Caroline Starr Rose

picture book and middle-grade author

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Plowing, Planting, Hoping, Dreaming

19 Comments

I ran an earlier version of this post right after selling my first book. Because it’s one of my favorites, and because I so often need to hear these words myself, and because May B. has been read and treasured for over eight years (what a gift!), I’m sharing them again today.

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It was 2004. While driving to meet my writing group, I happened to catch an interview on NPR with Adrienne Young, a folksinger who was just starting out. She talked about her first album, inspired by some advice she’d gotten while struggling to make it as a musician:

If you want to do this with your life, stay focused and see this through. You’ve got to plow to the end of the row, girl.

That simple phrase – plow to the end of the row – was enough to push Adrienne to continue. It became the title of both her album and lead song. I can’t quite explain what that interview meant to me, hearing an artist choose to create despite the struggle, to push against fear and sensibility and make it “to the end of the row.”

I’ve carried this image with me for years, the plant metaphor standing in for artistic endeavor, the plow the unglamorous slog needed to dig deep and make it to the end. Sometimes I find it funny I’d choose a profession so bent on forcing me to wait, so full of uncertainty and disappointment. An almost foolish optimism has kept me working, trusting that the next editor or the next agent or the next story would be the one to launch my career. I’ve haunted mailboxes and inboxes, waiting for something positive to come through. I’ve ceremoniously sent off manuscripts, chanting, “Don’t come back!” (entertaining postal workers, for sure).* I’ve journaled again and again “this next editor is a perfect match!”, managing somehow to keep on plowing in the midst of little validation.

After twelve years of writing and hundreds of rejections, I sold my first book, May B., a historical verse novel about a girl with her own challenging row to hoe. May’s determination carried me through a rocky publication experience: losing my first editor; the closing of my Random House imprint, Tricycle Press; the weeks when my book was orphaned, with no publishing house to claim it and its future uncertain; the swooping in of Random House imprint, Schwartz and Wade; edit rounds seven, eight, and nine with editor number two; and finally, May B.’s birth into the world only three months behind its original release date.

I made it to the end of a very long, mostly lonely row, one that wasn’t very straight and was loaded with stones. But the soil got better as I worked it, and each little sprout was stronger than the last. The beauty of the writing life is I got to transplant the hardiest seedling and start again, this time working alongside others who nurtured it into something better than I could have ever created alone.

What is the dream of the artist-gardener? That our art will sprout and grow and one day stand apart from us, strong enough to thrive on its own.

*Anyone else remember the days of mailing manuscripts?

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Filed Under: encouragement, May B., publication, the writing life

Comments

  1. Melissa Sarno says

    March 19, 2014 at 7:17 am

    I love this, all of it, and so needed to hear it today.

    Reply
  2. Lois says

    March 19, 2014 at 7:41 am

    What great words of encouragement! Thank you.

    Reply
  3. @Kellylou says

    March 19, 2014 at 9:30 am

    This! These words. I so need to ink this to my heart and not forget. I needed this today (need it all too often, perhaps) – thank you for sharing this!

    Reply
  4. Caroline says

    March 19, 2014 at 10:54 am

    So glad you’re finding encouragement in these words. Years later, they still speak to me, too.

    Reply
  5. Amy Rogers Hays says

    March 19, 2014 at 2:00 pm

    What sweet words, Caroline. It is so encouraging to hear of how you have plowed until the end of your row. I knew that you worked hard and long for MayB, but I didn’t really know that depth and length of that work. As someone near the beginning of the row, it’s heartening to hear you call back to yourself and me that you indeed made it to end, and are turning to start another.

    Reply
    • Caroline says

      March 19, 2014 at 2:22 pm

      Keep turning that soil, Amy. xo

      Reply
  6. Linda says

    March 20, 2014 at 8:02 am

    May B was well worth the wait… “Words crafted to last are chosen with care.” – Glynnis Whitwer

    Thank you for re-posting this, Caroline. I needed this reminder today,

    Reply
    • Caroline Starr Rose says

      March 20, 2014 at 8:24 am

      Linda, thank you. This really means a lot.

      Reply
  7. Wen Baragrey says

    June 29, 2016 at 11:50 am

    That’s a great quote 🙂 It’s so true. The only way you can ever really fail is if you stop trying. Until then, anything is possible 🙂

    Reply
  8. Kathleen says

    June 30, 2016 at 7:02 am

    Caroline, such a lovely, inspiring post! I will keep plowing till the end of my row, even with all its twists and turns?

    Reply
  9. Jennifer Rumberger says

    July 1, 2016 at 11:14 am

    Loved this post, Caroline. Thanks for the encouragement!

    Reply
  10. Polly Scoutaris says

    March 17, 2017 at 3:02 pm

    This has always been one of my favorites and brings tears to my eyes mindful of the many years of struggle for you. I am so proud of all you have achieved.

    Reply
    • Caroline says

      March 18, 2017 at 3:49 pm

      Love you, Ma. xo

      Reply
  11. Margaret Simon says

    March 18, 2017 at 9:02 am

    I can’t tell you how much I needed to read this today! I’ve gotten a nibble on a manuscript and while I’m over the top excited, there is so much work to be done. I’ve let this one sit for two years. It needs tilling and reworking. Your words today encourage me to go digging in the dirt, unafraid to get my hands dirty. It’s time to “plow to the end of the row.”

    Reply
    • Caroline says

      March 18, 2017 at 3:49 pm

      Thinking of you, Margaret!

      Reply
  12. Rose Kent says

    June 5, 2020 at 7:33 am

    Wonderful post, Caroline.

    It applies to writing and life in America right now. We gotta keep plowing…

    Reply
    • Caroline says

      June 5, 2020 at 7:38 am

      You’re absolutely right. There is work to be done, in community, that will better our soil. That’s my prayer.

      Reply
  13. Serenity says

    June 5, 2020 at 9:37 am

    *crying a little*. Thank you for the encouragement. I can always count on you for it.

    Reply
    • Caroline says

      June 5, 2020 at 10:11 am

      You’ve got this, my friend.

      Reply

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