Okay, I was shocked to realize that my last writing update was in May 2025. Whoops. But to be fair, life is unpredictable, and as I mentioned in my Thanksgiving Post, 2025 was a hard year. Plus, my other commitments—namely those that my financial livelihood depend on at the moment—took up a lot of my time and energy throughout the summer and fall.

So, did I accomplish any writing in the second half of 2025? Well, I didn’t complete another major edit of any draft last year, as I thought I would in my May 2025 update. I made stops and starts on writing work. Spent some time brainstorming. Experimented with alternate openings to the first book. Reread Harry Potter, which sparked some thought exercises about how to build a cohesive series. Printed out my current draft of The Myth-Keepers Book 1 and made some comments on the first few chapters, with a hope to read through the entire hard copy. And I wrote a prequel-esque Christmas short story, “Gift of the Phoenix,” and decided to publish that on my blog in December. In short, I ended 2025 disappointed with my progress and lack of hitting certain goals, though writing all that I did last year here (and knowing how full my plate was last fall) makes me appreciate that I still moved forward, even if it feels more like I stood still.

Nothing is wasted, after all, and to be honest, letting myself take a break at the end of December (instead of trying to push through a major revision of the first Myth-Keepers book while I was off of school) was rejuvenating. It helped me solve some problems. And writing a Christmas short story? Just more practice with writing Aria’s voice and personality.

So, what are my hopes for 2026? To be honest, I feel wary about setting a long-term goal. I would like to publish The Myth-Keepers. But I’m also trying to let go of the need to use every waking moment for productivity. Also, in a season where my capacity is in flux from one semester to the next, setting a year-long vision for my fiction writing just sets me up for that end-of-year disappointment. Life is too unpredictable right now in terms of what margin I’ll have, as different classes vary in how demanding or draining they are. Even though there are definitely moments when I wish it could be different, fiction writing can’t be my priority. Not when I have a degree to finish, classes to take and to teach, and need to rest so I don’t burn out.

My next goal, then, is simple. I want to refresh my series outline for The Myth-Keepers to apply what’s fresh on my brain, i.e. what I picked up on about a long-term plan for a series from reading Harry Potter again. That’s the first step, and one I feel fairly confident about completing by the end of January.

After that, I’d like to revise The Myth-Keepers Book 1 again, with this vision in mind. As a very tentative, loose, and small (for me) goal, my hope is that Book 1 is in a pitch-able form by the end of the year. I would like to try the traditional route with it before considering the indie option. But priority one: retooling those outlines and revising Book 1.

I’m going to start with my Book 1 revisions in a weird way, too. Instead of restarting at the beginning, I’m going to do some rewrites of the last third-ish of the book and focus on nailing down my climax for the first novel. My beginning few chapters are fairly solid and polished, but I need an end point to meaningfully build towards. Then, I can solve the middle problems: balancing introducing the fantasy world elements and setting up for the final act of the novel. By starting with the final part of the book, I believe it will help me from getting bogged down by the mushy middle. Once I know where I’m going, I can prune the in-between stuff. Besides, I always feel like my endings are a bit flabby and lazy because I rush through them, so eager to get to the end of the project. Maybe this will be the fresh jumpstart I need.

Also, I would like to keep up with the blog in some form. But it’s definitely a lower priority, especially since I’ve written a lot of content for it already. I’ll aim for 1 post a month, particularly as I have some ideas for a series of content I might be able to produce in batches and schedule out. I do also want to hit my traditional yearly posts too: Easter, Thanksgiving, Reading Recaps, and maybe 2 more writing updates for the year. If there’s anything in particular you’d be interested in reading, feel free to drop a comment.

That’s all for now. I’m off to go revise a novel.