Short and Sweet Advice for Writers: Write Like a Weed

Ahh, the humble weed. Scorned, belittled, hacked at, trod on, uprooted, and taken for granted, these tenacious flora still manage to proliferate. Undaunted by our judgment of their unworthiness, they flourish in every available crevice. They are not affected by our opinions.  They do not compare themselves to other plants; they just keep reaching up toward the sun and drilling down toward the water.

Far from being particular about soil conditions, weeds grow almost anywhere. There is nothing delicate about these flowers; they are more fierce than floral. Weeds are stamped on, sprayed with noxious chemicals, and pulled out of the ground, yet they persist. Determined hands scrape the dirt away, cruelly exposing their naked roots, but somehow they manage to survive.

Even when it looks as though the weed has succumbed, when no stem or leaf is left above ground as evidence of the weed’s existence, even then the weed…