Setting Yourself Up To (Thrive/ Survive/ Arrive) in 2025
Including an exciting 2025 announcement! (Fine, it's a retreat!)
Friends,
I know that this is landing in your inbox at the most frantic/exhausting time of the year—finals and grading and shopping and social engagements and it’s all urgent and last minute (we have something like 18 non-work events/engagements in the next 15 days…unreal).
But amidst all of that, I am trying to do what I do every year, and treat December as a transition month. Here’s what that can look like.
Spending time with the best people
It’s no secret that November knocked the air out of a lot of us. When I’m mad at and hurt by the outside world, it without fail helps to remind myself that I’m still surrounded by the best people. This November, the AcWriMo community was amazing: seeing everyone show up on Slack and Zoom gave me what I needed to keep moving forward—and actually get some writing done. Thank you.
I’ve been spending a lot of time over the past few years hanging out with people who think exciting thoughts about public education. And I found myself saying “ooh, you should talk to her!” or “This person is doing the same thing you are!” So finally, in mid-November, I lured five other women who mostly didn’t know each other to my house with promises of wine and cheese. And it was magical. They were all smart and hilarious and outraged about what I was outraged about and it was really, really the energy I needed to get some of my groove back. It doesn’t fix the world, but it reminds me why I’m not done fighting.
Why am I telling you this? My advice to you is a) to surround yourself with the best people in all aspects of your life and b) make real time for those people and c) to cultivate a third space that is not home or work where you can spend time in with those people. Doing those things in November were all important for me in terms of bringing the best of 2024 into 2025.
Reflecting and making plans.
On Monday, we had our AcWriMo victory lap/intention setting call. Here’s what we talked about. You can use this for morning pages to guide your writing!
What are you proud of, personally and in your writing/professional life, from 2024?
a) What do you need to do in the next few weeks to feel like you’re ending 2024 on a good note? b) AND, what are you doing to close 2024 and create space between 2024 and 2025?
What do we want to put into the universe for 2025? That can look like:
In December 2025, what do you want to be able to say you accomplished? OR
What is your word guiding you in 2025? OR
What do you want less/same/more of from one year to the next?
My answers:
I am very proud of the fact that I published my book this year, and I’m always inordinately proud and amazed that you all keep sending me things to edit so we can keep doing this work together (thank you!) I am also proud that we took a risk as a family that allowed my husband to take over more of after-school care while fulfilling his lifelong dream of becoming a New York City tour guide. Big risks, but ones that have paid off with our family being much happier and more fulfilled (and getting to do amazing culinary cartography tours of the best food city on the planet).
a: I am also proud of myself for taking a year-long creative writing workshop. I have an essay that is fun and weird and I’ve been working on it for ages. It’s basically done. I’ll feel great about 2024 if I can get it out for review and start the rejection process so I can find it a home—that’s next week’s process.
b: Giving myself space between the years. Like I did the past few years, I’m taking a little time off! I am not meeting with folks from December 18-January 7. During the time, I’m going to not check email at all between December 23 and January 1, and if I feel compelled to write, I’m going to do it by hand. I’m going to use the rest of that time to do some professional development stuff and course design—I’m excited about that!I’m still feeling my way into what I want for 2025, but I know one thing I’m going to do…
Spend time with the best people, 2025 edition
I got to write with a lot of rad people this year, in person and online. I rang in 2024 at a retreat Mirya Holman and I co-hosted in the Texas Hill Country, and then we lured people down to Mexico City for even more writing together. As we close out this year, one of my intentions for 2025 is to continue to make space for different groups of writers to come together in different ways.
In that spirit, 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.
In closing
Well darlings, I have a few more things for you as we wrap up the year, including a list of best books (you still have time to send me your nominations/things you wrote!) If you are looking for the perfect gift to give or to get, check out our crowdsourced gift guide here. A late-breaking addition to that list is this perfection in t-shirt form from the Museum of English Rural Life:
In fact, that might just be my guide for 2025.
Sending all good things,
Kelly
What’s going on around here
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.
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
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.
January workshop: Book proposals and book marketing
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)