8 Things I'm Practicing in the New Year
To step more fully toward my Future Self and become the writer I want to be
Hello, friends! Firstly, if you signed up for my Substack in the long period in which I have been absent, welcome, and I plan on doing all I can to make this Substack worthwhile! (If you don’t remember what this is / who I am, I am a speculative-literary fiction writer, and this Substack is all about craft thoughts, creative inspiration, prompts, and many of my former craft classes on a range of topics will be shared here (free). For those curious, and just in the spirit of openness, the reason for my long absence was because of ongoing family medical crises this year, one thing after the next. Both my mother and stepfather are suffering from dementia (and a range of other health issues), and we’ve been in and out of hospitals and rehabs since early summer, so that has been its own journey and the second life I am now living. But the writing goes on, and I am very excited to get back into this Substack, and it’s now the new year, which is what I want to focus on here. One of my big intentions for myself in 2025 is to show up here, with thoughts, musings, anything that has inspired me, and that might be similarly helpful to writers and readers. (Also, more on this below, but if you’re free this evening - Friday, January 3rd at 6pm ET - join me on Zoom for a free Setting Creative Intentions gathering!)
8 Things I’m Practicing in the New Year
Doing it even if I’m afraid. This could be literally anything, but it almost always relates to create work (for me). If you’re like me, you have small anxieties cropping up every day, yet something I’ve been working on is proceeding onward, even when scared, and when practiced enough, the fears and worries become a kind of background radiation I just ignore and act through. Don’t let the illusion of whatever you fear become bigger than it actually is (monsters always appear larger when we hide from them and only shrink to their actual size when faced head-on). Whether it’s writing a post, submitting to a journal, applying for something, speaking at an event, beginning something big, etc. There is almost never a time when it feels fully safe to do anything new, so don’t wait for the fear to subside, just do. As Goethe said, “Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it: boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” I’d add to that, “And you’ll probably be afraid, but onward.”
Showing up for the Self (and Writer) I want to become. As writers and humans, we are not stagnant. We are ever-changing rivers, ecosystems of ideas and shifting emotions and conscious and unconscious fears and hopes, and every day we shape the direction of our own flowing through the choices we make, the thought patterns we entertain, what we show up for (in every sense of that phrase). This year, I choose to live and show up in my own life as the writer I want to be, the person I want to be. This may sound generic or obvious (how else do we show up, you may ask) but I think too easily we can drift through our lives without intention and realize only later in life that we didn’t fully give our all to the thing that mattered most to us. We are met - in all areas of life - with the same energy that we bring. So what do we want to bring to our writing selves (our creative selves) this year?
Forming a secret alliance with my Future Self. Where do you hope to be in the future? What secret knowledge does that Future Self have for you? The Self who’s done the work, knows what it takes. Also the Self who deeply sees you in all your humanness, knows the hidden angles of your psyche, your fears, hopes, the ways you might duck out of your own potential, the way you’re perhaps still afraid of succeeding. Your Future Self is you, after all, and you can link up with them just by envisioning them, seeing them in your mind’s eye, the way you picture an old friend. I’m practicing imagining this Self as a kind of writing buddy and thinking “How can I make things easier for her?" Where I leave the writing today - how much I revise, how much I stick with it, how I think about it - affects her, always. (Ex: I was about to go to bed last night, yet stayed up later to help the Joy of today, who would otherwise have more work on this post to do!)
Declining things, saying No, and guarding writing time. I think all writers feel some version of this tension: there’s so much solitude in our work, which we need to create, yet (if you’re like me) you often say yes even when exhausted or juggling too much. Outside of work, family, and daily life, we all only have so much time, yet we still have choices about how to use that time. This year, I am practicing saying no more, pulling back, and using the the writing time I have to its fullest. This of course is a balancing act, and part of our life’s work, for many of us. At a conference once, I asked a well-known author (whom you’d definitely know) about how she balances writing and life, and she said that she allows herself just two social things each week with others, no more, as that’s all she can do knowing her writing goals and where she wants to be with her creative work. Of course most of us aren’t writing full-time, and the structure of our lives is different, yet it intrigued me that she had such specific knowledge of what her limits were, given her time and goals.
Calling in my resources (guardians, tools, objects of power, animal guides, etc.) In EMDR therapy (which I’ve studied as a layperson interested in its potential for healing PTSD), there’s a step in the process - before beginning to work with the trauma - that involves bringing in resources for support. These resources can be guides, mentors, deceased loved ones, historical figures, fictional characters, objects that give us power, anything at all that - when mentally (or even physically) held - gives us strength to go on. So we might ask: What do we need to bring into our lives this year in order to support ourselves in doing what we know we must do, in order to have the strength and stamina to do what we must and want to do? Who do we want on our team, whether living or dead, whether we know them or not? What mentors, guides, heroes do we wish to call on? What kind of armor might we craft before the battle? What talismans will we carry through the flames? I have an image of a Tibetan snow lion on my desk, that (within Buddhism) represents (among many things) strength, fearlessness, and unconditional cheerfulness. Coffee, however humble a resource, is another that gives strength!
What metaphors can I use for my own process that help me see the process more lovingly? The flower in the image at the top of this post (cyclamen) was given to me a few years ago, yet it hasn’t flowered since then, and in that time I forgot it ever had; yet I continued watering and caring for it as a plant, and my enjoyment of it became about that process. I enjoy it for what it is: wonderfully resilient, quick to respond to watering, and a number of other small things I’ve come to love about this plant. Yet suddenly, this winter, it burst into bright fuchsia blooms, and I was completely delighted and surprised. The flowers were an added gift alongside something I already enjoyed - the process of caring for and watering this sweet little plant. It became the perfect metaphor for how to approach my daily writing process as well. Metaphors are a powerful language; they can be accessed in a single image, and can redirect how we see things. They can be mental resting places, to help us remember deep truths about the processes we’re engaging with, and hence pave new (and more gentle) ways of thinking about our own creative processes, our urgency, the way ideas come, all of it. This year I’ll be asking myself: What ways of thinking - what images and metaphors - will I return to regularly that help remind me of what’s most important in this process, and that also help me continue joyfully onward?
Anchoring my daily writing to another daily routine. I’ve been thinking a lot about how routinely we do so many things each day, like make coffee, brush our teeth, meditate, exercise, walk the dog, etc. How those habits get worn in so easily for most of us, yet other processes like daily writing - equally important to my happiness and mental health - I often push aside. As things in my life got increasingly chaotic this year, I realized writing didn’t happen unless it hitched a ride on some other already-established routine, and so that’s what I started doing. Morning coffee, for me, is the most straightforward routine to tie the writing to, yet I also started writing after watering my plants, as a way of also reminding myself of that metaphor. It doesn’t matter what you anchor the writing to as long as it’s something that happens regularly. That association will help you sit down and write (even if it’s just ten minutes).
Going toward what fascinates, intrigues, hooks, and amuses ME in my work. I firmly believe this is the most likely (and maybe only) way to succeed at anything. Also time is finite. There are a million other interesting things in the world fighting for our attention. So pare away what you’re bored of in your work; get to the heart, the essence, the scene you can’t stop thinking about. The rest will follow.
Join me TONIGHT, Friday January 3rd!
Want to think and talk about all this and more? Join me THIS EVENING Friday, January 3rd at 6pm ET, live on Zoom, for a special Community Writing gathering (via Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshop) focused on setting creative intentions for 2025! Community Writing happens every month at PVWW, usually led by Leonora Desar, and occasionally by me. It’s a FREE, live gathering, open to all! RSVP here to receive the Zoom Link. (And come prepared to write and set intentions!)
About Joy
JOY BAGLIO is a speculative-literary writer and proud Leo (Scorpio rising) living in Northampton MA. Joy is the founder of Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop, a literary arts organization - now completely virtual - offering writing workshops, craft classes, literary events, and editing/coaching services. Joy’s short fiction has appeared in literary magazines such as Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, Apex, Tin House, American Short Fiction, Conjunctions, The Iowa Review, Gulf Coast, and elsewhere. She won third place in the Zoetrope All-Story Short Fiction Contest in 2023, and two short stories have also been optioned for film. Joy's fiction has received generous support from The Elizabeth George Foundation, Yaddo, Ragdale, Vermont Studio Center, Bread Loaf & Sewanee Writers Conferences, The Speculative Literature Foundation, and The Kerouac Project, among others. She is at work on a collection of short stories and two novels. You can find her and all published stories at www.JoyBaglio.com
Thank you!
Thank you so much for reading! I'm excited for what's to come, and so grateful for your interest and desire to be part of this. This post is also publicly available, so feel free to share! And if you haven't already you can always subscribe here as well.
You have to add Zoom Wrangler to your profile! Intention event tonight was a great kickoff at a rodeo riding the bull while spinning plates with greased hands! But you did it and I finally got off my duff with writing. Thank you.
I've got to print out your '8 Things I’m Practicing' list and tape it to my wall. That practical + poetic blend is gold.