What are you most looking forward to doing with your writing next year? Are you going to start something new or cross that finish line? Or maybe you’ve got a big year of reading planned? Say it, claim it, own it, and then make it happen. Comments are open to everyone!
It’s a big year for me. My book comes out on August 20. Between now and then I plan to finish transcribing a pile of poems from my notebook and organize some good ones into a manuscript. It’s exciting to have concrete plans going into the year.
I am going to take my second course in my MFA program after doing well during the Fall semester. I am excited. But on my Substack (which helps fund my MFA) I will be recording all of Shakespeare’s sonnets. At least once a week. And here is the SCARY part--I will be write a heroic couplet for each sonnet. At the end of the recording project I will have a collage poem of all the couplets, which will hopefully end up as a coherent work. I hope I have the stamina for this! I am afraid it will turn out to be a hot mess 😳🔥🫣 It will all be on my Substack called The Beauty of Things. zinagomezliss.substack.com. Honestly, kinda scared. But I think it also could be fun. Will take the leap.
I’m also trying to build stamina as a writer! I admire that you’re pursuing something that challenging and creative. Is this project also for your MFA or a personal undertaking??
The Shakespeare project is my own personal thing. I was trying to think of something that was public domain. I love reading and reciting poetry, and I love scansion and pronouncing stresses. The biggest risk is distilling each sonnet into couplets. I am so afraid of interpreting a poem wrong.
We all have our very own interpretations of lyrics, Zina....they are our own honest versions... Quite. Unlike Tech spec manuals.... Distill how you will and Still your fears. Peace, Maurice
Thank you! I am at least looking forward to recording all those sonnets. I remember Sir Patrick Stewart doing that during the pandemic but I think it was without much commentary.
Thank you! Ive been working on it for a couple of months. But I paused to create a website and social media platform and now it's time to get the writing done. I'm also looking for single women to interview to be able to cover more of what is needed. I'm excited about this project!
I'm almost through what has been a very challenging revision and I expect I'm far from done with this book, but I can see, on the horizon, the next book I want to write. For the past decade or so, I have been writing about people at least a generation younger than myself, sometimes two, but this book is about a woman just a few years older than I am and the next one will also center on a woman in her 60s. I think that's one of the things I have on offer, my hard-won knowledge of the inner life of a woman as she ages. Of course, Sigrid Nunez is already working this territory quite beautifully, but there's always room for more.
As one of those women, there’s a raving hunger for more! I’ve been seeking out novels with protagonists my age or older, and it is so frustrating, as very few are depicted as whole and multidimensional, let alone relatable. Whatever genre, I will be reading it! Thank you.
Wow I’m so inspired by everyone’s posts here. I’m very new to Substack but I’m very quickly feeling like I’ve found a community! I’ve grappled with the notion of goals and intentions and resolutions and have decided not to set any as it just gives my ‘ego’ something new to identify with and when I inevitably slip up, something new to beat myself up with. Instead I’ve decided to live each day intentionally and mindfully.
However I am setting myself one ‘thing’ and that is to live this year creatively, one of the reasons I joined Substack, so I could document it in some way! With the hope I shake lose years and years of pent up desires to create. I wish us all good luck!
This really resonates with me as someone who has been slowly reincorporating creativity into my life (faltering and creakily with lots of stops and starts last year), and hopes to do so even more this year. Also intending to use Substack as one tool for this, but I am brand new to Substack and a bit unsure of how exactly I want to or should use it. Best of luck to you!
I did your 1000 words of summer and it was a revelation for me. I wrote and I thought and I somehow felt like I had picked up some kind of thread of myself that connected me together. Once it was done, I dropped it. So now I want to do more. And I’m sitting here wondering what to let go of to make that space. I think I can do it. I am so looking forward to your book :) Happy new 2024 and thank you 🙏
I somehow missed the 1000 words of summer (I was recovering from knee replacement surgery), but I'm in the same position as you, trying to figure out where to fit in writing.
Hello Wendy - I think anytime you add something new to your habits it’s hard. But it’s also worth thinking of what can go. I’m thinking maybe instagram can go for a bit. I know lots of people say just “make the time” and that’s a truism that can make you feel like a failure to begin with. But maybe don’t think in extreme terms. Just start a little. Can you do 20 mins a day? I spend at least that amount of time on instagram so that seems like a swap I can start with.
I'm looking forward to writing more and to actually call myself a writer - I followed along with 1000 words over the summer, and it shifted so much in me about how I think of myself creatively. So more nourishing activities like that for sure!
I love this inspiring thread! Last year, my intention was to just mess around with a character and an idea I had, and to do it every day. (Low stakes, high practice.) Other than when Covid interfered, I kept to that intention. By the end of the year, I had a plot, and some drafty chapters. So my intention THIS year is a full draft. (I’d love it to be faster than that, but full-time day job, parenting, etc etc.) Some work every day, even if it’s just a paragraph. (Medium stakes, high practice!) Happy new year everyone--here’s to all of our beautiful intentions! And thank you, Jami, for always bringing us together.
I'm so looking forward to being able to finally announce my next book (which I sold early in 2023) with a publisher I'm wildly excited about...it's been a long and non-linear and occasionally lonely & torturous process, but I feel as though this is the project in which I finally found my voice, and I can't wait to share it with the world. Also looking forward to returning to my novel-in-progress, finding more writing community, and what Matt Bell calls "the success of getting to live a literary life." Wishing everyone a beautiful new year of writing, reading, and living, and thanks always to Jami for making this community happen!
I have a new agent and a finished manuscript that is sitting - shivering and a little afraid - in a pile, awaiting action. A lot of work ahead of me not only to get it out there but to be okay with how that happens.
More reading and writing for me. Considering today what goals for my reading will be, how many Substack posts I want to make per month, how I might expand my personal blog, and how I may be able to find more outlets for my writing.
I just signed with an agent so I’ll be revising my novel and (🤞) going on submission! After that, I want to commit to a new novel project, and I want to finish reading 40 books this year.
I am going to finish my first draft of my first novel. I am going to be more courageous with my writing, in terms of what I write and how often I'm getting it done. Happy New Year to everyone, may it be what you need.
This year I will (1) finish novel #2 and find a small publishing house that will fall in love with the story of a WW2 Army nurse battling the ghosts of war in 1955 New Orleans (2) continue supporting my friends and fellow writers at the New Orleans Writers Workshop and being an active literary citizen. (3) shop the screenplay for my first novel The Italian Prisoner (because you never know!). Big thanks to Jami and the #1000Words community—you are an inspiration. Happy New Year!
It’s a big year for me. My book comes out on August 20. Between now and then I plan to finish transcribing a pile of poems from my notebook and organize some good ones into a manuscript. It’s exciting to have concrete plans going into the year.
Wow Chris your book looks AMAZING. Congrats! I will keep my eye out for it. Also am subscribing to your newsletter. Good luck out there.
Thank you, Jami!
Very cool! Congratulations!
Thank you!
Congrats, Chris!
Thanks!
I am going to take my second course in my MFA program after doing well during the Fall semester. I am excited. But on my Substack (which helps fund my MFA) I will be recording all of Shakespeare’s sonnets. At least once a week. And here is the SCARY part--I will be write a heroic couplet for each sonnet. At the end of the recording project I will have a collage poem of all the couplets, which will hopefully end up as a coherent work. I hope I have the stamina for this! I am afraid it will turn out to be a hot mess 😳🔥🫣 It will all be on my Substack called The Beauty of Things. zinagomezliss.substack.com. Honestly, kinda scared. But I think it also could be fun. Will take the leap.
I’m also trying to build stamina as a writer! I admire that you’re pursuing something that challenging and creative. Is this project also for your MFA or a personal undertaking??
The Shakespeare project is my own personal thing. I was trying to think of something that was public domain. I love reading and reciting poetry, and I love scansion and pronouncing stresses. The biggest risk is distilling each sonnet into couplets. I am so afraid of interpreting a poem wrong.
I hope your writing flourishes in 2024! ❤️
We all have our very own interpretations of lyrics, Zina....they are our own honest versions... Quite. Unlike Tech spec manuals.... Distill how you will and Still your fears. Peace, Maurice
Thanks, Maurice. Many blessings to you this 2024!
U2 Zina.....
Awesome! Hope the MFA is magic.
Thus far it is! I love it so much. The people. The curriculum. Everything. ❤️❤️❤️
As a college teacher, this melts my heart. Of course, students who talk like this are often the biggest givers in the room. 🥰
What a cool project!
Thank you! I am at least looking forward to recording all those sonnets. I remember Sir Patrick Stewart doing that during the pandemic but I think it was without much commentary.
8 days a week 25 hrs a day, wow, dig your schedule Zina, Please don't burn......
I plan to finish my nonfiction book on empowering single women. This is my first book so wish me luck!
Good luck Terri!!
Thank you!!
Good luck Terri!
Thank you!!
That sounds like such a meaningful project! How long have you been working on it??
Thank you! Ive been working on it for a couple of months. But I paused to create a website and social media platform and now it's time to get the writing done. I'm also looking for single women to interview to be able to cover more of what is needed. I'm excited about this project!
Heaps of luck, we need that book! 👏
Thank you! We do!!
Good luck!
Thank you!!
✊🏽
Good luck!
Thank you!!
I'm almost through what has been a very challenging revision and I expect I'm far from done with this book, but I can see, on the horizon, the next book I want to write. For the past decade or so, I have been writing about people at least a generation younger than myself, sometimes two, but this book is about a woman just a few years older than I am and the next one will also center on a woman in her 60s. I think that's one of the things I have on offer, my hard-won knowledge of the inner life of a woman as she ages. Of course, Sigrid Nunez is already working this territory quite beautifully, but there's always room for more.
Yes indeed Laura! We can't worry about what anyone else is writing anyway, we can only write what we can write.
Exciting to read this new work from you. I think I might be writing about a woman in my generation next so I get it..Happy new year!!
Such helpful advice; it maybe an axiom but I think it needs frequent restating. 🙏
As one of those women, there’s a raving hunger for more! I’ve been seeking out novels with protagonists my age or older, and it is so frustrating, as very few are depicted as whole and multidimensional, let alone relatable. Whatever genre, I will be reading it! Thank you.
Wow I’m so inspired by everyone’s posts here. I’m very new to Substack but I’m very quickly feeling like I’ve found a community! I’ve grappled with the notion of goals and intentions and resolutions and have decided not to set any as it just gives my ‘ego’ something new to identify with and when I inevitably slip up, something new to beat myself up with. Instead I’ve decided to live each day intentionally and mindfully.
However I am setting myself one ‘thing’ and that is to live this year creatively, one of the reasons I joined Substack, so I could document it in some way! With the hope I shake lose years and years of pent up desires to create. I wish us all good luck!
Living this year creatively is GREAT, Sarah. Have fun doing it!! Happy new year!
I feel exactly the same.
I feel this so much, Sarah!
Late to the party, but I’m also choosing to live creatively this year. Wishing you the best, Sarah!
It's the only way to do it Sarah, the seed will grow with you, if the care you sow is consistent. Peace, Maurice
Bless you 🙏thank you
Avec plaisir, Sarah
This really resonates with me as someone who has been slowly reincorporating creativity into my life (faltering and creakily with lots of stops and starts last year), and hopes to do so even more this year. Also intending to use Substack as one tool for this, but I am brand new to Substack and a bit unsure of how exactly I want to or should use it. Best of luck to you!
I am going to write more--learn how to better use Substack! And finally start a book so many have asked me for...I feel ready and ripe. 🤍✍🏼🤍
Yes Barri!!
I did your 1000 words of summer and it was a revelation for me. I wrote and I thought and I somehow felt like I had picked up some kind of thread of myself that connected me together. Once it was done, I dropped it. So now I want to do more. And I’m sitting here wondering what to let go of to make that space. I think I can do it. I am so looking forward to your book :) Happy new 2024 and thank you 🙏
Petra I am so glad 1000 Words was helpful!! Here's to a thoughtful and productive new year!
I somehow missed the 1000 words of summer (I was recovering from knee replacement surgery), but I'm in the same position as you, trying to figure out where to fit in writing.
Hello Wendy - I think anytime you add something new to your habits it’s hard. But it’s also worth thinking of what can go. I’m thinking maybe instagram can go for a bit. I know lots of people say just “make the time” and that’s a truism that can make you feel like a failure to begin with. But maybe don’t think in extreme terms. Just start a little. Can you do 20 mins a day? I spend at least that amount of time on instagram so that seems like a swap I can start with.
I'm definitely considering dropping some social media. It seems like the logical thing to do.
I second this strategy. I’ve dropped them all for a month and it’s made such a difference.
That’s so exciting to hear. I’m in Australia so still waiting for my preorder. Hearing a little bite like that is just delicious. 🙏
To write softer ✨
Intriguing!
Oh love this!
I'm intrigued.
I'm looking forward to writing more and to actually call myself a writer - I followed along with 1000 words over the summer, and it shifted so much in me about how I think of myself creatively. So more nourishing activities like that for sure!
Excellent Caitlin!!
Thank you Jami! Grateful for you and your encouragement!
If you like to write- you ARE a writer. Don’t ever forget that. 🫶
THANK YOU - you have no idea how much I needed to hear that ♥
I love this inspiring thread! Last year, my intention was to just mess around with a character and an idea I had, and to do it every day. (Low stakes, high practice.) Other than when Covid interfered, I kept to that intention. By the end of the year, I had a plot, and some drafty chapters. So my intention THIS year is a full draft. (I’d love it to be faster than that, but full-time day job, parenting, etc etc.) Some work every day, even if it’s just a paragraph. (Medium stakes, high practice!) Happy new year everyone--here’s to all of our beautiful intentions! And thank you, Jami, for always bringing us together.
I'm so looking forward to being able to finally announce my next book (which I sold early in 2023) with a publisher I'm wildly excited about...it's been a long and non-linear and occasionally lonely & torturous process, but I feel as though this is the project in which I finally found my voice, and I can't wait to share it with the world. Also looking forward to returning to my novel-in-progress, finding more writing community, and what Matt Bell calls "the success of getting to live a literary life." Wishing everyone a beautiful new year of writing, reading, and living, and thanks always to Jami for making this community happen!
I have a new agent and a finished manuscript that is sitting - shivering and a little afraid - in a pile, awaiting action. A lot of work ahead of me not only to get it out there but to be okay with how that happens.
More reading and writing for me. Considering today what goals for my reading will be, how many Substack posts I want to make per month, how I might expand my personal blog, and how I may be able to find more outlets for my writing.
Yes, more reading too!
I just signed with an agent so I’ll be revising my novel and (🤞) going on submission! After that, I want to commit to a new novel project, and I want to finish reading 40 books this year.
Congrats Melanie!!
I am going to finish my first draft of my first novel. I am going to be more courageous with my writing, in terms of what I write and how often I'm getting it done. Happy New Year to everyone, may it be what you need.
This year I will (1) finish novel #2 and find a small publishing house that will fall in love with the story of a WW2 Army nurse battling the ghosts of war in 1955 New Orleans (2) continue supporting my friends and fellow writers at the New Orleans Writers Workshop and being an active literary citizen. (3) shop the screenplay for my first novel The Italian Prisoner (because you never know!). Big thanks to Jami and the #1000Words community—you are an inspiration. Happy New Year!