Just for fun, I decided to take a look at my writing journey in 2025 and discuss how I’m going to improve throughout 2026. Spoiler alert: I’ve already made leaps and bounds over the past few weeks to make this year amazing. So, what writing accomplishments did I make in 2025?
Since I keep track of everything I do in a spreadsheet, it’s easy to go back and look at what I’ve written. One of these days, I’ll build a desktop app or browser tool to do the same thing. But for now, I use LibreOffice Calc.
Before I get started, I want to note that celebrating all of your accomplishments is crucial to success. Even the small goals can help build self-confidence, a cornerstone of being a successful writer or blogger.
Always celebrate your wins.
Published Shadows of Atlantic City
As a writer, my most proud achievement in 2025 was publishing Shadows of Atlantic City. Although I was aiming to have it published back in 2024, I’m simply glad that I finally wrapped up the book.
Two of the reasons why it took well beyond my initial release date were major life-changing events and a touch of procrastination. Things get quite difficult when you’re bouncing back and forth with depression.
Nonetheless, Shadows is easily my best book to date, and I’m looking forward to continuing the saga. So, yes, I have two series going on at the same time – a dark fantasy and a dark western.
This is my third book that has been self-published. I prefer self-publishing as it gives me the freedom to write whatever I want, not what sells. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see Shadows become a best-selling novel. But that will require a lot more marketing than I’m doing at the moment.
What’s Next?
At the time of this post, I am wrapping up the final few chapters of Fury, the sequel to Kingmaker. It’s a much longer book, so hopefully we can get it edited and published before the year ends.
Since one of my goals is to crush the time I spend working on novels this year, I’m sure it’ll be out around Halloween.
Attended 4 Book Events as an Author
In 2025, I attended four events as an author. I started the year on a panel for Worldbuilding 101, where I talked about writing realistic dialogue. I was joined by Marisa Cardin and Maddie Bluhme on the panel, and it was one of the funnest experiences I’ve had as an author.
I also attended Read Between the Stars for the second year in a row at the Stanley Marketplace. It was a great venue, and I’d love to set up a table there again in the future.
In reality, I’ve sold more books at in-person events than I ever have online. Again, a lot of that has to do with a lack of marketing. I just haven’t spent a lot of time pushing my books as I should. Regardless, I love meeting people face-to-face and talking about books.
My goal for 2025 was to attend at least three of these events. So, I was able to check that off my list. It was one of the few goals that I hit for the year, but it was probably one of the more important.
What’s Next?
My goal for 2026 is to attend at least seven events. I’m already reaching out to folks about setting up a table at the breweries, but I’d like to do something a bit larger. We’ll have to see, but I have some work to do on my table design and setup.
4.0 GPA Undergrad Student at CU
In September of 2025, I restarted my bachelor’s degree. The credit hours I earned back in 2002 from Westwood wouldn’t transfer because Westwood wasn’t a regionally accredited school. So, 25% of my degree was flushed.
I’m currently studying for a bachelor’s in Creative Writing and then immediately moving into the master’s program. The plan is to continue my education until I finish with a PhD, all with a minor in anthropology.
I would easily call this a major development in my writing journey. What I’ll learn over the next decade or so will only make my content better. And I’m not just talking about from the perspective of writing fiction.
The first semester opened my mind to a few new tactics and critical thinking techniques I wouldn’t have thought to Google. That’s the point of an education, really. Despite having a decade of experience, there is always something to learn that makes you more valuable to both yourself and others.
What’s Next?
Currently, I’m a part-time student. I would love to get my side projects to a point where I can attend full-time, but alas, I have a slew of bills to pay. Regardless, I plan on continuing and putting maximum effort into keeping my 4.0 GPA.
406,721 Words as a Blogger & Essays
In 2025, I recorded 406,721 words as a blogger, which includes the essays I wrote for school. I want to see if I can turn them public-facing, as I covered some interesting topics.
I am somewhat disappointed in myself, though. This is only 1,114 words per day, which is a fraction of what I’m capable of doing. But I can’t be too hard on myself. A lot of what I do on a daily basis doesn’t involve a lot of writing nowadays.
For instance, I spend about the same amount of time putting together a video as I do publishing a blog post. The result is a fraction of the written word count. And my primary job has me shifted more to editing and managing rather than writing.
Between the chaos and personal events (including slacking off and a mild bit of depression), I just didn’t put much effort in 2025 into writing blog posts. Still, almost half a million words isn’t all that bad in the grand scheme of things.
What’s Next?
One of my goals in 2026 is to hit the one-million-word count. I haven’t done that in about a decade, and would love to see if I still have the drive to write that much. Keep in mind, this is all while juggling everything else I have going on.
15,111 Words as an Author
I didn’t get to spend as much time as an author as I would have liked. Most of the 15,111 words I wrote last year were edits to Shadows of Atlantic City. I put a bit of time into trying to wrap up Fury at the end of the year, but it wasn’t much.
What’s funny is that I’ve written almost half of that by the second week of January in 2026.
When editing your book, you’re usually not going to add a lot of words. In fact, I know a lot of authors whom I’ve interviewed who wind up removing entire chapters from the finished draft. I write light, which means I’ll add more details in subsequent versions.
I want to get the story out and then polish it up afterward.
Since the novels really don’t pull in much money, they are usually put on the back burner to work on side projects that do. Usually, it’s for the blogs or perhaps the YouTube channel. I make almost eight times more as a blogger than I do selling my books.
So, I didn’t put a lot of time into 2025 as a published author.
What’s Next?
With the writing goals I’ve set for 2026, I should have plenty of time to write more often. I’m focusing on time management, removing bad habits I’ve developed over the years, and pushing time-based goals as an author.
In other words, I’m aiming to put more time in throughout the year working on my books, editing, attending book events, and marketing.
32,486 Words as a Video Creator
I often write scripts or bullet points for my YouTube videos. I’m not very good at just winging it, and I’m always worried I’m going to forget a solid point for the topic.
Lately, I’ve been using the blog posts as the scripts. Then, I’ll embed the video into the blog once it goes live.
I don’t foresee the videos adding a lot to the wordcount throughout the year. In reality, I’m surprised I wrote more than 30,000 words in general. But that might change, depending on where I want to take the YouTube channel.
And, I’m debating on doing some more writing for the gaming and fitness channels as well.
What’s Next?
I’m trying to get more time for uploading videos. The channel was bringing in more money than the blogs, but I haven’t been all that consistent. In fact, for the time I put into creating content, I get paid almost five times more for videos than blog posts.
Plus, I plan on writing some screenplays this year and using some of them to upload live-action scenes from my books.
Making 2026 a Banner Year
All things considered, it wasn’t a terrible year for being a creator and author. My latest book is easily my best, I am doing great in college, and I have a solid plan of what to change going into the new year based on my shortcomings of the last.
That’s what it’s all about, really. Don’t dwell on the coulda, shoulda, wouldas of the past. Instead, learn from those mistakes to improve your chances for success.
While my writing journey in 2025 might not have been exactly how I wanted it to go, it laid the groundwork for having one of my best years to date. That is, as long as I can maintain momentum.
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