So we’re near the end of the year now. It’s been a long year for a lot of us, I know I’m feeling the wear and tear from it. Right now I’m holding onto the fragile hope that next year will be better. I’m going to be trying a number of different things with my writing, and a few new health ideas. If anything, last year proved to me that what I’ve been doing isn’t working–on a number of fronts, and working but needs optimized, on other fronts.
Taking stock for 2025.
Career:
What worked: Going back to Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Women’s Fiction was a good thing and I’m happier with my writing.
What worked: I LOVE doing the LitRPG and foresee continuing for a long time.
What didn’t work: My scheduling work hours around other people instead of saying “no” more often, not getting distracted, and getting caught by unexpected onslaughts of extra work (the Otherworld mess). Now, the latter was an unexpected complication that I really couldn’t plan for…but it made me realize I need to be more accountable to myself for my time and–when something like that happens, because there will always be complications–plan out a way to safeguard my time and to pace my releases more evenly.
End Take: I need to plan out my releases to be more evenly spaced and regular. The drop off rate–always a problem, even in trad publishing–has gotten worse and worse and all authors are seeing the fallout from it. (With each release you get a spike in sales. Then, things start dropping off. It used to be that you’d see a six-week window before sales started to drop, now it’s 3-4 weeks). Also, the economic climate is scary for so many people. I have devised a plan for this coming year that should hopefully make it easier to keep track of where I’m at, to get ahead at times, and to feel like I’m keeping my commitments to myself.
Health:
What worked: the Mounjaro has done wonders with my blood sugar. It’s been a game changer and it’s also helped my MCAS.
What didn’t work: I need more movement, even with the chronic pain, and I need to plan out exercise that doesn’t hurt me, that won’t lay me out (no suggestions please, I do know what will work, I just have to do the damned thing). I also truly want to, once again, cut sugar out of my life. I still eat some sugar and it’s no longer something I crave, but it’s habit. So time to eliminate the excess and give myself a few treat days throughout each quarter. I don’t have that many cravings anymore, but habit, habit, habit…
End Take: Accountability, again. To myself. Time to actively think about my eating and my movement instead of going, wait! I forgot my meds today. Or–I really should get up from my desk and move around every hour or so.
I think, at this point–for the sake of the gods, I am going to be 65 next month–I have to quit pantsing life. It’s fine to be a pantser with writing, that’s intuitive, but I ignore my intuition on what I need to do for me, all too often. And that is squarely on my own shoulders. So my phrase for next year:
Reboot, Refresh, and Be Accountable.
What are your thoughts and plans (not resolutions–those usually don’t have planning behind them, to be totally honest) for 2026? What are you focused on?
At 84 years old, I have no real plans. I need to move more, but then who doesn’t? Waking up every morning is a win for me; it means I have another day to be with my family. I want to go on an Alaskan cruise. I want to go back to St. Augustine; I dearly love that city.
I spent this Christmas with my third daughter in South Carolina. I fly home on the 10th of January. Rest a week or two, and then off to visit my second daughter in Kentucky.
I also need to just get up and move. I drive most of the day for my job, I work in hospice and go to patients houses, so I’m going to dig out my old walking DVD and do that at least every other day. Trying to find some wall pilates exercises since getting on the floor is difficult. I need to do this to lose weight.