The obligatory end-of-year wrap-up post you’ve been waiting for

The year in writing, recognition, loss, and life

If nothing else, 2024 for me was a year of transition and disruption. And — I hope — a year I learned to be more grateful and empathetic.

After 40 years of full-time work, much of it in academia, I entered a new phase of life last January. Some call it retirement, but it has hardly been that. My pursuit of creative writing and some freelance work has kept me busy enough. In addition, my wife and I and our cat had a couple of health scares that made us reevaluate our values and gave us greater insight into the workings of the U.S. health care system, the good, bad, and ugly of it. We also mourned the passing of a few friends from our church family and continue to honor their memory.

In other words, a lot of life happened in 2024. Here are some highlights from the year:

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Friday Five: top 5 writing tips from literary experts

What some of this year’s ‘Friday Five’ participants shared with me

Over the past year, I’ve invited dozens of writers, editors, and others in the literary/writing/publishing community to take part in a “Friday Five” feature. This involves a five-question email interview with the subjects (see links to all interviews). One question I ask of all interviewees is, “What advice do you have for other writers or aspiring writers?” I do this for selfish reasons, because I’m always looking for ideas and inspiration. But I hope the responses also help others who are wanting to improve their writing.

For this end-of-year piece, I’ve selected five bits of advice from the nineteen interviews of 2024. Here they are:

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