5 Ways I'm Easing Back into Writing
It's 2025! That's kind of weird!
Hi friends,
It’s 2025! I successfully took two full weeks off of work. It was magical, and now I owe most of the universe an email (I probably owe you an email! I’ll get to it today, I promise!)
I haven’t quite made up my mind about this year—I don’t have a BIG GOAL or an overpowering resolution, either for my life or my writing. I feel weary and skeptical about a lot of things.
But since this is the only perfect square of a year I’m likely going to get, I want to make it count! I know I want to pay more attention to things that matter (people! writing! travel!), and less attention to things that don’t (political gossip!) I also want to stretch more, so I downloaded the Bend app (like Duolingo for stretching? We’ll see).
As I transition into the new year, I’m doing 5 things to set up good writing vibes for myself for the year. Maybe a few of these resonate with you too.
Reclaiming my time
I have 3 times blocked off for writing on my calendar: I completely block Wednesdays, and use that time for writing. On Wednesdays, I have a writing group that I join (one that I don’t run) and I am pretty religious about showing up for that group and actually, you know, writing. I also have my Friday writing group that I do run, and one of my intentions this year is to use that time for writing and not just meetings and catching up on things.
Mini-goal: I am very good at blocking the time—I need to be equally good at using it.
Writing what interests me
I spend a lot of time talking to writers about the ghosts or voices that live in their heads and keep them from writing what they actually want to write. This year, I’m going to do the same for myself: pay attention to what I think is interesting, and not write what I think I “should” write.
Mini-goal: Be okay with not knowing where writing is headed—trust the process.
Writing with people who interest me
Epilogue Editing exists the way it does in order to create a community of awesome people who want to write great things together. I love this community, and so have big plans in 2025 to keep writing with all of you (join a writing group! Come on a retreat with us! More info about those below). I also am always interested in how other people build community around writing, and so this week I’m doing Jami Attenburg’s winter writing challenge—I’m going to spend 5 days seeing what I can learn from how fiction writers build their communities.
Mini-goal: Actually the mini-1000 workshop! This means actually writing 1000 words a day. Newsletters and emails don’t count for this game.
Figuring out priorities and tools
Last year, I wrote about a new way to think about productivity, mapping the things you do in terms of how much energy things take, and how much energy things give. This has been really helpful in the past year in terms of what I say “yes” to and what I say “no” or “not now” to. (This is true for writing, but for other things too! I used a version of this to help myself figure out the kind of volunteer work I wanted to do at my kids’ school [literacy work! Title I work!] and what I didn’t want to do [selling stuff! spirit stuff!] And someone told me they used it to help work out a more equitable chore arrangement with their partners—amazing!
The other half of figuring out priorities around writing is deciding on the tools you’re going to use to facilitate the writing process. I have done a good job of keeping my writing in Scrivener, which has helped me quite a bit. My analog plan for the year is to use two notebooks: one for idea generation (green) and one as a place to hold and store artifacts worth keeping (inspired by someone posting a picture of their “ugly” notebook). Both are low entry, so hopefully something I’ll follow through with.
Mini-goal: Keep notebooks nearby so inertia doesn’t win.
Reaffirming values and ethos
I already mentioned that I am trying to pay more attention to things this year. To capturing details that interest me (in my notebooks!) To focusing on the people who interest me.
The other word that keeps coming up for me right now is kindness. Mr. Novo, my high school English teacher, gave us all adjectives one year, and the word he chose for me was “kind.” I’ve turned that over in my head quite a bit over the years, always wondering if it suited me. On New Year’s Eve, I played my kids Andrew Bird’s lovely rendition of Auld Lang Syne, and my daughter focused on the line “we’ll drink a cup of kindness yet.” What a lovely mantra for what will be in many ways an unkind year.
There is a lot in the world right now that can make us callous and sarcastic and mean, and in 2025 I want to continue working to live up to what Mr. Novo saw: to be someone who is kind. And to wonder what it means to write (and read and edit and coach and parent) with attention and kindness. Seems like a tall task—but one worth meditating on.
Mini-goal: As you make decisions, ask yourself: are you being nice or being kind? Then be the latter. Not being nice can be kind, and brave.
Alright friends, so that’s how I’m easing into this new year of writing: setting the conditions under which I want to write, and then. trusting that will help the words come.
Write good things, and if you need people, come write them with me!
xoxo
Kelly
What’s going on around here
Come write with us! Mirya and I are thrilled to announce the first-ever MEE-Centered Mini-Retreat, at the coziest little bed and breakfast in midtown Houston April 7-9, 2025. We hope you can join us for 48 hours of focused time to do nothing but write. If you’ve wanted to try one of our retreats before, but a week seems like a long time to spend away, this one’s for you! Details are here, and please let me know if you have any questions. Like most of our retreats, we anticipate that this one will fill quickly!
Spring 2025 Writers’ Circles (January-March 2025)
Small groups of no more than eight people focused on creating the conditions to write more, and more effectively. So many people want to join this year that I’ve opened our very first third session! Here are the times. I anticipate that these will fill, so if you’re interested sign up soon!
Mondays, 1230-2, Early-career scholars
Tuesdays, 10-1130, Mixed group
Thursdays, 11-1230, Mid-career scholars
So You Want to Write A Book?
A unique hybrid workshop dedicated to supporting writers throughout their book writing journey. Join us in early 2025 for workshops on book proposals and revision, or start with a new cohort in May. One more month for early bird registration!
January workshop: Book proposals and book marketing (last chance to register for this)!
January 7, 2025, 1230-2 pm eastern: Finding a publisher: Book proposals, selecting a publisher, communicating with presses
January 8, 2025, 1-2:30 pm eastern: Finding your readers: Building an audience and getting them excited about your book (in an authentic, not gross, way)
January 10, 2025, 1230-2 pm eastern: Finding your groove: How to create documents that help the book find a home (a hands-on workshop).
April workshop: The art (and science?) of revision
May 2025-April 2026: beginning and accelerated (discounted registration through February 1)
Editing: I’m accepting new projects to edit in 2025! My editing calendar fills up three-to-six months in advance, so if you have something you’re hoping to get edited, this is a great time to chat about it. You can see all of what we’re doing in 2025 here.
Love this, thanks so much! Have you considered writing groups for people outside the US time zone? Or do you know of others who run them?
Happy New Year, Kellie!
Your kindness and inspirational words are always uplifting.