I’m sneaking in one last post for the year — just a short one for New Year’s Eve, as you’ve possibly got places to go and people to see, or better still, I hope you’ve decided to say no to any kind of social engagement/enforced jollity and you are instead doing something tonight that actually brings you some comfort and joy. (My plans involve a huge homemade lasagne.)
After twelve of the most eventful months of my literary life, I wanted to share some of the things I’ve learned or experienced, but every thought I reached for felt inadequate. And besides, I’ve still got a novel to finish (although my current word count is a respectable 142,339, with five chapters and an epilogue to go), so it would be naughty of me to linger too long over an end-of-year blog post.
So instead I’m going to share a poem with you. Bet you NEVER thought you’d hear me say that.
A poem submitted as part of the public callout for True Voyage Is Return, a poem which arrived at 4.59pm when the submissions window was due to close at 5.00pm. Its author has elected to be identified simply as ‘Emma’, and the work is untitled. All the same, in the space of thirty-six words, they have consolidated everything I’m going to keep reminding myself to do in 2025 — and even more importantly, everything I encourage you all to do in 2025 when it comes to your own writing, no matter how much or how little you’ve written before.
Just start.
Start now.
Be shit.
Start again.
The dreams you had are still there.
Find them.
Try them.
Find your place of learning.
Of wonder.
Of joy.
Start again.
Be shit.
Start now.
Just start.
© Emma, 2024 — all rights reserved
Wishing you all a year ahead of contented writing, of wonder and joy, of starting (for sure) and — very important, this — of finishing, too. Because it’s only when you’ve finished that you know what you’ve got, and then the rewriting can begin. (My new friend and fellow writer Stephen Aryan, who I’d call the Emperor of “Just Finish It”, will be very pleased to hear me saying this to you. He stands by it, and he is not wrong.)
