I started this writing blog as a way to make myself write more often. I have found it to be cathartic, healing, energizing and inspiring to sit down at the computer, and this “what will I write next for the blog?” As I reflect on a year of intentional writing, here are a few things that come to mind.

1. “Writing is an act of vulnerability.” I went through a series of difficult personal experiences in 2022, and I can see where all of these hardships come through in the stories and poems that I wrote. Before I started this blog, I told my friend that it was scary to put your thoughts on the page, because it’s like “showing your tits.” He replied that yes, writing is always an act of vulnerability. After publishing The Circle, my sister-in-law joked with me that as she was reading it, she thought “God, what happened to Sarah?” But she went on to say that writing isn’t always about the author, but the author can reveal things that are true about the reader. Reading, then, is also an act of vulnerability. Whenever we choose to engage with writing, whether we are the ones penning the words, or the one reading the words, we take the risk of being stripped bare.
2. Ideas are easy. I have been surprised by how simple it is for me to come up with an idea for a story. Perhaps this will not always be the case, but over the past year, whenever I sat down to write, there was always something that was easily there, like my mind was an endless filing cabinet of folders. Even so, sometimes the execution of the idea was difficult. I would start to write, only to find that the idea was falling a little flat as I wrote. Or I would write out a scene, and realize that the idea I thought was great was not itself an entire story. I’m not new to these challenges. The problem of having good ideas and poor execution plagued the writing of my first novel, The World Between. I wanted this blog to pay respect to all the unconnected pieces, and I’ve glad that I was able to give some of the stories that didn’t go anywhere some exposure this year.
3. Weekly blog posts are harder than I imagined. The energy it takes to keep up this level of creativity is sometimes not possible. Thankfully, I had a well of past projects to help me keep to my goal of posting every week. I am hoping that I will be able to continue this pace, but I am also not going to worry myself too much if I have to cut back. As I look ahead to new projects- like 2 short story collections, releasing audiobooks and perhaps doing a second book of poems- this blog might have to evolve. But I also anticipate that this blog will continue to be a springboard for my new ideas- even if they might not pan out.

Thanks for reading with me this year!