I hope you and yours are having a fun-packed/no-activities-packed/delete as applicable festive season. As I write this, Greatest Hits Radio Christmas is playing in the background (damn right I’m going to keep listening to Christmas songs after 25th December), and Freddie Mercury is opining ‘Thank god it’s Christmas’. Right now, however, I’m thinking: thank god it’s Twixtmas. A time when the main activities in our house are, delightfully, getting up late (and then eating chocolate), watching movies (while eating chocolate) and going for long walks (only stopping to eat… you guessed it, Christmas cake).
My husband and I have a tradition on our Twixtmas walks to talk about the year we’ve each had, and share our hopes and goals for the year to come. So in the spirit of that, I thought I’d write about five things (fiiiive gooaaal thiiiings!) that 2024 taught me – or at least reminded me of – which I’m going to try to take into in 2025. They’re largely work/creativity-related, but not completely. And whatever work you do, or whatever your life may look like, I hope that one, some or all may be helpful for you, too.
1. Be your full self – and bring it to your work
This is a life’s work (thought I’d start off with something easy and small), and so I’ll be trying to bring it into not just 2025 but, I suspect, every year thereafter.
Whether it was sticking to my guns and writing my first TV pilot spec script in exactly the tone I wanted (‘warm drama’, since you ask), nervously but delightedly giving a guest lecture to a group of Leeds University students about my experience in the creative industries, suggesting sweeping changes to a feature script I’d written when the producer/director just expected me to ‘have quick check’ of what he thought would be our final draft, or having my 80s jukebox musical spec – the most on-brand ‘me’ thing I’ve ever written – picked up by two smashing producers who loved and ‘got’ it, after others had passed or never responded, I was reminded over and over that being your true self in life and work – trusting your instincts and learning to be at ease with your own tastes, opinions and ideas – will a) go down absolutely fine with the right people and b) bring the right people to you.
And aside from the fact that I believe there’s value to any creative work you want to make: even if an industry (or some people within it) tells you it’s Not What They Want Right Now, I bet you there is evidence all around you that the sort of thing you love and want to make is wanted. I took great heart that one of 2023/24’s most beloved and critically acclaimed movies was The Holdovers, that Cord Jefferson won an Oscar this year for his screenplay of American Fiction, that the delightful indie comedy-drama Thelma was put out in the world… because all of these are exactly the kind of scripts I aspire to write. And that’s not to mention the evidence all around me (and you!) that there are other creatives out there doing work which may not be to one’s own personal taste but which is clearly meaningful and fulfilling to them – ie it’s true to them, just as you aim for work that’s true to you – and in its own way, that is just as inspiring. And just as much a marker of success (measuring success being another thing that’s been on my mind this year, and something I’m sure I’ll write about more fully in 2025).
In short: lean into who you are, and what you love. I honestly believe it is the key to happiness and fulfilment in life, and in our work. It can be scary (like I say: it’s a life’s work), but trust me: the world will reward you for it.
2. If something feels like a good idea, it probably is (so go for it!)
This is connected to the above idea of trusting your instincts, your tastes and yourself – and I suspect I’ll come back to this, too, in a future post. Because it really hit me this year just how much we are taught – by society, by the Ghosts of (usually privileged, male) Creatives Past – to second-guess our instincts and abilities when it comes to our creative ideas and choices.
[Read more…]
