Writing Wrap-Up, Writing Intentions

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

It's that time of year again, where I look back at this year and forward into the next. And what a year 2025 has been! I met my husband and got married, moved out, travelled, figured out many things, revived a writing society with my mom, and started a bi-weekly writing meetup, mostly to get my own butt in gear. 

Of my 2025 writing intentions, I have:

• written for LofM, but not 100 words, and not monthly
• written more book responses
• read 12+ books, but not solely ones I already own and haven't read before
• set up a substack
• joined (started) a writing group
• attended 1+ writing group meetings

That is, frankly, a little pitiful. The problem is...I wrote my 2024 intentions and almost immediately forgot about them after posting. So this year, I need to scale it way down and also log my intentions in my journal and on my phone and wherever else would be helpful to remind me about them.

2025 Writerly Accomplishments

Before I get too hard on myself, let's acknowledge and celebrate some unplanned wins!

1. I wrote a zero draft 2.0 for LofM Vol. 1 (aka SPD), filling in major and minor plot holes and streamlining the story further
2. Decided to write it in first person, which suddenly unlocked a lot of momentum with this wip.
3. Renamed Halah and Sirin to better reflect the plot and its inspirations. Halah is now Shahira, nicknamed Hira, and Sirin is now Intisar.
4. Came up with a contemporary romance story idea mere days before meeting the man I ended up marrying six months later
5. Wrote a poetical snippet
6. Wrote another one
7. Wrote a bit of Rivener 2.0
8. Played around with the idea of making Rivener 2.0 about faeries (the scary kind, not the sparkling pixie kind) but still make it an apocalyptic fantasy in the vein of Annihilation (2018)
9. Read and reviewed Robin McKinley's Deerskin
10. Wrote a drabble inspired by art
11. Got back onto tumblr
12. Wrote a short story about a fox, inspired by a tiktok
13. Shared LofM's current preface and some updates
14. Decided I didn't need an original character in Oracle, my Alice in Wonderland isekai retelling, when I could just make her the Cheshire Cat instead! I feel very excited about this development
15. Met with and asked to interview an author
16. Planned several literary events for Sakina Literary Society of the Arts
17. Planned several more for 2026
18. Started and added to my writing instagram
19. Joined a discord writing sprint group
20. wrote 10k of SPD!
21. submitted my children's fable to a publishing company!

Well, would you look at all those not at all pathetic accomplishments! I'm proud and thankful I managed to do all this in the same year that everything else happened, and feel much better about myself as a writer and creative.

Writerly Intentions for 2026

I'm going to try and keep this really, really simple...(famous last words).

1. Try to get an entire first draft of SPD complete! Even if it's crappy! But at least get past the first 3 chapters
2. Write 12 short stories/drabbles/prompt fills
3. Write a book review for every book I read that isn't for storytime at work. (Subgoal: read 20 books that aren't for storytime at work)
4. Consistently host writing meetups (barring in Ramadan, when we'll take a short break) even though hardly anyone attends
5. Continue to spread the word about my writing group despite the pervasive sense of failure and embarrassment at the lack of immediate success with it
6. Edit and then reshare October Odds
7. Query PCR and send it out to 5 places/people
8. Grow newsletter subscribers by 5
9. Submit to a contest or magazine

Here's to hoping I can accomplish this and more! I hope you've all had a fantastically creative year and have an even better new year. ♥︎
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Happy holidays and, as always, happy reading and writing 𓂃🖊