Q&A: What Changes are You Planning for This Year's Writing?

Have you found your niche or are there changes in the works? What's prompting those changes?

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash

Happy New Year, Everlastings—with emphasis on ‘Happy’. I said I wouldn’t, but I’m already deep into thinking about where I’ll go with my writing in 2025. As much as I love writing my personal stuff, as I did this week at Constant Commoner, I can’t get past the ever present in-my-face politics.

There’s no question I’ll be in the thick of things, opinionating and regurgitating those parts of the Trump regime that will annoy me and terrify me. Life will be different, and not for the better. We know that already, because the threats are coming fast and heavy. But do I really want to spend so much of my time trying to make sense of it all to anyone who will listen? Not really, though I’ve already promised I would, out loud, in so many places, either after someone has asked me to promise or when someone else has written eloquently and beautifully about their own mission to try and save this country that so far seems not to want to be saved.

I made that pledge and I meant it, but what else do I want to do? What else would I have time for? I’m looking at my short fiction, some of it still worthy of attention, but I’m tired just thinking about the work involved.

I want to write more humor pieces. Light stuff that won’t make me (or you) anxious.

I want to gather a book’s worth of my published essays and get it to a point where I can actually hold it in my hand and call myself an ‘author’.

I want to build a bigger audience for my publications. I would like to be paid for my work, I won’t lie. And I wonder if that requires a new look at what I’m producing. How do I get more readers to read me and then feel motivated to tell their friends and colleagues? Is there a better way and I’m not seeing it?

So of course, as I’m thinking about this, I’m thinking about you all. How are you handling the promise of the new year? What do you see ahead for you? Will you make changes or are you happy where you are? Does change make you as nervous as it makes me? Will you go for it, anyway?

So many questions! Can we talk?

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