"We can all agree 2016 was a rubbish year. But there is still hope."

2016. Let’s not mince our words: it’s been terrible. Exhausting. Heartbreaking.

It’s okay. You’re allowed to have a little cry. But you’re not allowed to give in.

We are readers. We are writers. We love stories because we believe that hearing, telling and understanding the lives of other people is what makes us human. Other people’s stories – other people’s lives and minds – have made us who we are. Sometimes because the character on the page articulates our own experience of the world – and in so doing makes the world seem smaller, more connected. And sometimes because the character on the page opens our eyes to another reality – and reminds us that each diverse life and experience is as true and important as every other.

Yes, 2016 has seen an upsurge of intolerance and nativism. Income inequality is fracturing the fabric of countries all around the world. But we cannot go into 2017 angry. Our rage does no-one any good. It is time to stop complaining. It is time to stop mocking. If we adopt an ‘us versus them’ attitude, we condemn ourselves to a lifetime of failure.

If we want the world around us to become more compassionate, then we must appeal to the compassion in others. We must inspire people rather than judge them. We must tell the stories of those who are suffering, those who will suffer without anger or blame. There’s no place for recrimination in this new year.

Think of the books you love; think of the books that made you. Did they tell you that you were a stupid person? Did they laugh at you? Did they mock your choices, sneer at your opinions? Of course they didn’t! You wouldn’t have read them if they did.

The books that made you told you stories about other people’s lives which changed how you saw the world, changed the way you thought about being human.

The books from 2016 that every woman should add to her 'to-read' list. (Post continues after gallery)

2017 is a year to tell stories. Not to ‘explain them’. Not to preach. Not to blame.

Offer your compassionate view of the world openly – non-judgmentally – to anyone and everyone. Tell stories, repeat stories, share stories which humanise those most often drained of their humanity. Those who seek to govern us through fear talk about huge parts of our society as if they belonged to amorphous mobs and rabbles and throngs. They take away the individuality of the child on the life raft, the man under blankets on the street, the woman in the headscarf sitting on the bus.

Storytelling re-asserts the individual truth. It makes us feel something. It opens our hearts.

No more blame. No more finger pointing. No! No! I’m sorry but you don’t get to do that anymore. Offer compassion, offer hope, and 2017 will be a year in which we start to change the direction of this ship.

Miranda Emmerson’s new book, Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars, is published by HarperCollins Australia and is available now.