My 2025 Goals (& 2024 Recap)

Welcome to February!

Every year, I enjoy sharing my goals for the upcoming months, and while I typically do that in January, I’m just now getting around to organizing my author side of 2025. The year has started off with a whirlwind, and I’m honestly thankful for it, even the hard. I tend to be overly ambitious in what I think I can accomplish in a year, and the reminder that life happens on God’s schedule – not mine – was very needed.

2024 was a lot. A lot of hard, a lot of good, and a lot of learning, as you’ll get a glimpse of in the recap below and in a post coming soon where I share more details of some of those lessons. I’m so grateful for new friends, close family, my dear husband, our sweet kitties, good coworkers, and of course, God’s guiding hand throughout it all. Life looks different than I expected it to by now, and that’s okay.

So with that in mind, as I look back over 2024’s goals, and share some of my hopes for 2025, I’m doing so with the knowledge that things can and will change. Of course I have dreams, and I’m going to do what’s in my power to accomplish these projects, but only the Lord knows what will be different by 2026! When I let go of my need for control, that’s honestly such an exciting thought.

And we know that for those who love God
all things work together for good,
for those who are called according to his purpose.
~ Romans 8:28 ESV

While I’m taking that verse to heart, let’s dive in!

How did my 2024 goals go?

Great question! Let’s review…

Publish Gills

Starting off with an obvious no, this did not happen. Like I said, 2024 hardly went as I planned, and with the writing/editing/publishing of A Noble Grace, I didn’t make much progress on this Cabin Girl prequel. I have started re-reading it and making some editing notes this month though! I’ve missed this story.

Publish secret novel

This secret novel was A Noble Grace! Obviously this one did happen, releasing on October 29th, 2024. The reception has been so much kinder than I anticipated, especially as this book was a huge struggle for me. I learned so much, and am so grateful for the opportunity, even though I didn’t handle it as I should’ve. It’s been 100% worth it. Thank you so much for the encouragement and support throughout!

Share another secret project

This one didn’t pan out, which has been another learning experience. I might share about it at some point, but for now, I can simply say that I attempted to branch out in my creative outlets before I was ready, and though I don’t currently have the skillset for it, I’m thankful to have had the chance to try.

Write and publish a short story

No, although I’m getting very close on this one! More information on this in my 2025 goals…

Draft NaNoWriMo novel

Again, no. After cranking out A Noble Grace between August and October, I didn’t have the mental energy to even attempt this, haha. I’m learning to be a bit more flexible with my writing schedule.

Update author photos and bios

“This is a small thing, so it should be doable,” 2023 Bella said. Haha, no again. I did revamp my website though, and am pretty happy with it for now! Hopefully this gets done in the next few months.

Read 75 books

No, but I read 40! I was so stressed by my procrastination and slow progress on A Noble Grace for most of the year, that I did possibly the worst thing for my creativity and basically stopped reading for a few months. Even so, I found many new favorites, and got to read a lot more indie books, which I loved!

Continue to better my health

This is vague, but I believe I did? Not as much as I would have liked – that never happens – but I’ve made conscious efforts to listen to my body. The Lord blessed me with a huge victory last June, when I attended a week-long conference in Kansas, and was able to manage my migraines well enough to truly enjoy it. Even with extremely long train travel days, lots of walking and driving around, long days, less sleep, different food… I’m so thankful, and while I know it was God holding back the worst of the migraines (the ones I did have were manageable), I was much more intentional about caring for them than I usually am, and it’s encouraging to know I can make a difference.

Guest post/collaborate with other authors

This…didn’t really happen unfortunately. As you probably noticed, I didn’t really blog at all last year, much less coordinate guest posts. I would still like to do this if the opportunity arises, but I think I know better now than to assume I’ll do a lot of these this year.

Blog, post on social, and send out newsletters consistently

Depending on the month, I did decently with this. Some months had near daily Instagram and Facebook posts/reels, some had more frequent blog posts, some had newsletters going out more frequently. It wasn’t nearly as often in any of them than I hoped for, but it was still better than 2023!

My 2025 GoalsPublish To Buy a Bike

Remember that short story from earlier? While I didn’t publish it in 2024 like I’d hoped, I’m getting very close to releasing this sweet little booklet – tentatively before the end of this first quarter… I had an amazing team of beta-readers go through it last month, and received a lot of great feedback that I’m currently working through. I’ll get to share the cover and more information soon!

Publish Gills

This is familiar, isn’t it? Hopefully this actually happens in 2024, haha. If all goes as planned, this won’t be the only installment added to the Cabin Girl series soon either. Only time will tell!

Write third draft of Forgotten

Forgotten is my YA medieval fantasy novel about hope, friendship, and found family, and I’m aiming to at least finish the third draft of it this year and send it off to some quality editors. This story is so important to me, and I’m realizing that I need to stop procrastinating work on it just because I’m scared to mess it up. I want to be able to share it, and it’s a story that I think will resonate with a lot of people.

Draft a secret project

All I can say about this project is that it’s another fairy tale retelling…and I’m really looking forward to it!

Audiobook!

I won’t say much about this one yet either, since so much still needs to be worked out, but I’m hoping for some exciting audiobook news still this year!

Send out monthly newsletters

More and more (Tiktok drama, anyone?), I’m reminded of just how important newsletters are to authors. Being able to communicate with readers, regardless of other platform’s rules or potential changes, is critical. So while I barely made January’s newsletter (sending it on the last day of the month), I did it! I aim to prioritize them each month. If you’d like to be on that receiving end of news and sneak peeks, sign up HERE!

Blog 2-4 times monthly

I missed blogging semi-regularly last year, and I think the practice of sitting down and cranking out words (even non-fiction ones) is so helpful to me. These posts help clear my head, motivate me, remind me of how important connection with other readers and writers is, and doesn’t hurt my online presence either! We’ll see how it goes, but I do have a rough plan outlined for blogging this year.

Read 75 books

I’m shooting for the same goal I’d originally planned last year, but this time I have high hopes! I’m already well ahead of schedule, so even if some months are slower, I think it should even out. If I learned anything from last year’s stress (and I learned a lot), it’s that I need to prioritize keeping my creative well filled. Reading is a huge part of that, as is watching good movies, playing story-based games, and giving myself “empty time” to brainstorm and throw around ideas. Not much good comes from a dry creative well!

Continue to better my health

This will probably be a reoccurring annual goal. I hope so! Every year I discover more helpful tips, and learn more about how my body works and responds to certain situations. Particular health goals this year include doing more weight training, taking more walks with my husband, and prioritizing protein.

Thank you so much for reading! I feel so blessed to be going on this journey with you, and look forward to sharing progress and updates as the year goes on. Your support is so motivating!

What are YOUR goals/hopes/desires for 2025? How are they going so far? What are you most excited for I would love to hear from you, so please feel free to share in the comments below!

Until next time!

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