It’s that time of year again, when the interwebs are flooded with best-of lists and motivational memes. I’m a sucker for all of it and I still strongly believe that setting goals are the only way to get things done. I might add, update or even discard plans as the year inevitably throws some curve balls (as 2025 indeed did), but without that basic to-do list to start with, I’d be lost.
So first up, let’s have a look at how my writerly goals for 2025 panned out.
2025 Primary Goals
Double down on writing time (and use my available time better)
Done! Although to be fair, my huge boost in productivity only became a reality in June, when I was retrenched from my job in IT, along with 50% of my company and everyone in the same job family. I choose to see this as a positive – the gift of freedom I’d been dreaming of for years. As you can see from this nerdy (but pretty) bar chart, not having a full-time job has done wonders for my word count.
Publish Mythical Menagerie Book 3
Done! Myth Maker, the third book in the Mythical Menagerie series is available at all the usual online retailers in e-book, paperback and hardcover format.
Write a monthly flash fiction piece
Done! I wrote a flash fiction story every month this year, originally for my newsletter subscribers, but then I moved it over to my Ream subscription service (see the next point).
Establish a Ream subscription service
Done! Ream is like Patreon for writers, and I moved my monthly flash fiction stories over to that platform for subscribers only.
Setup direct sales on my author website
Nope. Direct sales was such a buzzword at the start of 2024 and everyone seemed to be jumping on the bandwagon. After some investigation and careful consideration, I decided that direct sales was for more mature authors with larger audiences, and I deliberately decided against it – so not a fail!
Release an audiobook
Nope. Like with direct sales, you need to have a larger audience eager for your stories before audiobooks become feasible. I did, however, record all my current flash fiction stories using AI with ElevenLabs and I had the plan of creating audiobooks with that, but due to a technical mistake on my side, that’s not on the cards anymore (at least, not right now). I might use that audio for YouTube later, but we’ll see. And although I think AI audio narration is great – especially for my really short stories – I’m not convinced I want to have my longer novels narrated by AI. I think I’d still rather have a human performance for those, and that remains outside my budget at the moment.
2025 Secondary Goals
Write regular posts on my travel blog and complete the UK 2023 and SA Roadtrip 2024 series
Nope. I started out strong with a few UK posts, but they quickly petered out during the start of the year when I once again realised I didn’t have enough energy for blogging and writing, and writing was more important.
Improve my social media presence with regular posting
Sort of. Like with the travel blogging, my energy levels for social media posting fluctuate and it’s the first thing to drop when I start feeling overwhelmed. Once I’d embraced the full-time writer life, I slowly started blogging and posting again, but I’m still not very consistent with it. While I feel much of the social aspect has disappeared from my favourite platforms (Facebook and Instagram) I do realise that I’ll have to keep making an effort – just for the sake of visibility.
Additionally, I also did the following this year:
- Rebranded the Reverie Flash Fiction series with new covers
- Rebranded the Mythical Menagerie series with new covers
- Drafted the entire Book 4 of the Mythical Menagerie series
- Edited Part 1 of Book 4 of the Mythical Menagerie series
- Completed AI optimisation of my author website
- Started advertising the Mythical Menagerie series on Facebook
- Read 60 books
I’d say 2025 was a pretty successful year for me, looking at those goals! I’m hoping it’s just the start of an unstoppable juggernaut that will bring even more writerly success my way in 2026.
So, what do I hope to achieve in 2026? More writing, of course! And to keep that dream alive, I’m going to have to start earning some money. The retrenchment, combined with a chunky nest egg I had saved up for just such a calamity, has given me the freedom to pursue this dream, but the money won’t last forever. (And let’s face it: money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy plane tickets – and that’s almost the same thing!) To make my author life dream last, I need some income to start flowing in. That will be my primary goal for 2026.
2026 Primary Goals
- Create part-time income / a side-stream business
- Publish Book 4 in the Mythical Menagerie series
- Publish the Mythical Menagerie series boxset
- Translate the Mythical Menagerie series
- Publish the next book in the Reverie Flash Fiction series
- Publish Books 1 and 2 in a new series
- Close my Ream subscription (I’ll talk more about that in a future post)
2026 Secondary Goals
- Publish a Christmas edition of the Reverie Flash Fiction series
- Write 1 standalone short story
- Sell 1 short story professionally
- Complete the UK 2023 and SA Roadtrip 2024 series on my travel blog
What an ambitious list! I think I’d be happy if I only did half of these things but, as always, I’m hopeful and ready to make the most of the year lying ahead. Bring on 2026!
Do you set goals or make New Year’s Resolutions? How did you do in 2025? And what do you have planned for 2026? Let me know in the comments below.
