I greeted this new year by reflecting on past accomplishments and shortcomings. Determined not to make a new year’s resolution, I looked for a motivational word to focus on the positive in 2020. An online quiz analyzed my responses to ten questions and gave me a list of words. None were inspirational or motivational, so I consulted the dictionary.
Purpose seems like a solid word for 2020. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines purpose as “something set up as an object or end to be attained.” Secondary definitions include determination. Another solid word. Then I considered my novel. That triggered hindsight as a possibility because hindsight is 20/20. It makes no mistakes. Merriam-Webster lists the phrase as twenty-twenty hindsight, but the definition is clear.
The full knowledge and complete understanding that one has about an event only after it has happened.
A head-turner but not motivational because I would be looking over my shoulder instead of focusing on the future of this book.
That shifted my focus from revising my crime fiction draft manuscript to revisiting my characters. I think of revisit as having tea or lunch with an old friend at a table near the restaurant fireplace on a cold winter day. We’ll chat about the good times, but things that we wish had been different are sure to surface in the conversation. That’s the difference in revisiting a friend and revisiting my manuscript.
My friend and I can’t change the past. My novel characters and I can.
Violet's Vibes 
Bravo! Best of luck to you in your writing. I think my word of the year (what a lovely idea) may be fortitude.
I feel like I talk with my characters too sometimes. Or I just like to observe them. They feel really real after awhile. Cheers!
If you really think that hindsight is always 20-20, you need to take another look at our politicians…
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