We raise ducks and chickens on our property, and occasionally when we’re feeling a little crazy, think about raising more species of poultry. Today I came outside to find the eggs that one of our ducks has been sitting on for about five weeks now have started to hatch. She’s doing her best to keep the little ones under her, letting them warm themselves with her body but every now and then you can see a hatchling peek out at the world.
Mama duck started her nest about six weeks ago, just starting with a hollowed out, covered area and tucking her eggs away into it. As time went on she added bits of straw and shavings that we provided and down from her own coat, building it up until the eggs were surrounded in a warm bed. From there she sat on it, leaving only to feed herself, and even then she would take her time to cover the eggs up with down and straw to ensure that they were cozy warm. She kept a vigilant eye upon the nest, never straying too far from it, and always on the lookout for predators, though she was helped by being in a nursing pen with only other ducks nearby. Now she’ll have the fun of watching her little ones explore the new world around them, teaching them how to exist within it. It’s stressful work, they’re bound to drive her crazy with all the energy she’s going to have to put into it, but for her it will be worth it in the end.
What she is going through is kind of like what writing a story is to me. You start with an idea, just an egg in a hollowed out area. Maybe it’s a scene, a certain phrase, a setting, or a character. But soon it’s joined by other eggs, characters, settings, dialogue, and a plot. Soon, it becomes the nest being cultured as an idea. Not all of the eggs will make it, much like mama duck removes the bad eggs, the author will remove parts of the idea that just don’t make it. I sit on the idea for a while, be it a week or a couple of weeks, always letting it just sit in the back of my mind. Every now and then when I have a few quiet minutes I let it come out and work out a few details. Slowly but surely it forms until finally it gets typed out, put to actual words. From there the story is sculpted, grammar edited, phrases and sentences changed, sometimes even removing whole paragraphs till at last it is ready for release.
Ah, but like mama, the work is not done once released upon the world. Marketing comes into play, trying to show off to the world your creation while hoping that the world accepts what it is. You watch the numbers, read the reviews, and hope for the best. Some days you’re proud of what you’ve done, and some days you see the imperfections, but every day it’s yours. Overall though, it is a joy to show off each story I create and to hope that I brought a little bit of happiness in your day with my work. Thank you for being a reader and thank you for taking the time to read my work.