My favorite period in history is the post-WWI era known as the Roaring Twenties. Women were more liberated than ever, finding freedom in loose clothing, fast cars, and worldly books and magazines- both reading and writing. Music was fresh, and Prohibition created an underground society of good-time guys and gals.
So, now, here we are, in the new Twenties. And, like the Roaring Twenties, what adjective do we want to use?
Boring Twenties? Never! Adoring, Whoring, Poring, Pouring, Storing, Shoring, Scoring, S’moring, Touring, warring, snoring, deploring… None of those sound good.
How about Storying? Sure, I just made it up, but as writers, aren’t we all about stories?
I know I am. When I meet people, I may not remember their faces or their names, but their stories stick with me.
Exploring is a good word. Exploring Twenties sounds a bit vague, though.
What word works for you?
Restoring… This one fits for me. Restoring Twenties. After five years of diminishing health due to an undiagnosed iron deficient anemia, I have spent the past year treating it with supplemental iron, magnesium, and other support from my new naturopathic doctor. I am about halfway to healthy, staying awake better, feeling less brain fog, and slowly getting quicker in my step and stronger all over. I haven’t sent anything out for publication since 2015. In fact, all the projects I had going in 2015 have been idling ever since: my memoir, my 1920s Historical Fiction novel, my other projects in various stages; my plans to teach workshops, attend out-of-town conferences, all of it abandoned due to exhaustion.
2020 is definitely about Restoring for me:
I am restoring my health.
I am restoring my habits, my writing practice, my exercise routines.
I am restoring my position as a working author, and as a teacher.
I am restoring myself as an artist.