Last month, I recapped the best and worst of 2024. Now I’m moving on to what I hope 2025 will bring. Dare I hope for a completed first draft of a novel? Dare I hope for a submission-ready manuscript of my long-worked-on epic fantasy novel?

These are big goals. On the other hand, aiming for comfortable milestones feels like settling for too little. Perhaps, I’ll marry the wishful with the possible and promise to forgive myself at the end of the year if I haven’t achieved all I planned.

That’s a trap I don’t wish to fall into again.

I never forgive myself when I set too lofty goals and always feel wretched by the end of it. This year, I’ll try to be realistic. I’m hoping to write the first draft of a new novel and finish the last (much lighter) rewrite of my epic fantasy project (Yes, I know. Last year I already said it was the last rewrite, but this time it really is!).

That’s it. Anything else related to main projects would be a bonus, and it’s not even on the list.

I have some smaller, writing-adjacent goals that, it’s reasonable to assume, I can fit in between. I hope to have one more learning-the-craft stint after my last one in the fall. I’m also looking forward to meeting a dear friend at the Milford retreat in May, as well as some of the lovely writers I got to know at the workshop last September.

Also, I’m aiming to read more. Not only is it essential for my craft, but, oh, to sink into a good book! I’ve allowed myself the luxury far too rarely. But I hope to make more space for writing and reading (when I’m not at my day job) by getting better at compartmentalizing chores and appointments to certain times of the day and days of the week and by letting go of less necessary tasks. (Yes, less necessary tasks; I’ve already purged the unnecessary ones out of my far-too-full life). Last year, I wasn’t particularly good at protecting my reading and writing times. I need to do better this year.

Most of all, what I hope for is to write, write, write—without distractions, without getting marred in complicated revisions (I’m still not a plotter, but I’ve learned the merit of letting an idea cook), without overthinking it too much (which differs from letting an idea cook).

And so it begins.

Again.