Well, we’ve reached the end. 365 days since we sat down and decided on goals for the year. That means it’s time to look back on how we did and set some more goals for 2026. 

Let’s start with my 2025 goals

From the top, I guess. 

• Create at least 2 new story ideas.
  • I was struck by a SINGLE idea that turned into a trilogy. Since that trilogy is outlined, I’m counting it. 
  • I also outlined 3 of the “old” ideas that had been kicking around in the idea journal for awhile. 
• Completely edit the YA Contemporary
  • Actually called That’s What Friends Are For this one is NOT ONLY fully edited but RELEASED. It came into the world in December. If you like emotional angsty dramas about toxic friendships, grab your copy. 
• Completely edit the Slasher WIP
  • Actually called Darkest Fears this one is also available now. If you like slasher style thrillers in small towns, get your copy of this one!
• Completely edit the Romance
  • I blame the fact that this is NOT my primary genre for my hangups on this one. It has been edited MULTIPLE times but I’m not marking this one as complete yet. I want to give it another read through in 2026 and then decide whether I’m ready to push this one through the stages of publication at this time. Another round of betas may be necessary. 
• Completely draft the Apocalypse Project
  • Done and done early in 2025, actually. 
• Full publishing schedule for 2025/2026
  • Well it WAS done. I’m making changes to it for a lot of reasons. Firstly, I’m not sure the romance is where I want it. Secondly, the new stuff will need to be put on the schedule. So, this is a goal that will have to move into 2026. 
• Post to the blog at least 3 times per month.
  • I did this successfully 9/12 months for a total of 32 posts. Not perfect but certainly progress.
• Poetry at least once per month
  • Again, 9/12 times. 

All in all, here are my 2025 stats

• Wrote 141,083 words
  • This isn’t great. It’s lower than 2024, actually. I had higher hopes for 2025 but, honestly, I have to focus on what I was able to do.
    • 15389 words were added to the Apocalypse Project to finish it off
    • 4733 were added to That’s What Friends Are For before publication
    • 1539 were added to Darkest Fears before publication
    • 41,410 were put onto the first of the Superhero Trilogy
• 400 Chapters edited
  • This is mind-blowing. I really had to step back and look at this number (and recalculate it to make sure I didn’t screw up somewhere) because this is TWICE AS HIGH as 2024. This is a LOT of chapters. It’s also the reason I’m capable of forgiving myself for letting the word count slip a little. 2025 was just an editing year for me, I guess.
• Sold 256 books
  • I tracked this number for the first time in 2024 and this year is higher. Best I can hope for, I guess. 

So what needs to happen in 2026?

I need to proofread that Romance one more time and make a decision on publishing it. That means getting it (and all the many publication steps) onto the official publishing schedule or scrapping the project. This decision will likely be first up in January, since I’ve been working on the project for a while. 

Fully edit the Apocalypse Project. Multiple times. With a professional. 

Then the Apocalypse Project will get on that publishing schedule. This will likely happen after the first round of edits when I know how much we’re keeping vs scrapping. This one WILL be available, likely in 2026.

Fully draft the entire Superhero Trilogy. This is a loft goal for myself. I’m talking about fully zero drafting 3 entire books. But I feel like the trilogy needs to be drafted together one after the other to keep up the momentum. 

Fully draft at least 1 other idea. Maybe. I don’t know. This is one I’m willing to scrap because of the weight of that last one. I do have 3 finished outlines though and I’d really like to get those moving.

I have 3 current ideas that I either need to outline or scrap. I’d like the goal to be to get ALL of those decisions made in 2026. 

I’m going to drop the blog post expectation down to 2. I’m sure there will be months were I post MORE than that, but I don’t want to stress myself by requiring it, if that makes sense. 

Basically, 2025 was an EDITING year. It stands to reason, then, that 2026 needs to be a drafting year in order to keep my momentum moving in the right direction beyond this year. 

Here’s all of that in an easy to manage graphic:

So, that’s the rundown. I managed to make a lot of progress and we’ll keep up that momentum (and more) in 2026. Hang out, make sure you’re following the blog for updates, and let’s do this thing!