As we whirl with vim and vigor into a new year, and I turn over load after load of laundry from holiday houseguests, I can’t help but think about my New Year’s resolutions.
What will I resolve to do in 2025?
And….this is where I get stuck.
It feels so big. Even just the word “resolve” feels big. To be fair, it is. According to Merriam-Webster, it means “to reach a firm decision about.” Firm decision? Yikes, I thought resolutions were meant to be broken by the third week in January!
I like the ring of “25 in ‘25.” But 25 what? As we finished off the Christmas cookies last week, we joked about losing 25 pounds. Not a bad idea, and I’m not saying I won’t try (again), but perhaps there’s another 25 somethings I could tackle. Maybe 25 minutes of writing a day…? That seems manageable.
On a recent Mel Robbins podcast, she recommends answering 7 questions as you move into a new year, starting with “What were the highlights from the last year?” I like this as a starting point. It can be useful to look back as you look ahead.
As I started thinking back over 2024, the Rodgers and Hammerstein song My Favorite Things popped into my head, and now has been on a loop for three days. One of my highlights from last year was watching The Sound of Music with my daughter. She’d just learned Do Re Mi at school, and I couldn’t remember ever watching the whole movie before. So, there we were, with her smiling as she put together a new Lego set on the coffee table, and me tearing up as Julie Andrews sang to the children in their pajamas during a thunderstorm.
All I can say is, my god, what a lovely, lyrical, evocative gift of poetry. I gasped through tears at “whiskers on kittens,” feeling as happy as the little boy whose smile couldn’t possibly stretch farther at the thought of “schnitzel with noodles.” Was it the lyrical words, the catchy tune, Maria’s songbird voice, the children’s refreshing innocence? I don’t know, but I can’t stop thinking about it. If you haven’t listened lately, check it out here.
As you think about your plans for 2025, think about your favorite things. Here are a few of mine:
Freckles on noses and butterfly PRs
Toasted marshmallows and roaring beach fires
Girls dressed in hoodies while Taylor Swift sings
These were a few of my favorite things.
Perhaps this was easier than I’d thought: I resolve - firmly - to have more of my favorite things in 2025!
~Megan Thompson
Photo by Nora Jane Long on Unsplash
WRITING PROMPTS
Looking back as we look ahead… One way to review the last 365 days for highlights is to look through your photos or your calendar/day planner for the past year - anywhere you capture events that will spark memories for you. Open your photo app on your phone, or flip through your day planner, and make a list of everything you did or saw or ate, every book you read, every person you spent time with, every place you visited that made you smile. Refer to this list for one of the following writing prompts:
Drawing from the Rodgers and Hammerstein song My Favorite Things and your highlights from 2024, write a lyrical poem that evokes images of your favorite things.
Write about one of your highlights from 2024. Describe the highlight in detail. What made it a highlight for you? What about it made you smile?
~ Megan Thompson
UPCOMING MEETINGS
Our January 14th member meeting will be from 6:30 PM to 8:30 at the Northeast Branch of the Louisville Free Public Library at 15 Bellevoir Circle.
If you are interested in receiving a peer critique on January 14th, let us know by noon on the 14th by emailing us () and telling us what you plan to share. Please bring 8 printed copies of the manuscript you want us to read. No more than 1300 words (4 to 4.5 pages double-spaced) for prose (excerpts of longer pieces are welcome), or two pages of poetry.
Our February 11th meeting will be at the St. Matthews Branch at 3940 Grandview Avenue.
JOIN OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM IN 2025
With the new year, we will have at least one open position on our board. If you are interested in joining the leadership team for Women Who Write, please reach out to us at for more information.
Photo by Kimberly Crum
A WRITING RETREAT HOSTED BY KIMBERLY CRUM
Member and former Director, Kimberly Crum, will host a day writing retreat entitled "Re-imagining your characters in your story” on February 22, 2025 from 9 AM to 5:30 PM at the Valaterra Spiritual Retreat Center in LaGrange, KY. Here are the details:
February seems an ideal time to reenergize and renew your writing life when the outdoors is about to wake up.
We will gather as a community of women writers in this gorgeous retreat environment, which provides ample space to think, write, ponder, and converse. Here, we can enter deeply into the stories we tell and feel free to use our authentic voices in writing and conversation.
Participants will bring a story in progress or an idea for something new. Through group discussion and quiet writing time, we'll work to deepen stories using details and reflection.
At the start of the day, we'll discuss intentions. At the end of the day, we will share thoughts about our writing process and read excerpts of our works in progress. Readers will receive strength-based comments from this community of writers.
The cost is $65 (plus $12 for an optional box lunch). Beverages and light refreshments for the morning provided. Send your request for a PayPal invoice to Kim Crum at .
Attendance is limited to 15 persons. Please contact Kim and sign up soon to ensure your spot in the workshop!
WE WANT TO SUPPORT YOUR WRITING LIFE
Members, if you have a website or social media platform dedicated to your writing, share it with us so we can share it with our Women Who Write community. Send your details to and we will share in a future newsletter.
Members, write a poem, story, or essay for the Women Who Write website blog. No more than 2,000 words, please. Publishing on our blog will expand your writing platform. And you’ll help WWW show off the variety of talents within our writing community! Browse our web blog now! For more information, email and pitch your story or poem—the one you’ve written or the one you want to write! We may provide suggested edits, for flow and clarity.
Photo by Susan Weber on Unsplash
SUBMISSION OPPORTUNITIES & LOCAL EVENTS
Shenandoah Literary’s fiction submission period opens January 15th. Go here to see what Editorial Fellow Anes Ahmed is looking for in submissions.
The Blue Mountain review, a Southern publication, accepts poetry and prose submissions via Submittable. More info here.
Submit a story to Landslide Lit(erary) on Medium.com, a publication edited by two WWW members—Kimberly Crum and Bonnie Omer Johnson—who will provide editorial suggestions.
Duotrope is a fabulous resource for writers who want to publish in literary journals and anthologies and enter contests. You will receive a listing of submission opportunities in your inbox, specifically for your genre. Cost is $5 per month or $50 per year.
Submittable is another terrific resource for publication and other opportunities for writers. Many publications require submissions to be submitted through this service. Also, it’s free!
HerStry literary essay/memoir blog seeks to empower women through their writing. In addition to accepting personal essay submissions four times per year, HerStry accepts submissions on “monthly themes” that are intended as prompts for writers to tell their stories.
Poets and Writers has an extensive list of literary magazines to which you can submit.
Consider submitting to Dorothy Parker’s Ashes, an online magazine of personal essays with the tagline, “Brazen words by witty dames. Everything true. More or less.”
NewPages lists writing contests by the month and day that their submissions close.
SUPPORT OUR WRITING COMMUNITY!
Become a member or renew your membership—As a community, WWW strives to nurture your writing life. We hope you choose to join or renew as a member and participate in our monthly meetings, author talks, retreats, and workshops. Our membership coordinator will notify anyone due to renew. Regular annual membership is $50. Student annual membership is $25. Scholarships are available. Membership entitles you to discounts on workshops and retreats.
Attend our monthly member meetings on the second Tuesday of each month for a brief program, peer critiques, and conversations about the writing life. Not currently a member? You can attend two meetings before deciding to join.
