Already in 2025 Mode: Setting My Sights on Fiction

I know it's not 2025 yet, but I've been in 2025 mode for weeks.

Yes, there are still things to do in 2024 and loose ends to tie up, but I love planning the next year—and sometimes even the next decade. As I edge closer to 60, it’s not just the next year or even the next decade that has my attention. I’m thinking about the next 30 to 35 years. What will life be like between 2025 and 2065?

It’s natural to approach that horizon with mixed feelings. Fear and anxiety still creep in occasionally, but I’m choosing to approach the future with positive energy and optimism.

But I digress, as I always do. I have a lot of projects planned for 2025, though I won’t go into all of them now. Perhaps someday I’ll write more about how I approach project identification, selection, planning, and monitoring. (No, I don’t apply a full PMP framework to my personal or professional projects!)

The main point: My big project for 2025 is a fiction-writing journey.

This project started in mid-2024, but I haven’t consolidated anything yet. I just know I have enough in my head and in notes to turn this into a reality—as long as I block time on my calendar to write. I don’t believe in waiting for inspiration to strike. Writing takes discipline to complete a first draft and even more to edit the work into shape.

Unlike previous fiction-writing efforts, I plan to write about this journey while it’s still in progress. I won’t reveal much about the plot or characters but will likely explore the key themes here on the blog.  There is enough alignment between the themes of the fiction and the themes of my non-fiction work to generate content that is coherent.

This project will be somewhere between speculative fiction and fictional memoir, with the action set in 2065. It’s a new challenge, but one that connects deeply with my long-standing interests and allows me to take on (or play with) the role of "futurist". 

More to come as I dive in—here’s to a creative and productive 2025.

Image generated by ChatGPT based on the blog post as prompt and minor adjustment.
The manual typewriter is an interesting AI touch and by the time I write "The End" on the last page of the manuscript, my hair might indeed be all gray.