This Year, Next Year

Two weeks till 1000 WORDS comes out. Pre-order from Books are Magic or Loyalty Books until January 2 and you get a signed copy and these adorable stickers. If you’re able, come see me on tour. I hope you love this book. I made it for you.

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Hi friends.

I don’t know about you but this year took it out of me. I worked too much, I grieved, I had a lot of physical changes. I would not describe myself as a depressed person because I get up every day with the belief that something good could happen in the world, or that I could make something good happen, or that I should at least try. I start every day believing. I am a corny middle-aged lady just trying to do her best.

But I would describe this year as depressing, particularly this fall. I felt it, and I watched as people I loved felt it. I had a couple of days I lingered too long in bed. It was extremely hard for a lot of us to get up and do the work. I know it is still hard. If you are finding things challenging right now, please give yourself grace. God are we not all doing the best we can?

Still, we all have work, deadlines, we need to make a living in one way or another. My strategy was to get up really early, like dark-outside-early, in order to shut off the noise of the world. It was the only way through for me. And there were plenty of days where I thought, “This fucking sucks.”

But damn if I didn’t finish my goddamn copy edits on this novel yesterday afternoon. Not to be overly dramatic about it (but sure, why not? Let me just be dramatic for a second!) but I felt like I was doing one of those long exhausted marathon-runner stumbles to the finish line. And I love the book. There was no sense of loathing about it. But I just don’t want anyone to think it’s ever easy for anyone, and definitely not me.

It is hard, but it is worth it. We write because it is the thing we do. Because we love it. Because we want to make our art, communicate our vision, shift our lives. Scratch that itch. You know that itch. When you are struggling to put words down on the page, I want you to focus on that itch and what it means to you. I hope it will carry you across your own finish line.

OK, that’s it from me. I just wanted to say happy new year to all of you, and express my wish for peace. I am sending you all of my love and my best possible vibes to take you into 2024. Strength, wisdom, joy, ambition, clarity, community, connection, art, ideas, sentences, books, and words, words, words.

Love, love, love,

Me

p.s. This week’s donation went to Medical Aid for Palestine.

You are reading Craft Talk, the home of #1000wordsofsummer and also a weekly newsletter about writing from Jami Attenberg. I’m also on twitter and instagram.