Finally, to bring the metaphor down to earth: plant daily by setting modest, immovable quotas (a page, a passage, a sketch). Tend weekly through focused revision and targeted feedback from trusted readers. Rotate crops by alternating projects, giving each time to rest while another grows. Compost setbacks by mining failed attempts for reusable insights, lines, or structures.
Across these rhythms, patience does not dull urgency; it directs it. You work with time rather than against it, confident that if you sow effort and tend with care, the harvest—whatever its shape—will follow. As Baldwin’s example suggests, the promise is not ease, but fruition. [...]
