Want to Write More in 2024? Do These Things Now!
And! How AcWriMo went, and a few pictures of my cat 'cause we're all tired.
Hi my friends,
It’s December! Could I get you to take this (very short) survey? It’ll help me plan 2024 and know what’s useful for you. New readers, welcome! I talk about writing down below, I promise! In this newsletter, I talk about what I learned from AcWriMo this year, how you can get yourself ready for next year and a few end-of-year announcements you won’t want to miss.
Winding down the year
For my entire life, I’ve lived with giant dogs. The bigger, oafier, slobberier, the better. Lola, our last old, dumb, amazing dog, died in 2021, and we held off getting another pet because three kids in a tiny New York apartment is already a lot, and our kids keep bringing home turtles for us to watch right before cross-country road trips (you haven’t lived until you’ve wheeled Squirtle the Turtle by stroller through a La Quinta parking lot in rural Mississippi, I promise you that). But in August, I was feeling bummed about the kids going back to school and working from home with no company, and one thing led to another and we adopted this morose old gigantic orange cat, and I love him without reservation.
This cat (his name is Sherbert, but my youngest calls him Lil’ Fella, which I find hopelessly charming) has synced himself to my routines, mostly so he can show up for wet food time and nap through Zoom calls. And as things have gotten more festive around here, he’s gotten more convinced that we should all be spending time napping instead of working. He’s taken sleeping with one eye open so he can glare at me while I get the last few things done to close out the year. Because I want that fate for me, for you, and for him, I thought I’d share a few last thoughts about what AcWriMo taught me that I’ll use to be a better writer in 2024.
AcWriMo is over! How’d it go?
Last year, I was thrilled with AcWriMo (and then promptly stopped working on the book for a few months—feast or famine!). This year my goal was to get a lot done, but to set myself up so that I kept working even after November was over. So how did it go this year? Pretty well!
Did I meet my goals? Mostly! I completed a draft of the book. I got line edits back on that draft. I had a book workshop and am implementing that feedback now. I started making the website for the book. I set up a conversation with someone to talk about promoting, someone who will line-edit the damn thing one more time. I hosted a 12-hour-long writing retreat and writing sessions every day in November.
Did I touch the book every day? Mostly, with the exception of a few days around Thanksgiving. It wasn’t always as focused as I wanted, but it was something.
Did I track my goals/time? Not really—I was much better about doing that in AcWriMos of yore, but this year a word count didn’t make sense for me and I had daily writing sessions on my calendar, so that worked instead.
What did I learn? Musings on time and process
The kinds of goals I set matters. In writing challenges like this, I work better with big, open-ended process goals instead of smaller, discrete goals. Ideally, I’d like to be able to use next November to generate a lot of words on a new project, or to do a complete edit of a project. That means developing a project to be in one of those places by November.
A month is a long time! Writing every day works really well for me, but it doesn’t need to be for a month—10 days or two weeks of sustained writing, scheduled regularly, works fine for me too.
People make writing better for me. About 150 people took part in AcWriMo, logging into Slack, reading my daily ramblings, or joining co-writing sessions. You are the best, and made it possible to keep that writing going (and are the reason why I’m excited to have more opportunities for us to write in community together in 2024).
At the end of the day, you need to write. All of the structures and planning and boundary setting and incense burning won’t put words on the page. Eventually, the answer truly is just to write. Especially this time of year, where there are a million demands on your time, energy, attention (and maybe a little friend trying to get you to knock it off and take a nap).
How Can you Set Up 2024?
So, with those lessons in mind, how can we think about 2024? How can you use the transition between semesters and years to help yourself become the writer you want to be? Here is my suggestion: Between turning in grades and wrapping gifts and figuring out whether Aunt Joanne is going to spike the eggnog again this year (and if that’s really a such bad thing), make time to do these three things now to support your writing in 2024:
Touch all of your projects one more time: and write yourself a note about where the project is, and what the next steps are. Even if you don’t get to open the document until mid-January, you want to know where you are and how you can get started up again. “Re-write the lit review so that my ideas are leading each paragraph and incorporate the 5 sources from that article I just read” is waaaayyy easier to do than “work on book.”
Control your calendar now: before spring meeting creep starts, block out your writing time and your planning time, and don’t allow them to be negotiable. No, you’re not free to serve on the awards committee Thursdays from 10-12, because someone else can do it and it’s your writing time. And no, you can’t be on the ad hoc assessment committee that will meet for three hours each Friday, because that’s your planning time.
Put into place writing structures that work for you: This year I realized something wild: I actually don’t have to write. All of the writing I do is because I enjoy it and it is important to me (and for me). So along with re-committing to writing in the new year, I am also putting into place structures that I know help me be a better, calmer, more consistent writer. I signed up for a January writing class and coaching sessions with someone who makes me feel good about who I am as a writer.
I also mapped out when I’ll write more intensely so I can schedule things around them. Right now I’m planning the beginning of my year to look like this: sustained writing in January, first at my writing retreat and then during my writing class. A pause. A mini-AcWriMo April 15-30, which I’ll use to get myself ready for our Mexico City writing retreat May 20-25. A pause. And then I’ll use the summer to reassess how that felt and make a plan for the second half of the year.
What does this look like for you? Who are the people and what are the structures that make you feel good when you write, and how can you use them to structure the first part of 2024?
Wishing you moments of calm amidst the end-of-year clamor,
Kelly
2024 Ways to Write Together!
Writing Retreats Is it cold where you are? Give yourself the gift of writing somewhere warm in 2024! Mirya Holman and I will be in Mexico City from May 20-25, 2024, and applications are open now.
Also, just in case your plans have changed and you need some peace to begin 2024, we do have one spot left in our Texas Hill Country retreat, Jan 2-6, 2024. Breakfast tacos, big Texas skies, and lots of writing.
PS - We’ll be announcing our next locations in the new year!
Writers’ Circles Are you wondering how to keep your productivity up as the new semester starts? Join my writers’ circles—they’re a fantastic way to keep connected to your research with some of the smartest, kindest folks around. In the spring there are two: one is Mondays from 1130-1 and one is Tuesdays from 12-130, and they run the week of January 22 through the week of April 1. I wrote more last week about how the circles work, more information is here, and you can apply here.
I’ll be opening registration for fall 2024 writers circles in the spring, so keep an eye out for those.
Co-writing: Save the date! This year, I’ll host ApWriMo from April 15-April 30, with an all-day minimalist writing retreat on April 19. These will be free, and a great chance to get writing done before summer starts! I’ll open registration in the spring.
Coaching/editing: I have very limited coaching consulting space available until Fall of 2024, so if you’re thinking that you benefit from coaching now is a very good time for us to talk about it. I am now scheduling book editing for April and after, but have more availability for articles/grants/job materials in the spring. Thank you, as always, for trusting me with your work—I have so much gratitude that this gets to be my job.
If you haven’t already, could you take my super-brief survey about what you’d like to see in 2024—in terms of newsletters, workshops, and retreats?
And finally, if you like this newsletter, could you share it? You’re the best!
Thank you for all your (as usual) helpful ideas. I'll definitely be revisiting my writing projects and planning specific, focused next steps. My sister still teases me because I wrote "finish dissertation" on my to-do list for many, many months, but it felt so good the day I crossed it off the list (and that was 30 years ago).