Writing Update + The Power of New Beginnings

Writing Goals

There are two times of year that have New Start energy for me. New year and fall. Fresh new calendars and crisp pages on a blank planner paired with fireworks and resolutions compel me to strip off the old and step into the new. This often leads my dreamer’s heart to aspire to everything. So much so that I often fail to consider that I have a day job, a family, and real-life friends to fit into my schedule.

By the last quarter of 2024, I made a realization. I need to streamline. My goals, my writing space, my schedule, they all needed adjusting if I am to make progress toward my ultimate goal of publishing books I love.

It was a good thing, too. I currently live in the United States, and the number of unprecedented events in the news have highlighted that emotional resilience is a finite resource. One I must safeguard.

Because of this, I decided to take an indefinite hiatus from Read, Write, Repeat, the book club for writers I started two years ago. But don’t worry, I’ll be sharing and discussing my reading here. For now, I am still on Instagram but rethinking my presence on that platform. I’ll update, here and on my website, if there are changes to my social media.

But what am I spending all this newfound focus on? This year I am picking up the most daunting project I’ve ever conceived. A non-linear story that questions who a person might be if all their programming was erased. It’s going to require skills I haven’t used before, so I’ve lined up some classes and craft book reading to ensure I have the skills I need to make the story shine!

I also plan to be in your inbox more regularly. I’m aiming for monthly installments that will include an update + my thoughts on different aspects of storytelling. Come along for the ride!

+The Power of New Beginnings

New beginnings are at the heart of storytelling. Almost every writing class or craft book I have read identifies the inciting incident of the story, the moment that gets the story started, as an event that disrupts the status quo. It forces the protagonist to embark on a path that usually results in transformation or reinvention.

Whether in books or movies, the possibility of a new direction is the fuel that propels protagonists through every obstacle that presents itself. It forces both the characters and the readers to investigate their assumptions about the world and people at large. In my favorite stories, this investigation often leads to intentional changes for the path forward.

Obviously, I’ve been thinking about this for a while. In the process, I have reconsidered what I hope to say with my own stories. Here are some of the media that make me think about new beginnings.

Chocolat

This movie from 2000 kicks off with a new start. A woman moves to a small town with her young daughter and opens a chocolate shop. Innocuous enough, until the townspeople are scandalized by the fact that she is open for business on Sunday and during Lent, no less. Her presence in the traditional town challenges the resident’s long-standing views and opens the way for change.

It’s a rom-com. But it also says something about the power of beginnings and was nominated for several high-profile awards in 2001, including Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

I do love a fun story that has a strong opinion. In this case it’s the way you could change the people around you just by existing and living an authentic life.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

The cycle of new beginnings is likened to a video game where every game over results in a new start. While I understand that the book has its limitations—gamers in particular had issues with the mechanics of the video games as portrayed in the novel—I truly appreciated the cycle of endings and beginnings that make up the story’s arc.

I found hope in the idea that whether you are likable or reasonable or damaged or not, you can still try again. And again. And again.

In a life that is full of mistakes and dead ends, the idea that there is an option to start over resonated with me. I had an emotional response to the echoes of the friendship’s past iterations as Sadie and Sam start over in the last pages of the novel.

Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie

There are many songs that center the subject of new starts, but none reflected the feeling of existing as an imperfect adult in a world that rarely makes it easy to take the next steps with confidence as well as this one.

It’s the terror of knowing what this world is about

The music is full of tension and the lyrics are profoundly meaningful. This is a song that makes me feel the weight and the promise of our ability to start again.

Why can’t we give love that one more chance?

…

‘Cause love’s such an old-fashioned word

And love dares you to care for the people on the edge of the night

And love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves

I would love to hear your thoughts on beginnings in art and in life. In the meantime, I’m rooting for all of us to make the most of the inciting incidents that lie ahead. There’s a blank page waiting for me, so I’ll end here.

See you in February!