Let's Count the Writing Victories
Celebrating what I did, what you did, how we made writing that matters this year
It’s been a slow year for my writing. Have you had one of those years, when life, with both joy and pain, intruded upon the loftiest of artistic goals you set yourself? Mostly, I had a pregnant year. I was on the couch in the throes of debilitating morning sickness, and then I was pregnant with a toddler and teaching and on book tour and trying to make it all happen, and then I had a baby. In short, I didn’t publish much or finish much this year. There were things on my plate that got in the way.
But next year is always new and bright with promise. There are things I want to do, and I’m starting to see my way back to a schedule, getting closer to actually accomplishing them. I want to celebrate my writing victories this year, and I want you to do the same, even if you had a pregnant year too (or whatever equivalent experience kept you from writing).
So how about raising a glass this week to your victories? They might be:
• Finishing a draft of a short story
• Submitting your work somewhere, anywhere
• Finishing a novel draft, or getting a new idea for a novel that you want to pursue
• Taking notes for a new project
Whatever you’re proud of accomplishing this year, be sure to shout it from the rooftops. Somehow, you kept the candle lit, you remembered that you were a writer. And even if you didn’t do any of these things, the next year is galloping towards us, with all its excitement, all its chances not to be squandered.
I recommend writing something out by hand about what you’ve accomplished. You don’t want to lose what you’ve done; it’s there, whether in pieces in a note on your phone, or scattered across notebooks. Set a goal for yourself to finish something in 2024, rather than start something again and again.
I want to celebrate my favorite reads of this year too. A few books that floored me:
City of Incurable Women, Maud Casey
The Guest, Emma Cline
The House is On Fire, Rachel Beanland
Rouge, Mona Awad
Haven, Emma Donaghue
House of Cotton, Monica Brashears
In the new year, I’ll be teaching novel classes, and recording new podcast episodes, and taking walks, and reading books. And I’ll be working on completing my next novel. I’m getting closer and closer to the end of a draft, which always feels like I’m approaching Xeno’s Paradox, each step half as long as the one before it in progress. But there will come a time when that final page looms up at me — unexpected, startling, ugly and beautiful at once. I’ll get there. I hope you get there too.
Writing Exercise:
Take ten years off your character’s life. Imagine who they were, what they were doing, how you might find them, at another time. What were they hoping for? How did they envision their future? And how did it work out?