The Year in Review

What were your writing highlights in 2024?

First of all, sorry I didn’t show up in your inbox last week (I don’t know if you noticed). One week ago was the day after Thanksgiving (which somehow feels like a month ago) and I was recovering from two days of cooking, and also putting up my Christmas tree.

Taa-dah! Tree is up, window stars are up. My work here is done.

When I was a newspaper reporter, and a magazine writer, this time of year meant writing “wrap up” stories. What were the big local news stories? What key events happened? Why were they important? Also called a “Year in Review” story, this annual story was different each time, because different things happened, of course.

The story invited our readers to pause, to remember, to learn from the past, to put things into perspective. Look at where we’ve been. Let’s learn from it. To name the significant events and analyze them.

In a few weeks, we’ll talk about goal setting and looking ahead. I’m hoping to start another coaching group in the new year, if you’re interested in that, details will be coming soon.

But for now, let’s look back. As the saying (apparently often ignored in our day) goes, if you ignore history, you’re destined to repeat it. So let’s look at our own personal histories for 2024. Your story is powerful. Reflecting on it only increases its power. So let’s ask two questions: what did you do right, and what do you want to do differently?

What did you do right?

Our default is to say, “learn from your…. What?” We want to learn from our mistakes. And we do. But! Focusing on mistakes can keep us from celebrating our accomplishments. So before we look at our mistakes, let’s learn from our achievements.

What did you get right in your writing life this year? What did you accomplish?

• Did you write a certain number of pages or words? Celebrate getting words on the page!

• Did you read good books and try to learn from them? (Reading is an essential part of the writing life and making time for it is an accomplishment in itself!)

• Did you finish a chapter, an article or even a manuscript? (If not, I can help you achieve that goal in 2025!)

• Did you send out a newsletter? (Pat on the back for building a practice of writing on a regular basis and sharing it with the world!)

• Did you attend a writers’ conference or take a class to sharpen your skills? (Kudos for being brave and taking an important step on the writing journey!)

• Did you send out a query or two or three? (Even if they got rejected, sending them is an accomplishment worth noting.)

• Did you read this newsletter and learn about writing and publishing? (Another win—a way you’re building your knowledge and motivation.)

Take a minute to simply feel good about what you accomplished. And share it with us in the comments! The writing life is not an easy path, but you’re on that journey, and that in itself is powerful.

2024 was a busy and productive year for me. I finished writing three books! I say finished writing rather than “wrote” because two of those had been in progress for about two years (both collaborative projects: Live Like a Guide Dog with Tyndale Publishers; Unleashing Radical Hospitality, self-published.) Such is the weird nature of publishing—it’s sometimes slow. The third was a ghostwriting project I finished in about three months (a true ghostwriting project so I can’t share details). Again, writing is weird—sometimes it goes quite quickly. But all three were completed in 2024. (Whew!)

I also guided three authors through the process from manuscript to self-published this year (that meant editing, design, and project management). Helping these authors felt rewarding and challenging, and I’m delighted that I had the opportunity to partner with these authors achieve their goals.

Carla Norris, Unbreakable Crown; Tanya Belvin, Rescuing the Remnant; Carol Lawrence, Go Outside, God is Waiting (click the links to learn more about each of these wonderful books)

(If you have a manuscript and want help with self publishing, please click the button to give me a shout!)

What you want to do differently?

While we want to celebrate accomplishments, we also want to improve and grow as writers. The only way to do that is to try things, and they might not go as planned. Mistakes are opportunities to learn, so I like to frame my errors with this question: what do I want to do differently in the coming year? What didn’t work as well as I’d hoped? What did I learn from it?

Some questions for you to ponder or journal about:

• What was the biggest lesson you learned from a mistake?

• What is something that you love doing, but didn’t find time for in 2024?

• What is your biggest “time suck”? (For me, it’s mindless scrolling. So many wasted hours, ten minutes at a time…) What would happen if you spent that time writing?

• What’s something you tried but realized was not worth your time?

In 2024, my writing and self-publishing projects left little time for coaching other writers. Next year, I want to make more time for that, because I really enjoy it.

I’d done both a writers’ group and individual coaching in 2023, but I didn’t do much coaching in 2024. I did teach at West Coast Christian Writers conference, which was fun.

So what do I want to do differently?

It’s a question I’m wrestling with, honestly.

Because I do so much collaborative writing, I have not released a solo book for several years. It might be time to do a solo project again. I have another book I have actually been working on, and I hope to find the right path to publication for that book in the coming year.

I’m definitely figuring out the best way to coach more writers.

I have other goals I’m noodling on. How about you? What do you want to do differently in the coming year?

Leave a comment below to tell us about the accomplishments you’re celebrating and the small but powerful changes you want to make in the coming year.