[00:00:01.100] Hello, luminous writer. Welcome back to Write, Publish, and Shine. Today’s episode is a little different. I’m sharing one of my draft and redraft sessions, a short guided practice you can do with any piece of writing that’s in motion, even if it’s messy, even if it’s only half there. I recorded this in a very particular place.

[00:00:22.140] I do these recordings actually weekly over on my Substack. They’re guided sessions to help people generate and then work on redrafting, their revision skills. And as I do every week, I recorded this based on my mood too, how things were going for me. So I was in a particular place, I was feeling really saturated, very full. I referred to it as composting, where I’m just not able to settle into neatness in my sentences and trying not to pick up things that aren’t mine to carry.

[00:00:53.590] Mm-hmm. It’s sort of June vibes. If you’re linked to any kind of school year, then you’re probably familiar with those vibes of feeling too full and just ready for a break. And so this practice became an invitation to turn overflow into compost, to compost ourselves in a way, to make room for scraps, half-formed observations, cut lines, and the things you thought were not good, quote unquote, yet, and let them feed the draft. I’ve done 20 of these specific sessions, draft and redraft, and many more guided writing sessions that are in the archives.

[00:01:30.890] They’re all waiting for you over at litmaglove.substack.com.

[00:01:35.610] But today, as I mentioned, I’m going to present one to you. This one is called the Garden Draft. It’s for you if you’ve been trying to write only what’s already tidy. This is your permission to work with what’s still rotting in a good way and the material that’s not finished maybe has the most life in it too, that is kind of awkward or not working in some way. So you can listen along right now and more than listen, it’s an invitation to grab your notebook or document and just bring a small scrap back to the page and work through it with my prompts.

[00:02:09.310] I leave space for you to do the work within the session as well too. So all the timings are there for you. So if you’re looking for motivation to write, if you wanna do a tight 30-minute writing session. This is your invitation to begin right now.

[00:02:28.700] Hello, luminous writers, and welcome to our weekly guided practice. I’m so glad you’re here. Each week I invite you to return to or create a small piece of writing, then make one small and specific revision move. This week I do invite you to bring a piece that you’ve been working on. I’ll just tell you that upfront so you’re ready.

[00:02:51.370] And this is the start of a new series of theme sessions for the next few months where we’ll write on themes of the garden. So today is about compost, the scraps, fragments, cut lines, abandoned paragraphs, and half-formed thoughts that can be turned into new writing. So today’s focus is turning scraps into usable draft material. So grab your notebook or keyboard, and a piece that you’ve been working on if you have one. It’s not necessary.

[00:03:19.840] I’ll explain in a moment. But if you have something you want to work with, then do grab it now too. And let’s go.

[00:03:27.570] Begin by settling in and preparing. Take a breath and let your shoulders drop just a fraction. Unclench your jaw if it’s clenched or soften your tongue from the roof of your mouth. Signal to your body that you do not have to hold everything at once. And if you can, bring one object into view, something ordinary like a mug, a pen, a plant, scrap of paper, and just let your eyes rest on it for a few breaths.

[00:03:59.090] [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] And now open a fresh page for your writing today. Our generative writing section is called The Compost Heap, and today’s writing begins with the idea that scraps are still material. So old notes, cut lines, abandoned paragraphs, the sentence you didn’t know what to do with, all are compost. For this session, You will ideally need a draft in process, but an idea in process, one you’ve been mulling for a while now, works too. So if that comes to mind, then you can work with that.

[00:04:43.730] Your draft can be a scene, a messy page, a half draft or something you’re actively inside right now and still muddling and figuring out. Step 1 is to name what you’ve tended. So we are going to make a list of what you’ve tended this week. Keep it real. And specific.

[00:05:03.490] Maybe those are plants or people or work or self or writing. So this list is here just to show you what you’ve been feeding all week and what might be sitting in the heap, half broken down. We’ll take a minute for this and just note that small things count, like messages you answered, little errands, notes you jotted, or a sentence you couldn’t look at after you wrote it. So again, take a minute to write a list. Write a list.

[00:05:27.820] Of what you’ve tended this week.

[00:06:29.890] Now circle one item from your list, the one that has the most weight or heat in it today. That circled item is your compost starter. Now gather the piece or idea you brought today and consider how it is connected to what you circled. That might be by topic, mood, season, or simply because it’s the one you keep avoiding, or really just by an intuitive association. And write the title or concept that you’re working with at the top of a new page, and then ask the writing, “What do you need right now?” Think of our garden metaphors: water, pruning, compost, thyme, a trellis.

[00:07:09.320] Write the first answer that comes to mind. And take 2 minutes to reflect and write your reflections. The question you’re asking your writing or your concept is, what do you need right now?

[00:09:20.530] And now writing is an act of tending, I believe. So write one new section that gives the draft what it asks for or the concept what it asks for. So keep the writing close to the earth as you do. So think of concrete ideas, grounded bodies that are feeling things, and maybe let an object to do some of the emotional work. So that might be a mug, a screen, soil, a door, a towel, a candle stub, There are objects that populate the spaces that we’re in, the ideas that we’re in.

[00:09:55.010] If the draft asks for compost, let yourself bring in one scrap that isn’t neat yet, a fragment, a note, a half-formed thought, or something rotting that can feed a new thing. And you will write now for 6 minutes.

[00:13:08.920] If you’re at the midpoint and need help generating, here is a line that you might think about or actually write down and finish. Today I’m composting. And right now for 3 more minutes.

[00:16:29.130] And now your next step is to add one grown detail. Before you move to revision, you’re gonna add one sensory detail that makes the moment or scene you’re working with feel organic, and grown, like adding heat, weight, dampness, light through leaves, a heavy stomach, grit under fingernails, the smell of something metallic, whatever grown means to you. And you’ll write now for 2 more minutes.

[00:18:55.130] And now your micro revision move is to turn the heap once. So go back through what you wrote and choose a section to work on in revision. And your first revision step is the Compost Sift pass for nouns and verbs. So as you read that section over for about a minute and a half, Circle concrete nouns, objects, body parts, place details, and active verbs. So you’ll review now for about 90 seconds.

[00:20:53.800] And now revise the sections of these nouns and verbs. Do more work by making them more specific, More physical, more exact. You’ll revise for 3 minutes.

[00:24:04.810] And now continuing on with your revision, add one kitchen scraps detail. So one small ordinary detail that carries the things forward. So something the narrator or character touched, rinsed, lifted, avoided, forgot, and just let it sit in the section without explaining what it means or symbolizes. You’ll revise for 3 more minutes, adding that Kitchen Scraps detail.

[00:27:14.820] And then your final revision move is to tighten the turn. So review again and find any place where you’re repeating information and replace that with a line that shifts the narrative forward Maybe it’s a decision, a refusal, a small action, and you can revise again for 3 more minutes.

[00:30:34.000] And now finally, it’s closing reflection time. Of course, here and anywhere previously, I should have said, you can pause and keep going if you’re feeling in flow. But if you’re ready to do a closing reflection, you can write a short note to yourself and finish this sentence: What I’m letting break down this week is. And write for 1 minute.

[00:31:55.020] If you want to carry this compost exercise back to your draft, consider going to another draft and finding a scrap you almost threw out, a cut line, a rough note, a sentence you didn’t know where to put it, and drop it into the draft you’re working on today and write 3 new lines after it. And let one concrete object show up and let one body detail break in. Maybe it’s the breath, the throat, the stomach, the toes, and then just leave it there. Thank you for writing today. See you next week for draft and redraft.

[00:32:28.560] That’s it for today’s Write, Publish, and Shine podcast. I hope you enjoyed this draft and redraft session, the garden draft. You can try another one for free over at litmaglove.substack.com. So if you like this session, please come on over and try another. Every Thursday I publish these, so there will be another garden-themed session on Thursday, and I hope to see you over there.

[00:32:54.840] Thank you for listening to Write, Publish, and Shine. If this episode helped you generate new writing, please subscribe. And if you have a moment, I’d love to get a review from you. It really helps other creative writers find the show, and it’s one of the simplest ways to support my work. This podcast is hosted by me, Rachel Thompson, with sound editing by Adam Linder.

[00:33:16.280] To learn more about my work supporting writers, you can visit rachelthompson.co and sign up for my weekly Writerly Love Letters. I want to acknowledge at this time the El Muzina Bedouin lands in South Sinai, Egypt, where I recorded this episode, and express my solidarity with occupied peoples in this region and all over the world.