If you subscribe to The Practicing Writer 2.0, you should have received the January 2025 issue a little more than two weeks ago. And so you may have caught my re-up, for the new year, of a favorite “featured resource”: Lisa Romeo’s “I Did It!” list.
As Romeo has explained (including in this blog post):
As writers, we are too quick to dismiss our small(er) accomplishments, the small steps or steady strides that carry us forward toward larger goals. Especially at this time of year, we may be tempted to focus on what we didn’t finish, didn’t get done, didn’t accomplish—and then shoot straight to a new MUST-DO list for the coming year, one that too often smacks of recrimination.
First, let’s pause to look back and take note of the ways we’ve already begun moving in the direction of our dreams. The list is a way of noticing ourselves as DO-ERS.
The emphasis on “small steps” and “steady strides” matters: As Romeo also notes: “The list is not (only) about what got published or where, what I earned, what job or gig I nailed. It’s wider, and deeper, or in some cases, shallower than that.” Her list’s more important purpose is “to pause and take note of all the small things, big things, and in-between things I could say I finished, learned, tried, succeeded at, explored, completed, was challenged by, overcame, and took part in over the year.”
I’ve been inclined to return to Lisa’s model this year. I’m not going to disclose my full list, but in this post I’ll share some of what’s on it. Ready?
In 2024, I
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