2023: Looking Back
Welcome to a shiny new year, wonderful WordFam!
Before we get into what the year ahead holds for us, let’s take a moment to pause and look back. It’s good to see how far we’ve come and the path we’ve tread to get here.
2023 hasn’t been kind to many of us. I know many felt it was another long year we had to struggle through. Sickness continues to harry us and health is a frequent concern. The news is full of worrying or sickening things both locally and far away. The state of the world is stressful and it’s easy to feel helpless with so many terrible things happening. Closer to home, bills are going up at an alarming rate. Housing is problematic at best. Our comforts seem hard to find and more expensive every day.
We have all made it through, though. We’re here and we’re pushing forward. We all deserve a high-five and a hug. We’ve got this.
And it wasn’t all bad! Some good stuff happened too. Let’s take a look at what the WordFam got up to over the last year.
A big highlight was, of course, our WordFam Writer’s Retreat! A group of us went out to North Stradbroke Island / Minjerribah for a weekend in August, where we set goals, spent time writing, visited the beach, spent some social time with each other, and smashed those writing goals by the end of the weekend. There are lots of great photos of the weekend and a heap of wonderful memories made in good company.
We finished up a couple of series here on the website and in our events! We now have a stable of writing prompts at your disposal, should you be looking for some inspiration. There is also a catalogue of workshops you can watch if you want to learn more about writing. We may add to these in the future if needed, so if there’s anything you want to see there, let a WordFam Leader know.
We also held Kess’s annual Writers’ Asylum here on the site. We tried out a new format and spread the challenges out over a whole month, instead of a single day. We’d love to hear what you thought of it compared to our usual format!
Towards the end of the year, we started up a new event as well: Roving Words. We know that in-person events can be tricky because getting everyone in one place isn’t always feasible, so this lets us all write together wherever we are. Whether we’re forced to stay at home or able to go out and explore places near us to write, we can share pictures of our setup and connect across the breadth of our WordFam’s reach. It’s so exciting to see where everyone is!
On top of all that, we’ve kept up our usual calendar of events, both in-person and online. We’ve also thrown in some social events to keep us all connected and entertained!
We’ve gained some wonderful new Family members who we hope will stay with us. And we’ll be here should any of those whose lives have pulled them away choose to return home.
That’s a lot when you add it all up! We love how our WordFam is growing and flourishing, and continuing to move forward. In all, I think that’s a pretty fantastic year.
Thank you to everyone who helped to make it happen. To our amazing WordFam Leaders who work to keep the wheels turning and things working. And to our WordFam Members for being a part of it all, we wouldn’t be anywhere without your encouragement, support, and participation. Thanks for being a part of our WordFam, we’re so glad you’re all here.
We have so many things planned for the WordFam and ways we want to keep it growing. So keep an eye out for what we have coming up! And if there’s something you want, talk to us, we’re always on the market for new ideas and requests.
What about you? What did you achieve in 2023? What are you most proud of? Tell us in the comments!
Goodbye, 2023! You were a mixed bag and I’m keeping the good parts. Let’s make 2024 better and brighter than ever.