2024: My Year in Writing
Looking back at the 42 newsletters and 36 published pieces I wrote this year
I’ve been writing this newsletter for a year! My Substackiversary was Nov. 4. I had an anniversary post planned and drafted, but then the election happened and I thought, maybe not now.
2024 was supposed to be the year I wrote a book, something I’ve been telling myself for years. I didn’t write it, but I did audition to write a book for an editor and publisher that I admire. Ultimately, they went with another writer, but I enjoyed the process and learned a lot. The rejection was complimentary of my writing, which felt nice.
After that (complimentary) rejection, I crashed and burned and ended up in EMDR for burnout. I pulled myself through that, went on vacation and then the election happened, and well, here we are. No book, but I did write 42 newsletters and 36 published pieces.
Here’s a look at my year of writing for 2024.
NEWSLETTER
Out of the 42 newsletters I wrote this year, this one got the most views and subscribers (shout-out to my SEO training!). I wrote this in January when all the diet and exercise rhetoric kicked into high gear. This essay is about my history with disordered eating, recovery, perimenopause and how my exercise has shifted from competing in endurance sports to walking in the woods and rolling on the floor.
This is my most recent newsletter, and one of my most read. I wrote this last week because I was irritated about how shitty some people are being about gift guides. Like I write in the essay, there’s a convo to be had about affiliate links and recommendations given in bad faith due to undisclosed paid sponsorships, but some of the stuff I’m seeing online is just people being mean for sport.
OMG, this one. Two things happened in tandem last spring: my stylist gave me red highlights without asking and one of my cats chewed some of my hair off in my sleep. One day you’re standing in the bathroom and you find yourself asking, Is my hair red? Do I have bangs?!
I wrote this essay years ago in a writing class and never did anything with it, so I published it here. I’m pleased at many of you read it. This is about moving to NYC and getting my first bikini wax at the infamous J Sisters salon.
I’m proud of this one because I was able to pay two contributors to help me write it. Plus, Parnassus Books offered my readers a discount code and they put the list up on their website. What a thrill!
This essay is one part hatereads to whoever invented contouring, and one part lovereads to Carmindy, who invented the five minute face. It’s also about my confusion about what in the hell I want to look like at this age.
PUBLISHED PIECES
Here are some folks I either wrote about or interviewed this year:
Sarah Sherman: Sarah Sherman Is Fun, She Promises
Trixie Mattel: Trixie Mattel Tells All
Sasha Velour: She's Here: Talking to Sasha Velour About 'We're Here'
Sampha: Sampha Looks to the Past to Build the Future on ‘Lahai’
Jenny Lewis: Jenny Lewis Brings Joy’All Ball to the Ryman
I write a lot of local and book-related pieces, and here are some of those:
Ann Patchett: Hey Thanks, ‘The Laydown Diaries’
Jo Brichetto: Talking With Author Joanna Brichetto
Betsy Phillips: Talking ‘Dynamite Nashville’ With Author Betsy Phillips
The Porch: Nashville’s Literary Collective Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary
Nashville History X: The People Issue 2024: Archivist and Historian Caitlan Fleurette Dillingham
Thanks to everyone who read even a small percentage of this. It’s wild to see how many people read some of these things I write. Hilariously, my newsletter plan for 2025 was to write less essays (so that I can save them for a book), but essays are clearly what you want to read. Well, good luck to me in figuring out that balance!
Comments are on for everyone. Feel free to let me know if there’s something you’d like to see more or less of in 2025, and/or what piece stood out for you in 2024.
Way to go, Kim! You are an inspiration. Thank you!!
Fabulous!!! As someone who's been reading you from the beginning, I beg of you, please republish Gym Class Hero (I think that was the name of it?) and the essay you wrote for The Porch's Heartbreak Happy Hour.
P.S. Please take me on book tour with you.