2024 Wrap-Up & Goals for 2025

Happy New Year (just a little early, for those of us in the U.S.)! As 2024 comes to a close and we embark on 2025, the time has come for my annual post of reflection and new goals. Not interested in looking back with me? Jump to the section of 2025 goals for an idea of what to expect from Scribes & Archers in the coming year.

2024: An Overview

2024 has been a year of the unexpected–and, in some ways, a year of disappointment. The attempted launch of the Worldbuilders Guild didn’t go as planned, my timeline for Thunder went very much awry, my husband and I left the church we’d been attending since before we were married, Realm Makers wasn’t quite what I’d expected it to be, etc., etc. Come to think of it, it’s kind of no wonder I hit creative burnout for a large chunk of the year. A lot of the more “ethereal” goals I’d set for the year took a pretty big hit, as a result–relationships and spiritual disciplines in particular.

But it has by no means been a bad year. There have been a great many blessings and accomplishments, as well. My husband and I have found a new, much healthier church to attend; I’ve completed two book-length projects and two short stories, and made progress on other projects that just haven’t come to full fruition yet; I’ve interacted with a lot of amazing authors; I’ve gotten to spend time with long-distance friends; etc. (One of the biggest blessings, I’ll share in the final section of this post!) Despite all the difficulties, God has been beyond faithful in blessing the lives of me and my family, as well as my endeavors in the writing sphere, and I look forward to seeing what He accomplishes in the coming year as well.

2024: Goals in Review

Open the Worldbuilders Guild for enrollment

For those of you who don’t know, I have a worldbuilding mentorship program called the Worldbuilders Guild in development! Worldbuilding-focused coaching is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but I didn’t have a functional setup for it until after I got married. As soon as I realized I finally had an open opportunity, I dove straight into figuring out the structure and content… and unfortunately dove a little too far, a little too fast. I quickly learned during the beta-testing that the structure I had set up wasn’t sustainable during seasons in which I had less energy to keep up with it, so I’ve been revising the plan to ensure that I can deliver on the Guild’s core purpose regardless of how I’m feeling. But, sadly, I was not able to open the Guild for public enrollment this year and have had to postpone it until a bit later.

Do 4+ blog collabs

Worldbuilding Lessons from a History Major – Guest post by Cate VanNostrand“Graduating YA” collaborative series

I also participated in two freebie swaps via my newsletter! If you missed them and want to make sure you don’t miss any future freebie swaps, sign up to the newsletter below!

Finish the 1st draft of my worldbuilding book and send it to betas

While I did finish the first draft of what is now titled Building a World with a View, it has not yet been sent to betas–and will undergo some editing on my own end before it is sent out.

Finish the 1st draft of Thunder

Thanks to the fall FicFrenzy event and a November writing event in another writing group I’m part of, I was able to complete Thunder‘s first draft in mid-November!

Attend Realm Makers

I did make it to Realm Makers this year! You can refer to my recap post for my overall thoughts on that experience.

While I did not query Lightning to any publishers while I was there, I did query with Twenty Hills Publishing shortly after Realm Makers. While I received a full request, Lightning was ultimately turned down–which is for the best, as it wasn’t really ready to be queried yet and I don’t think Twenty Hills would actually be the best fit for it, either. That said, I’m grateful to have had the experience!

Start a new novel draft

I didn’t end up starting anything new, as Thunder took longer than expected–in part due to burnout, which also didn’t help the appeal of any new projects. But I ended up completing the first drafts of two full books and two short stories this year, so I don’t think the lack of a freshly started novel was any great loss, lol.

Reopen my editing services

I did promote my editing services more intentionally this year, with the result of one query that ended up delayed for later (on the author’s part), an editing swap with another editor to gauge whether we would be compatible for referrals, and a query for early 2025. While I would have liked the opportunity to work with more authors this year, I am grateful for the opportunities that did arise!

Read 52 books

I accomplished this on Christmas! My family gave me Unventing Language by Kristen Stieffel, Strange Planet by Nathan W. Pyle, and Just Stab Me Now by Jill Bearup and I read all three of them within the same day (in my defense, the first two were quite short/quick to read), which bumped me up to 52 reads for the year.

Crochet a garment

I crocheted my first cardigan this year! I also ended up making many more adjustments to the pattern than I had expected when I started (I’d expected to simply crop a longer cardigan pattern, but it ended up needing greater adaptation, and there were some issues of cut that I just wasn’t a fan of and worked to adjust), so I’m pretty proud of that project. I also have a second shawl/cardigan thing in the works, but it’s been much more detailed and slower-going.

Write a short story in French

This did not prove a high enough priority to be accomplished. In fact, my overall French study has fallen behind where it was, though I’ve managed to maintain a 300-day+ Duolingo streak despite that.

Attend an Andrew Peterson concert

Attend Hutchmoot

Neither of these happened this year. As far as I can tell, Hutchmoot was located in the UK this year, so there was no making that happen even if the timing had worked out, lol.

Visit the Library of Congress

Visit the Wayside

These, too, ended up pushed off ’til next year. (For those who don’t know, The Wayside was the home of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriett Lothrop/Margaret Sidney, and Louisa May Alcott, at various times.)

2025: Concrete Goals

Open the Worldbuilders Guild for enrollment

While this won’t happen until the fall–if it happens this year–I want to at least aim for this and make great progress toward it this year. My hope is that full enrollment is open by January 2026 at the absolute latest. (More on the timeline of this–and other projects–the “2025: general hopes” section.)

Get Building a World with a View fully polished for publication

Now that the first draft is done, I’m excited to go back and fill in gaps, edit where needed, and send off this book for its first round of feedback in the spring! Beyond that, I have a full month-by-month plan for this book that should have it polished for publication–though not published–by the end of 2025. But, as always, plans can change, so I hold the timeline loosely.

If you’re interested in beta-reading the book, join the street team below!

Edit the Lightning duology and send it to beta readers

Again, I have a month-by-month timeline for this that may or may not prove reliable. However, I’m particularly excited to dive into the worldbuilding for this series and shore up that element of the duology in preparation for story-specific edits!

If you’re interested in beta-reading this, you can find the opportunity for that through the street team above, also.

Finish and release a reformatted edition of The Mirror-Hunter Chronicles

The formatting of the current edition of The Mirror-Hunter Chronicles is… not great. I started this reformatting project early in 2024, and in fact almost finished it. The only problem is that KDP won’t print the grayscale cover pages quite straight or (as a result) quite all the way to the edge of the page. As this is quite overdue, however; the error is slight; and even with the small error this formatting is way better than what’s currently available; I intend to just figure out which proof copy has the cover pages closest to perfect and move forward with that file. So this should be available early in 2025.

Do 4+ blog collaborations

I have a couple of collaborations halfway planned ahead, but if you’re interested in exchanging posts or doing some other type of collaboration together, feel free to reach out via my contact page!

Get my books stocked at a local bookstore

My husband and I have a particular favorite local bookstore that (sometimes, at least) accepts books from local authors, and it would be super cool to get my books in stock there. I just have to get over myself to make an appointment to pitch them to the owner, lol.

Guest post on Kingdom Pen

I’ve guest posted on Kingdom Pen a number of times, and I always enjoy the process, so I’d like to guest again in the coming year.

Start a new novel (or short story collection)

Now that I’m moving into the editing stage with both my current book projects (the Lightning duology and Building a World with a View), I’m more seriously turning my attention toward something new to draft. This may end up being an existing project that I pick back up (such as the Dark War Trilogy), or something I haven’t started drafting yet. I’m also intentionally leaving open the option of focusing on a short story collection, in case that ends up being more doable for this season than a full novel.

Write 5 new short stories

This will include a story for the secret Santa short story swap I participate annually, as well as a short story/novella related to a published project and possibly a brand new short story for submission to an anthology. If I work on a short story collection, I may well exceed this number, but we’ll see how things shake out.

Write an essay about the phoenix

I have a recurring interest in the mythological phoenix and the historical context surrounding it, and I have a full outline already for an essay I’d like to write about the phoenix, its color, and its potential connection to the feathered serpents that crop up in mythologies around the world–just for fun. If I do get this written in the coming year, I plan to publish it on my (very sporadically used) mythology-focused blog Splintered Fragments.

Read 52 books

Attend an Andrew Peterson concert

Visit the Library of Congress

Visit Monticello

I haven’t been to Monticello since I was a very small child too young to remember it, so I’d like to revisit it now that I’m old enough to appreciate the experience.

Visit The Wayside

2025: General Hopes

While I have a lot of goals set for 2025 and a lot I’d like to accomplish–and even plans for how to accomplish those goals–I’m holding all of my plans quite loosely because I know a great portion of next year, especially from the summer onward, will be somewhat unpredictable. Why? Because my husband and I are expecting our first baby in June! We’re very excited, and look forward to seeing what this new season holds–but, of course, it throws all of the writing plans that I tend to share up in the air. I’m already planning to take a summer-long hiatus from writing and blogging surrounding the baby’s birth (hence the Guild’s expected fall launch), and my editing timelines are planned out in such a way that the least attention-demanding tasks fall during the summer. The remainder of this winter and spring will likely go as they would in any previous year, so my plans for that season are more concrete; anything after the summer hiatus, I’ll be playing by ear and doing my best to set expectations for as the time arrives.

My overall hopes are generally to accomplish what I can, release what I can’t, and enjoy my family and its growth as the second-most important thing. As the first most important thing, I want to renew my spiritual disciplines with more, well, discipline, as I’ve been easily distracted for much of this year and I want to be more faithful in the coming year. Which is maybe the best focus word for me in 2025: Faithfulness.

How was your 2024? What are you looking forward to in 2025? Do you have any exciting goals or plans for the year?

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