I’ve done a lot of thinking about the future this last year after taking a break from fictional writing.

It was something I had to do. The story ideas weren’t there and no characters were talking to me. In the past when I finished one book, ideas for the next cropped up, but when I completed the final Blackbirch novel, there was just silence in my head.

I enjoyed it for a while. Then I started working on my upcoming checklist books.

That project allowed me to see how far I’ve come with blog posts during the 7 years I’ve been writing about writing. It also made me wonder if I still have the heart for new content as blog ideas I was excited about were also a struggle. But, as I close in on the final drafts of those two books, the excitement of new blog posts and stories has thankfully returned.

I think putting away the past helped, as did packing up the files on Blackbirch, and going through my blog post ideas. Looking again at some of those years-old notes, I realized I’m no longer that blogger. This helped me let go of the self-imposed expectation to turn those ideas into content, lifting an invisible weight.

During a month-long break that started in December 2024, I also took stock of my achievements, and as we wipe the slate clean for 2025, I’m doing a New Year Writing Reset.

This will be different from my usual New Year goals, which involve specific plans and what habits I’ll use to make them happen. For the reset, I’ve decided I want to move on from writing goals and ideas that don’t serve me anymore and set new ones that I’m actually excited to work on.

If you’re feeling the same way, I hope you’ll also use the fresh start of the next 12 months (or the time between the end of one project and the beginning of another) to reassess your own writing goals, what you want to achieve, and to then put those goals rich with new promise and unknown possibilities into action. I know I will be.

— K.M. Allan

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