Word Count: Big changes are afoot!

2025 is going to see a huge amount of change for me. I hope you'll come along for the ride!

Hello there,

Welcome to 2025! I hope you had a fantastic holiday season and had at least a little bit of time to rest and recuperate.

The break gave me a chance to think about all that happened last year and consider what I need to do to move my career forwards. My choice to close Ada Lovelace Day was the biggest and scariest decision I’ve made in a very long time, taking with it as it did my only source of income, but I know that it was absolutely the right thing to do.

This year, then, I need to spend the majority of my time focusing on replacing that income. I’m working with a couple of friends on launching a business culture change consultancy, which is exciting. And I’m investigating whether there’s demand for courses on how to write your own communication strategy, how to run an event that will make your speakers and audience love you, for how to take your first/next steps to improve your business’s diversity.

I’m also continuing to develop the Fieldwork sitcom podcast, with the aim of having a 15 minute pilot script ready by April. I’ll crowdfund the production of that script with the hope that it will attract enough attention that I’ll be able to secure the funding I’ll need to produce a full series.

To make this all work, I need to change how I spend my time, which means that this newsletter will either shift to a monthly schedule, or will become more of a collection of links with less commentary. Why Aren’t I Writing? will go on hiatus for a while. Probably a long while. (And apologies if you’re subscribed to both newsletters, as you’ll get a version of this email twice!).

I also need to hive off the Fieldwork section into its own newsletter so that it’s easier to promote. I will start posting there more often, probably with a fortnightly cadence. I’ll be talking not just about the writing process, but also looking at some of the science that I’ve been learning over the last few months. I need to get some of that information embedded in my memory so that it’s easy to recall when I’m writing, and the best way for me to do that is to tell you all about it.

If you are already signed up to receive the Fieldwork newsletter, then you’ll be automatically transferred over to the new newsletter (and will get a confirmation email when that’s done). If you aren’t already getting those emails and want to sign up, then head over to the new site and sign up there. And, of course, you are totally in control of your subscription so if you decide it’s not for you, it’s easy to unsubscribe.

If you’re a paid subscriber, thank you for your generosity! If you choose to switch to a free subscription, that’s absolutely fine – don’t feel under any obligation to continue. Or if you prefer, you can support me via the new Fieldwork newsletter.

I do love writing both this newsletter and Why Aren’t I Writing?, but last year they together took up seven full working weeks, which is seven weeks I could have spent on Fieldwork. Hopefully, I’ll make much more progress much more quickly on my script with an extra 3-4 hours a week to devote to it!

All the best,

Suw