"Mum, Mum!" 
    My three-year-old son came running into the house, so excited he was almost bursting out of his skin. "I'm planting lemons!"
    I went to investigate, but had to hide a smile as I inspected his "lemon": an old nectarine seed, pushed deep down into a pile of freshly-mown grass on our front lawn. I didn't have the heart to tell him that his seed wasn't of the citrus variety.
    This little moment did get me thinking about seeds and gardening, though. Since I have more of a "black" thumb than a green one, killing almost every plant that has the misfortune of having me as its owner, this was an unusual thing.
    I even ventured out into our back garden and began weeding it, and in the process finding our lemon-tree laden with almost-ripe fruit (I hadn't looked at it in months), and some fragrant chives I unfortunately mistook for weeds.
    While I laboured in the hot sun, pulling out cobblers pegs prickles, I got to thinking about the oft-repeated analogy of our lives being like gardens. The principles of sowing-and-reaping, and the need to frequently remove unwanted weeds (negative thoughts or behaviour patterns), both apply here.
    So what does this have to do with writing? (I am an author, after all. :) )
    As with everything in life - including pulling out weeds in a garden - you need to write regularly and often to be successful; to hone your craft, find your flow.
    You also need to plant the right "seeds": read books by authors you admire, study your genre, attend writing workshops and conferences, and join a writers' group or find a critiqueing "buddy".
    Personally, I'm not quite yet "hitting the mark" in all of these areas (especially the "writing regularly" part; the cover of my novel-writing notebook is becoming a little dusty :) ).
    However, with a little application - and perhaps some time spent mulling over my characters and plot-lines while I pull a few weeds in my garden outside - I know that I will eventually develop the habits and skills I need to become a better writer. 
    And perhaps even discover a few surprising crops of lemons/nectarines along the way. :)

I don't know about you, but I personally don't like change. I've never found it easy. I suspect that even after passing through the myriad of changes and difficult circumstances encountered by us all throughout life, it won't get any easier.

However, lately I've discovered that there's an upside to living in the midst of change (apart from now having more interesting topics to talk about at a dinner party).

During the past few years, I've been most definitely moved out of my comfort zone - having four children in five years (can hardly believe it myself!), moving to a new city five hours' drive away from extended family and friends, and enduring four managers in the space of just nine months in my new job.

But after all the dust has settled, I now find a new strength and depth I didn't realise I possessed. While I wasn't looking, I've become a more rounded (not literally, lol!) and empathic person.

Understandably, this has huge benefits for my writing. Where perhaps I may have previously struggled in exploring topics outside my own relatively narrow realm of experience, I find I can now bring a more believable insight to various characters and scenarios.

In the novel I'm writing at the moment, I'm in the middle of describing a fifteen-year-old girl's experience of losing her boyfriend in a car accident. This is completely removed from Blue Freedom (my previous published novel), which was comparatively all "cocktails on the beach at sunset", but I'm surprised to find myself being able to really get inside the girl's head/character, imagine just what it would feel like to be suddenly hurtled into your worst nightmare.

Perhaps this ability simply comes with maturity - I'm now 34, but was only in my early twenties when I began writing Blue Freedom.

But I'd like to also think that the mosaic of experiences I've encountered in life - many of them stretching and challenging - have also contributed to a greater insight as a writer.

I would encourage other writers to not always resist being pushed out of their comfort zones, but to embrace the greater depth it can bring to them as individuals and to their creative craft.