“Play”

Happy 2025! I would say it’s hard to believe we’re in a new year already, but if I’m honest, 2024 felt like it was about a million years long. As I was going through photos from the year in trying to put together a year-end review for the newsletter (which IS coming soon, subscribers, I promise!) I realized that I had almost entirely forgotten everything that had happened before July, or at least had sort of vaguely assumed it happened in 2023. So yes, I can believe we’re in a new year at last, and I’m very thankful to be so. Four deaths in the family in less than six months is hard beyond my ability to put into words.

I don’t tend to make New Year’s Resolutions, though I do like to set some goals for myself in January of things I would like to accomplish over the course of the year. If you’re interested in those goals so far as writing is concerned, I’m sharing those in my upcoming newsletter, so feel free to subscribe to that here:

Several years ago I jumped on the “word for the year” bandwagon, but I found that, much like New Year resolutions, I had a strong tendency to forget all about my chosen word round about March and just carry on with life. So I quit deliberately picking a word. However, last year, a word ended up picking me partway through the year, and in like manner, this morning a word popped into my head and told me it was my word for this year.

And this word bodes well for the upcoming twelve months:

I have been reminded over and over again in the last few months of the need for playfulness in my life and in my writing. I have developed over the last few decades into the type of person who always has to have a plan, and a backup plan, account for all possibilities, and maintain a strong work ethic in order to get everything accomplished that is necessary. None of those are bad traits, necessarily, but when they are not balanced by the ability to have fun and let loose at times … well, let’s just say that there are times when I am unbearably bored with myself. And unfortunately, I also often get bored with my writing! It is good to take this work seriously–but I also need to remember to have fun with it. Robert Frost famously said, “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader,” but I think it’s equally true that if the writer isn’t having fun, the reader won’t either. Even if the story is not a particularly playful one, the writer still ought to be able to enjoy playing with words, following the story where it goes, trying to capture its magic on paper with joyful zest instead of grim determination. Or at least, this writer ought. I’m not going to tell anyone else how they ought to be writing (or living)!

So this year, I am going to be developing my playful side. I am going to be purposeful in letting go sometimes, of letting things happen and just enjoying them. I am going to write silly nonsense for my own amusement, play with words and stories, even allow myself to be goofy. Whether any of those words are seen by anyone else is irrelevant–the enjoyment of them will be in the making.

I don’t have a set plan for this–in large part because putting together a plan for playfulness is entirely counter to the very idea of playfulness–but this is the mindset and attitude I intend to focus on this year. And you know what?

I can’t wait!

Happy 2025, everyone. Let’s play this year!