New Years Resolutions/Annual Writing Goals

Love it. 

• Write/edit every day (one word minimum)
• Finish cyberpunk WIP novel
• Query cyberpunk novel
• Improve day-job income/reduce day-job hours (little bit out of my control as I'm currently an indentured servant dependent on Trump giving me a Green Card, but after that hurdle it should be easy to reduce 80 hours or increase pitiful income) 
• Run every month
• Get at least one freaking story published in a pro-market

Gideon, is your novel plotted/conceptualized? Would love to hear about it.

I think this is a great idea! 

My resolutions for 2025:

1. Write and submit a new story to WotF every quarter
2. Self-publish my YA novel
3. Write a monthly or quarterly newsletter

I'm away travelling for at least half the year, but I think my goals are still doable:

• Beat my submissions total of 43 from last year (I only beat my 2023 total of 41 by making 12 submissions on the 30th and 31st Dec), with at least 32 being short stories and at least 12 poetry.
• Submit to WotF every quarter.
• Write at least three fresh stories.
• I should also send at least one newsletter. I didn't even send one to announce my first sale last year.
• Sell a story.

Hmm, annual goals.  I think i can commit to that.

• Finish the third draft of my novel, get critiques, revise, and (finally) submit somewhere
• Sand off the serial numbers of a story I wrote too quickly for an anthology, get critiques, revise, and submit for Q2
• Submit three more new stories for the remaining 2025 deadlines
• Start submitting to pro publications
• Attempt a non-fiction book that's been kicking around my brain (likely novelette size)

Stretch goals -

• Write a parody for an anthology
• Start a middle grade novel

I second the hmmm

2025 goals:

• Spend more time with my family
• Spend less time with video games
• WotF: Write a new story for each quarter
• Submit older stories (previous HM or above WotF) to other markets
• Continue a novel I've started (horror OR sword and sorcery)

Great idea! My 2025 goals are:

• Write more and find more time to write.
• Read more and find more time to read. 
• Write a novel (first draft).
• Find a home for my WotF stories that received a SHM or HM. Fine tune them, reevaluate what worked and what didn't, trim them down and get them submitted.
• Write a fresh story (probably flash or less than 3,000 words) at least once a quarter. I figure this may be a nice creative outlet alongside writing a novel and editing my "back catalogue" of unsold stories.
• Sell at least one story.
• Get a website.

My 2025 Goals are:

- write a new story every month and enter it somewhere

- write one novel, at least an edited draft

- read, read, read!

- write, write, write!

- build that website I've been meaning to do (I only bought the domain for 10 years )

- win at least one writing contest

Seems like this is going to renew soon. Would love to know how did it work out for you all this year I have begun for next year. mine are simple: finish drafting my novel, submit something new each quarter, and hit at least 50 total submissions in 2026.

I thought I'd bump this - I started it Jan 3 2025. So 1 month left for all of us who 'committed' to 2025 goals.  If you didn't yet make it, this is your reminder for that final push towards the end!

I'll try and do a reminder January 3rd (1 year exactly) to hear any updates - and anyone that didn't post before feel free to join in 😉

Maybe time for all of us to start thinking what we want to achieve in 2026.

Well, I did submit a short story this year. Go me. 

Even fixin to sub a second one! 

My goals are all word count oriented... I'd say I'm happy with 2025's count.

I'll make 2026 a more concrete year of submitting. Yes. I will. 

Regarding the 2025, I did not have any concrete goals until after my Q4 submission. The goals I wanted to achieve were finishing first drafts of at least 2 short stories/novelettes and 1 novella by the end of December. I did start with the novella, but unfortunately, it looks like only one short story will have a draft finished by the end of 2025.  

My goals for 2026:

1. Finish a first draft of at least one novel, ideally before or around my birthday in June.

2. Learn how to revise novels by looking at the first draft of this piece or my first novel (although that one might require a complete rewrite).

3. Have a short story published.

4. Finish a novella.

Try to get my stuff together, submit regularly again and get another HM.

Maybe even read a novel, but let's not get too ahead of ourselves.

@haganenoedward Awesome goals!

If you're writing a novel and short stories, they will totally help each other out. I did my best writing when I was writing both. It's exhausting, but my quality soared. 

Do you have any conditions for the short story sale? Like, can it be flash fiction? Any market? (low/no pay), etc?

Thanks for participating @haganenoedward - and love the goals! Most are process goals (do x, write y, finish z) but the " Have a short story published." which is an outcome goal - just to help you achieve it, and ensure the goal is within your control, you might want to make this a process goal too e.g. submit at least 10 short stories or submit a short every quarter of WOTF or submit one story at least ten times or until it is accepted (whichever is shorter) as the goal " Have a short story published." is also dependent on the publisher accepting it and putting in print and their review and in press time range being within the year - better not to put your goals in someone elses hands

A good reminder especially as there's goal in my control I still haven't done:

• I should also send at least one newsletter. I didn't even send one to announce my first sale last year.

Despite being away travelling for 6 months, I've smashed all my submission and fresh story goals. Just missing a sale, though I did win the Reach Your Apex Weekly Drabble last week (no payment or prize).

@gideonpsmith, regarding the "sell a story" goal, I'm thinking more like having a story accepted by a market. So it doesn't have to be published within the next year. But I'm also thinking about making subgoals, like "send a story to 5-10 different markets or "send a story to x markets". Also, I kinda made progress with this goal, as today I sent my Q4 RWC to another market, after some light edits :D. Wish me luck :D.

Posted by: @tj_knight

↑

@haganenoedward Awesome goals!

If you're writing a novel and short stories, they will totally help each other out. I did my best writing when I was writing both. It's exhausting, but my quality soared. 

Do you have any conditions for the short story sale? Like, can it be flash fiction? Any market? (low/no pay), etc?

I tend to write my shorter stories with a very vague outline. I usually know the beginning and end, or part of the end, when I start writing (in some cases, the ending crystallises in my mind after I've written a few pages), plus maybe one or two plot points. But I never write the outline down, so it can remain more malleable and fit the emerging story (some of my favourite moments in writing actually came from this approach). 
After I finished my Q4 story, I have decided to return to one of my unfinished novels and utilise this "pantsing" approach, but it isn't working nearly as well and after a few pages, I'm once again stuck, despite knowing the ending of the thing. And in general, I find the actual process of writing short stories/novelettes and novels very, very different, at least so far. It helps to practice (my prose, although it feels worse in my recent story, has been improving because of short stories), but they're different beasts.

But what I find immensely fun is to do worldbuilding and characterbuilding for my novels through short stories and novelettes, instead of relying on notes. This way I feel like I cannot go down with the dreaded "worldbuilders' disease", my characters feel to me a lot more natural and it doesn't feel like I have to force and bend my stories to fit restrictions that sometimes might come out of the more "useless" parts of my worldbuilding notes, as those practically don't exist. 

Regarding the story sale, I want to focus on pro and semi-pro markets and want to avoid ones with no pay. And I usually write novelettes, so markets opened to them would be great. But flash fiction isn't something that interests me as an artform, outside of maybe writing workshops where you have to write a story in an hour or two. 

How did I do in 2025? Sadly, not great. 

1. Write and submit a new story to WotF every quarter — sort of. I resubmitted my DQ from Q1, so I only technically wrote three
2. Self-publish my YA novel — not yet
3. Write a monthly or quarterly newsletter — does annual count?

I’m not ready to make goals for 2026. I’ll have to circle back.

I am aiming my goals for 2026:

 I read 113 books in 2025, so I am setting my new goal to 150 books

Force myself to stop altering my short story and send it in. It's written, it's edited, but something just isn't right. Could it be one AI evaluating screener claiming it has body horror in it? Still trying to find that.

Find a publisher interested in a medium length dystopian story that could turn into a series if I keep writing.

Decide whether this works for a description or if I am being too vague?

Ms. Richards’ office stunned me. It was a red and black nightmare. Her desk was black, the shelves were black, and the chairs were black. Everything else was the darkest red I had ever seen. I almost expected to see the infamous raven appear in the corner and state “Nevermore.”  Should I add detail? describe red different?  Does anyone else understand that I was alluding to Edgar Allen Poe?

Research gene splicing and start my space story I outlined 4 years ago and found in the bottom drawer of my daughter's toy box  (don't ask how that happened)

I think these are workable.

Posted by: @stephanie1980

↑

Research gene splicing and start my space story I outlined 4 years ago and found in the bottom drawer of my daughter's toy box  (don't ask how that happened)

I might be able to help with that a little bit, if you want. I work in biomedical research, and have a little experience there. I have my name on a paper where we used gene-editing to successfully treat a rare neurological disorder. They were being very generous by putting my name on it, I mostly did a lot of counting. Hours and hours of counting, but still just pretty mindless work.  I do have a basic understanding of the concept though, since I did a short presentation on the work I did for our group. So feel free to message me with questions, and I'll do my best to answer.

Posted by: @alexh

↑

I'm away travelling for at least half the year, but I think my goals are still doable:

1. Beat my submissions total of 43 from last year (I only beat my 2023 total of 41 by making 12 submissions on the 30th and 31st Dec), with at least 32 being short stories and at least 12 poetry.
2. Submit to WotF every quarter.
3. Write at least three fresh stories.
4. I should also send at least one newsletter. I didn't even send one to announce my first sale last year.
5. Sell a story.

 

Thanks for the reminder a couple of weeks ago, Gideon.

1. SMASHED IT (41 vs 32 stories + 28 vs 11 poems = 69 vs 43 submissions)
2. Done (though my worst set of WotF results since my first couple of years submitting)
3. SMASHED IT (9 fresh stories, all flash or shorter)
4. My first email newsletter is scheduled for tomorrow (I would've forgotten without the reminder here)
5. FAILED (an aim rather than a goal - I'll stick to goals in my control next time)

I'm very pleased given I was away travelling for 6 months. Next year I'll aim for longer fresh stories and a further increase of that submission count.

Posted by: @gideonpsmith

↑

 

Mine:

2025 goals:

                           a. Write zero-draft of one new novel

                           b. Write a new piece (any length) every month and submit it

                           c. Reach 100 rejections for the year

Okay - my final update on the 2025 goals.

a. Write zero-draft of one new novel. - DONE. Currently in next drafting sequence, though I will say even on my computer I labelled the initial draft folder as "Minus one Draft" not "Zero Draft" as it felt so rough lol

b. wrote > 1 new piece every month

c. Reached 124 form rejections and 24 personal rejections. (If you are curious about the full break down - and no reason you should be - but in case its interesting to anyone, you can read it on my blog today https://gideonpsmith.com/2026/01/02/year-in-review-2025-a-year-of-middle-grounds-big-leaps-and-quiet-transformations/ ) Any difference in numbers is because I wrote the blog post two weeks ago or so, so there may be small variations.

Would love to hear from anyone else that made goals here any final update! @ease @annax @kz_richards @alexh @chwalter @toddsjones @joel-c-scoberg

2026 goals:

a. Bring the 2025 Draft "-1" up through all the stages to "Final" and send out.

b. Complete Draft 0 on another new novel

c. Speak on panels at a con (unless something goes horribly wrong - this one should happen as I am on programming for MarsCon - but I was on for Readercon last year and then 'life' happened ie, I quit my job and moved states, so you never know)

d. Write 3 'serious' short stories, specifically aimed at non-WOTF markets

e. Send something out every month. Not aiming for volume this year. Focus has shifted from shorts to longer works.

okay, - keep me accountable, friends

2025 goals Update:

• Spend more time with my family - Success, but need more focus
• Spend less time with video games - Success (I play when on the treadmill mostly now, so double win)
• WotF: Write a new story for each quarter - Quasi-success: 3 out of 4 were new and 1 was a resubmit
• Submit older stories (previous HM or above WotF) to other markets - Success - 44 market submission / a couple are on hold, but mostly rejections.
• Continue a novel I've started (horror OR sword and sorcery) - Failed

2026 goals

• Spend more time with my family
• WotF: Win :), otherwise write a new story for each quarter
• Submit older stories (previous HM or above WotF) to other markets
• Sell my first story to a professional market

For 2026, these are my goals.

1. Write 8 new stories 

2. Submit 50 stories 

3. Read 20 books

4. Self publish my YA novel

5. Update my website 

2026 Goals

1. Beat my 2025 submissions total of 69 (41 stories, 28 poems) by the end of June 2026, then set a goal for the rest of the year.
2. Enter WotF each quarter with at least 2 of those stories being new and of at least 2,000 words.
3. Write at least 8 new flash fictions and at least 4 microfictions (including drabbles).
4. Edit at least 4 old stories into submission circulation.
5. Edit at least 5 old poems into submission circulation.
6. Write at least 3 new speculative poems.
7. Find a critique partner to swap speculative poetry with (is there anyone out there?).
8. Update my website's homepage to include my latest writing publication.
9. Send a second email newsletter, and another if I have publication news to share.
10. Complete/watch at least two of the writing workshops I've paid for (I almost forgot about these, so this is my post's edit).

A would-be-nice that's out of my control assuming I keep submitting:

1. Sell a second story at professional rates or thereabouts and/or place top 3 in WotF.

That looks quite a 2026! This thread kept me accountable for my first ever email newsletter this year (sent on 30th December!) so I'm sure it will again.

Posted by: @chwalter

↑

Hmm, annual goals.  I think i can commit to that.

• Finish the third draft of my novel, get critiques, revise, and (finally) submit somewhere
• Sand off the serial numbers of a story I wrote too quickly for an anthology, get critiques, revise, and submit for Q2
• Submit three more new stories for the remaining 2025 deadlines
• Start submitting to pro publications
• Attempt a non-fiction book that's been kicking around my brain (likely novelette size)

Stretch goals -

• Write a parody for an anthology
• Start a middle grade novel

Hmm...

2025 Annual goals

1. Finished the draft, got critiques, and actually started doing the research necessary to revise last night.  So partially done.
2. Done (RWC).
3. Done (more RWCs).
4. Done (have three pending now, including my Q1).
5. Started this, realized it would take 2-3 times as much work as anticipated, and decided I'd rather devote my energy to fiction writing.

2025 Stretch goals

Didn't do either of these, but I did take advantage of an opportunity.  As I was finishing my Q4, I received notice from my youngest's kindergarten class about their mystery reader program, where most Wednesdays the kids have to guess whose parent will come and read them a story at the end of the day.  When I signed up, I figured, "Why should I read someone else's story?" developed a kid version of my Q4 (calculated at a 1.9 grade level) and illustrated it with Midjourney and a few photos.  The reading seemed to go well.  One of the girls in the class and the teacher wanted their own copies, so I sent PDFs.  My son is pitching his sequel ideas.

2026 Annual Goals

1. Submit the novel.
2. One pro sale.
3. Be open to opportunities.