4 Reflections to Close the Year

Grab a notebook and a cup of tea. It's time for annual reflections.

Photo by Yeshi Kangrang on Unsplash

Every December I lead the Poet to Poet member community through this set of reflections. (I know. Exercises like this seem a little hokey to “serious” writers, but I promise you’ll enter the new year clearer. And who won’t need more clarity in January? Ahem.)

I find them helpful because they keep me grounded in what I did do: what I wrote, who I wrote with, the habits and approaches that moved the work forward. Without that, I’m likely to keep churning about failed efforts and all of the left-to-be-dones. Does that describe you, too? It helps me to look back with curiosity, and ahead with discernment, so that I know where to invest my energy next year.

Four Reflections to Close the Year

As I mentioned in the original post, I generally find it more joyful and effective in creative work to lean into the process rather than focus excessively on the end product. These reflections are less about goals achieved/goals projected, and more about the internal and external and external factors that generate momentum in the work you have done and want to do next.

1. Process: What do you know now about your creative process that you didn’t know at the beginning of 2024? At its best, what did your process look like this year? Which motivations, habits, and routines moved your work forward? Which could be dropped in 2025?

2. Supports: Outside of your own efforts, what helped move your work forward most? If you attended any classes, workshops, or conferences this year, which supported your work best? Why? Among peers, mentors, friends, whose support meant the most to you? What would you return to in 2025? Let go of? Evolve?

3. Focus: Which topics, themes, or curiosities fed your writing this year? Of those, which are complete or no longer interesting? Which do you want to explore further in 2025? What’s calling you in 2025?

4. Fruitions: What are you celebrating about your writing this year? Which accomplishments, large or small, were most satisfying to you? (Accomplishment can be as simple as I kept writing!)

What manifested in your work? Through the work? In the process? In your relationship to the work? And how did that work begin live the world—in the communities where you share your voice in 2024? What were you most grateful for?

I’d love to know. Share your reflections in the comments.