2025 is approaching… How did I do this year?

At the start of each year, I like to look back and see what I’ve achieved. It’s always so easy to lose sight of one’s accomplishments when life gets busy, and most of the time, I focus on the things that are still on my to-do list. Which I guess isn’t a bad thing. It means I’m constantly moving forward. But I’m not a fast writer, and sometimes it feels like I’m making no progress at all! And then I get frustrated because there are still so many stories I haven’t even plotted yet.

This year also felt like a pretty slow writing year. In 2023, I had managed to publish one book, drafted and revised Book 1 in my new series, and had even started with Book 2. You could say that I’d been on a roll! And so at the start of 2024, I set the following goals:

1. I want to finish Book 1 of my trilogy (i.e. revise again and hire an editor to help with the rest) and hopefully publish it as well.
2. I want to finish writing Book 2, revise it and send it off for feedback.
3. I want to write the first draft of Book 3.

Now, the year is almost over with less than two weeks to go. Have I achieved those goals? Sort of. After starting with Book 2 in December 2023, I finished the first draft in February 2024. Though that draft was an incomplete one. I had to stop because I had just received feedback on my Book 1 from my alpha readers and though their responses were all around positive, they gave me so many new ideas. I knew I had to revise Book 1 more heavily than I had thought because those ideas were just fantastic.

From mid-February to mid-August, I revised and rewrote and edited Book 1. And the more I changed, the bigger mess I was creating. I felt like I was solving a puzzle where the pieces kept changing shape, and I grew frustrated because the draft I’d sent off to my alpha readers had been good. Why did I have to tinker with it so much? Well, because I had realized it could be much, much better.

In mid-August, I sent the latest draft of Book 1 off to two beta readers and switched over to Book 2 again. I still needed to write a good portion of Book 2 because I had left that first draft incomplete, but first I had to revise what I had already written. I finished Draft 2 of Book 2 on November 30th.

I have not started on Book 3, except for some light plotting. I’d already written a detailed synopsis back when I was planning out the trilogy, but because Book 1 changed so much, most of what I already had no longer makes sense. I’ve been working on a new plot for two weeks now, and I might start writing Draft 1 of Book 3 before the new year rolls around.

So, yeah, I haven’t quite achieved my goals. I still have to make final revisions to Book 1 and then hire an editor before I can publish it. Book 2 needs one more round of revisions before it’s ready for alpha readers, and I’m only just starting on Book 3. I hadn’t anticipated how much time I’d spent on Book 1 this year, and it shifted around everything else.

For 2025, I’ll continue working on my goals to finish this trilogy.

1. I want to finish and publish Book 1.
2. I want to revise Book 2 with the help of some feedback and get it ready for an editor.
3. I want to write Book 3 and revise it at least once.

Will I be able to achieve all that? I guess we’ll see about that—next year!