Every January, my Two Writing Teachers colleagues and I each choose “One Little Word” for the year. This year, I have delayed,

and delayed,

delayed some more.

I just can’t seem to wrap my head around anything these days.

Last year my One Little Word was humor—and that turned out the be pretty accurate on a certain level. 2020 was so terrible, so unimaginably awful, that sometimes you just had to laugh. Also, I really did take the goal of humor to heart, and starting in January of last year, I read at least one book written by a comedian a month, reading and listening to about 15 books by comedians in all in 2020. Reading all those comedian-authored books lead me down this weird rabbit hole into a world of comedy-fandom that I hadn’t previously known about. It’s been great, and it has changed my reading life for the better.

But 2021…

I just don’t know. Maybe… Dumpsterfire? Craptastic? What’s something that captures just how unbelievably terrible things will most likely get before they get better?

INCONCEIVABLE

Inconceivable.

It feels really good to say it. I can see why Vizzini keeps using that word, even though it does not mean what he thinks it means.