Life is a highway, a road we all must take, and a dozen more clichés. For me it’s always been a bumpy dirt road and maybe that’s why I love them so much. Writing is another journey, one that I started fairly late in life, but I wasn’t ready for it any sooner.
In both life and writing, sometimes the dirt road is hot, dry, and dusty. Other times it’s a mucky, muddy mess. Or snow packed and icy cold. They can be washboarded and rutted and have a tendency to rearrange your guts. But in all seasons and all weather, I’ll take a dirt road over asphalt every time.
I never know what I’ll find along these roads, what’s around that next bend, or over the rise. Sometimes they aren’t passable at certain times and we get mired axle-deep and stuck. Writing is like that, too. Some things don’t work out and you have to turn around and find a new way. Sometimes the road just ends and that’s okay, too.
Dirt roads slow me down as they wind between stands of tall timber, over mountain passes, and through open highlands. I notice more, I stop more, I appreciate more.
And that’s how I want to navigate the coming year. At a slower, more deliberate pace with plenty of stops to see new things. On the writing side, I want to explore those twists and turns and unexpected detours through the lives of my characters. But that’s just me. If your chosen road is a super highway speeding you toward your goals, by god floor it. Or maybe it’s a bike path, or a hiking trail, or a contrail through the sky.
Whatever it is and wherever it takes you, I wish you safe and happy travels through 2025 and hopefully I’ll see you down a dirt road somewhere.
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