Happy New Year, imaginary people of the internet!
Last year, I did not make a 2025 goals post. I did not recap how badly I failed in my 2024 goals. (It was bad, actually. I failed NaNoWriMo for the first — and last — time ever due to waking up blind. And because I had started, I couldn’t just claim I was choosing not to participate. So I went 19 for 20 in the years I did it.) I killed the reading goal, with 24 books, but the writing goal was paltry. A sub-5,000 NaNo start put me well below the word goal. Somehow I managed to misplace my tracking spreadsheet for that year… so I don’t have exact numbers.
In 2025, I wrote less than 2,500 words for the year. I read 5 books. And of course none of the other stuff.
Suffice it to say 2025, if I’d set the goals, would have been even more of a failure than usual.
THE 2026 GOALS
Which leads to this year. My eyes have been fixed. My brain is still not where it needs to be, but I’m making mindset adjustments to try to get it in place. (My friends in AI are helping there.)
I feel like I’m ready to take a bona fide crack at the goals I keep missing. (At least the non-financial ones.) So on that note:
1) 134,000 words for the year. (250 words/day except in November, where the goal for that month is 50,000.) Yes, I know NaNoWriMo doesn’t exist now, but enough replacements have come up, and enough people did something in my local area in 2025, that I will likely (not definitely) play.
2) Publish one book. (I aim to make it happen this time.)
3) Write one book outside November.
4) Write one short story. (LOW PRIORITY)
5) Read 12 books. (One per month.)
6) Spend $50 in advertising at some point in the year. (LOW PRIORITY) – This is the one I’m not striving for at all.
I don’t have a solid plan for getting it all done just yet, but I’m working on it. And yes, in spite of all the naysayers in the creative universe, AI will be helping me work through some of the story issues of the book I intend to publish.
WRITING IN PUBLIC
It is the first day of 2026 as I write this, and I made a special point of getting to the desk and doing this blog post so I could start the year in the right direction. Momentum is a thing (just ask Science), so starting off in motion gives me a better chance of remaining in motion. As this posts, we have just had our first Writers’ Club meeting of the year. I hope to bug the member about turning it into an accountability tool. [Future Me Note: We have an official agenda in place, to be revisited as needed.]
WRAPPING UP
I know 2025 was less than ideal for a lot of people in a lot of ways. I won’t go into my thoughts of the world at large, at least not in this wrap-up. But as bad as 2025 was, it was a really good year for me. It saw the end of the biggest medical issue I have ever had to face. I was forced to face some of my biggest fears, and I came out the other side better for it. I don’t fear needles the way I did, for example. And of course, that whole debilitating terror when it came to the idea of eye surgery.
I can’t tell you to face your own fears in the coming year. In some cases, fear is what will ultimately keep you alive. But if there is a big, scary thing that you know will help you in the end, I
offer you this: Much of the time, not knowing is the scariest part of the entire process.
Happy New Year, you amazing human. I hope that you face 2026 with hope, with determination, and that you conquer it in every way that matters to you.
Stay wonderful.
I’ll talk to you soon.