as an encouragement to me as it was for you to read this.

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  2. Thanks for this reminder, Tammy. I would have trouble culling sheep, and sometimes I have trouble culling my writing too!

    I'm thankful that our InScribe family is so ready to offer encouragement and support :)

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    1. Yeah, I love my sheep but my writing has become less emotionally important.
      Thank you for all the work you do for Inscribe!

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  3. Great story and i also agree with the blessing that Connie has been to me with the Midweek Moments. that's why everyone should get onto the listserv!

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  4. Excellent point Tammy!
    Pam

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  5. There are so many life lessons to glean from agriculture. I really liked your culling metaphor. I will think of it when I hit the delete button, something I am doing a lot of these days and yes, it always makes a stronger article.

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    1. Have fun Gloria. Editing can be fun. If I really like something that I have to delete, I save it to a special file for future reference.

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  6. Your metaphor resonated with me too, Tammy. I need to watch that I don't hop down bunny trails, as Marcia has called those stray moments in our writing. Your blog makes me think of the time we were helping our farming friends cull their sheep. Betty would have kept them all, because this one was "Grace's granddaughter", that one she had bottle fed, and that one she nursed back to health after a broken leg. Her flock may have suffered, just as my writing can suffer, from redundancy and weakness. Thanks for the good reminder, and sorry about going down that long-winded bunny trail with all its mixed metaphors. Ha!

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    1. I didn't think it was long-winded at all. Thanks Sharon. I understand Betty's predicament.
      Bunny trails are a big problem in writing. That's when a good critique group can do wonders to get you back on track.

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  8. T.L., what a great comparison, and your sheep story gave me warm woolly fuzzies!

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    1. LOL. They give me warm woolly fuzzies too.

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