A writer's wishlist
Reflecting on the creative ups and downs of 2025
Hello, gentle reader.
Among the many To-Do! and Buy-Me! clamouring at this time of year, I am trying to keep my sights on the quiet days to come. I’m lucky to have few demands on me over Christmas, so it will be a time of long walks, jigsaw puzzles, and (hopefully) getting some writing done.
Some of this writing will be journalling, never to be seen by anyone but me. I love journalling, and it feels even more special at this time of year. I love looking back on the year that has been, remembering my favourite moments, and allowing myself to feel some pride at how I’ve come through the challenges.
My 2025 hasn’t looked anything like what I had imagined this time last year. I’ve had at least one truly wonderful surprise that I didn’t see coming. There have also been twists and turns, and many times when I felt like I was flailing around without a plan, which I find discombobulating, to put it mildly.
Resolutions, or wishlists?
While I like to have a plan, I’m not really one for New Year’s resolutions. Or at least, not in a particularly resolved kind of way. I simply write a wishlist of things I want to do, try, or aim for. It’s looser and less pressured than resolutions.
Some of my wishlist items are realistic, and some of them are more fantastical or just fun. Zorbing, for example, has been on the list since I was about 12. I’ve still never done it and I still want to do it! Of course, many items on the wishlist are to do with my creative practice.
For the last few years, my wishlists have gone really well. I’ve done many of the things I dreamed of and jotted down in my journal. I’ve published books, received funding, undertaken my first residency, and come back around to teaching and facilitating. I’ve also had lots of really good days at my desk, just writing, and it hasn’t been hard to be productive.
It has been joyful, and there’s more than a small part of me that thinks that writing things down is a kind of magic. If I add them to the wishlist, there is a tiny chance, but a chance nonetheless, that they might just come true.
Seasons and wanderings
This year has been different, probably because all the twisty-turny-ness has taken up so much brain space. In my journal from this time last year, I wrote that I wanted to:
Finish my projects in progress (all three of them!);
Submit to and be published by the famous poetry magazines;
Write a piece of flash prose every week (remember that?);
Make loadsa money from my writing.
Have I achieved any of it? Not really. After a few good years, 2025 turned out to be a fallow period.
I’m trying to stay optimistic despite that. A creative life has its seasons, and that’s one of the joys of it. Creativity has its own spirit, and comes and goes as it pleases. When it’s gone, I can keep in touch with it through good conversation, reading, teaching, playing my guitar very badly. And I trust that when it comes back, it will be well rested and have some good stories to tell from its wanderings.
During this fallow season, I’ve had the chance to qualify as a coach. I’ve been working 1:1 with other creatives for years, and it felt like the right time to level up those skills so I can support more people, and do it better. I’m already building my experience with a small number of coachees, and I’m starting to make plans for my coaching offer in 2026. I am glad to have some upcoming time to let all of my recent learning and practice and imaginings sink in.
And even though my 2025 writer’s wishlist didn’t go to plan, I’ll still be making one for 2026. This could be the year that I finally go Zorbing! I might finish my novel, or I might decide to move onto something else. There will be another dozen ideas pulling at my sleeve and asking for my attention, no doubt.
As far as I am able, I will be tuning into them and, no matter how realistic or otherwise they might be, I’ll entertain them for as long as it feels right.
An invitation to reflect
So here’s an invitation to reflect on your own wishlist. A chance to look back on the recent good times, and to dream of the ones to come. I offer the questions below for you to use however you wish - think about them, write about them, talk about them with a loved one, take what works and leave the rest.
What was on your wishlist this time last year?
Which wishes are you most proud of? How could you celebrate?
Which wish(es) didn’t happen? Setting aside any self-blame, what information does this give you?
What do you want to take forward?
What do you want to leave behind or release?
What’s on your wishlist for next year?
What’s one thing you could give yourself to help an item on your wishlist come true?
Wishing you all good things for the end of the year, and happy holidays to all who celebrate. Here’s to more time to read, write, and grow together.
Until next time,
Flo