This December

Let's check in at the end of the year (plus, a prompt & reading rec for everyone!)

Hi, readers of the intangibles! I’m Allison Kirkland, and this publication was created to celebrate and explore the world of creative nonfiction and the writing life. I’m so glad you’re here.

I try not to obsess about metrics, but this is my 70th post! This couldn’t have happened without your support. If you’d like to keep the party going, feel free to become a paid subscriber at $5/month.

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A quick note before we start: Have you registered yet for the January Writing Circle? Read more about it and register here. Deadline: December 15th. (For those of you who have signed up already: I can’t wait to work with you!)

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Two of my grandmother’s Christmas ornaments. They are flimsy and they don’t look like much but strangely they reflect the light so well.

Hi writers and readers,

This December I’m reading poetry. This December I’m digging deep. This December I’m taking long walks. This December I’m trying not to scroll Instagram as much. This December I’m buzzing from hot chocolate. This December I wish I was singing again. This December I’m petting every dog that will allow it. This December I’m missing friends who have moved away.

This December I’m discovering the beauty of a Christmas cactus. This December I’m trimming the tree. This December I’m including new ornaments that once belonged to my grandmother, and wondering what she may have been thinking when she placed them on her tree. This December I’m tired. This December I’m waiting on opportunities. This December I’m sitting with small rejections. This December I’m sitting with what I didn’t do.

This December I’m hearing owls calling outside at night. This December I’m baking cookies. This December I’m wondering what I’ll be remembering about this time next year. This December I’m clearing out my inbox. This December I’m wondering what the next year will bring.

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December is a month where memories are made. It’s also the last month of the year. Which means for me it’s always a balancing act between slowing down to make those memories and trying to cram in the last few things for the year.

I don’t like to start a new year without reflecting on the current one. If you’d like to reflect alongside me, I have prepared a list of questions, intended to help you consider your writing practice/creativity in 2025 and prepare for 2026.

Unlike a writing prompt, these questions don’t have to be completed right away because the element of surprise isn’t as important. But I do recommend that you find some time — maybe half an hour — sometime in the next few weeks, before the New Year, to noodle on these questions.

Find a comfy spot. Locate your favorite pen and journal. Make yourself a cup of tea or another favorite warm beverage.

Take time to complete all the questions, even if it takes you more than one sitting. You don’t have to share the answers with anyone, but it could be fun to pair up with an accountability buddy for this exercise, because you might learn a lot from sharing your answers with each other. (As always, I’d love to hear your answers, so don’t be afraid to leave them below.)

These questions are intended for writers, but are useful for anyone with a creative practice, whether that’s painting, singing, cooking, care taking, etc. There are no wrong answers.

Reflection Questions for 2025

1. What parts of my creative life/writing practice felt the most meaningful this year?

2. At what points in 2025 did I feel most present with my own creative voice and writing practice?

3. Did I have any creative challenges that pushed me to grow or taught me important lessons in 2025?

4. Which habits or routines have supported my creative practice? Did I have any habits or routines that felt detrimental to my writing or creative practice?

5. Are there any beliefs I want to leave behind in 2025 when it comes to my creative life and writing practice?

6. What are two tangible ways I can show myself more compassion in the year ahead?

Now let’s check in:

Did any of your answers surprise you? Did anything make you think? Which question was the most difficult to answer? Which question did you spend the most time on?

Please feel free to leave your observations or your answers to the reflection questions below if you’d like to share them. I’d love to hear about your creativity and how it’s shifting and changing, and what you’re excited about as you prepare for the coming year. I think we can all learn a lot from each other!

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Writing Prompt:

I worked with a writing prompt last week for the first time in a year or so (at memoirist Minda Honey’s free December Drop-in — highly recommended) and I was reminded how daunting it is to sit with the blank page, with the clock running down. It’s no joke! But I was able to sink into the exercise when I reminded myself that there was no right answer, that this was time just for me, and that following my curiosity is the ultimate goal.

A writing prompt is not meant to produce a finished essay or poem or piece of fiction. It’s meant to be a start. It’s meant to be a little writing sprint, a little writing muscle workout. Maybe it’ll become an essay or the start of a bigger project. But most likely it’ll be writing for the sake of writing, to connect to yourself and your imagination.

You might not connect with every prompt, but remember to sit with the blank page, breathe through the discomfort of not knowing what to say, and use the whole 15 minutes to write. At the end of the 15 minutes you can pat yourself on the back because you committed to your writing practice today. That’s always enough.

I usually put my writing prompts and reading recs behind a paywall, but this month I am making them available to everyone, in the spirit of the holidays.

I’m offering my writing prompts via video now. Don’t watch this video until you’re ready to write — the element of surprise is key when you’re working with a writing prompt. Before you watch this video:

• Grab your favorite writing tool (whether that’s a pen/pencil and journal, or your tablet/computer)

• Make sure you have an uninterrupted 15-20 minute window to write (caregivers and those with small kids, I realize this is a tall order but do the best you can!)

• Sit somewhere comfortable where you can hear well (this video is not subtitled, though I hope to include subtitles in the future)

• You won’t need a timer because I’ll be keeping the time for you

• Don’t watch this until you’re ready to write! The element of surprise is key.

December Prompt:

Want to share?

Thanks so much to the brave writers who shared their work with me last month. I’d love to read what you wrote during our writing time together, or to hear about what your experience was like working with this prompt. Would you like to share a sentence or a few paragraphs below?

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Reading Recommendation:

When I was in my twenties I worked for a time as a programming intern at a small performing arts space in the Upper West Side in New York City. I helped to program two of their literary series. This internship involved all sorts of cool tasks: unboxing the books that were often sent to us by publishing PR teams, in hopes that their author might be booked for our series, writing up contracts for the writers (and actors!) taking part in the series, preparing the green room for the show, marketing the shows, and lots of other things that felt exciting and invigorating.

I loved this internship. It was a small team: only one other intern and two staff members in a small, cramped office that was filled wall to wall with books. I wish I’d taken a picture of it. Every available free space, even parts of the floor, were taken up by books. On my lunch break I would often browse the shelves, and my boss would sometimes even let me borrow books if I promised to return them (I always did). It felt like working in a library.

It was there that I first encountered the Best American Series. I’ve always loved anthologies, for a lot of different reasons: they are often compiled by experts in the field, and sometimes on very niche topics, they often introduce me to new voices I haven’t heard before, and it feels like someone else smarter than me has cherry picked some very elite reading material.

One of our literary series featured actors reading short stories, so we’d get sent the Best American Short Stories Anthology each year in the hopes that we’d find a story inside that we wanted to feature. I later discovered that there were other related anthologies: Best American Science and Nature Writing; Best American Food Writing; Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. (Unfortunately some of these anthologies haven’t survived, which is a sad commentary on publishing as a business and on the fact that people aren’t reading as much — The Best American Poetry Anthology ceased annual publication in 2025 after 38 years and The Best American Nonrequired Reading was discontinued by publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2019. Ugh.)

I fell in love with this anthology series, and now I dive into the latest issue every year. Since I am primarily an essayist, my favorite is the Best American Essays series.

Each year the Best American Essays Anthology features a new editor, which means that every year that editor is combing through all of the essays from major publications and literary magazines and choosing their favorites to reprint in this anthology. This past year, for example, it was Jia Tolentino, a writer for The New Yorker, and a few years ago it was Alexander Chee, a memoirist and essayist. With each editor you get a different focus, a different viewpoint, a different perspective.

This is a great series for readers and writers who want to see what’s possible within the essay genre, and have a wide variety of essays at their fingertips. Don’t pay too much attention to the word best. In other words, don’t let it stop you from writing. Best is subjective, and often it’s more of an expression of the trends and the zeitgeist more than anything else. Just view this series as an opportunity to read a lot of high quality work in one place, and to see how the same form/genre changes and shifts over time.

It’s the holiday season, so here’s your annual reminder to shop small and shop local. Don’t give more money to billionaires; buy your books from a favorite local indie bookshop or on Bookshop.com.

Until next time,

Allison

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You are reading the intangibles, by writer and creative writing instructor Allison Kirkland. This publication is geared toward writers of memoir and creative nonfiction and the people who love them.

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