My 2025 Writing Goals
It may not be the start of a new calendar year, but as I’m writing this blog post from Bangkok, ‘Songkran’, or the Thai New Year, has just passed this week so I’m taking it as an opportunity to do some spring-time goal-setting.
Besides, when it comes to writing, I’ve had the same goal at the beginning of every year for as long as I can remember: Write a book.
In the past three years, I’ve written two books, which, as I may have mentioned before, will never see the light of day! The first was a thriller that wasn’t very thrilling, the second was a rom-com that was neither romantic nor particularly funny.
Thus, my first 2025 writing goal needs specification.
Goal #1: Write a good book.
Or at the very least, one I can actually be proud of. Not that I’m not proud of finishing the first two, I absolutely am because they were huge feats themselves. But as my end-goal is to have a fully fledged writing career, I’m far more aware of the importance of both the quality of the writing and the commercial or marketability aspect of a writer and their work now. Thanks to the first two books, at least I know I can get from a blank page to 90,000ish words with some form of a cohesive storyline, and they both taught me a lot about writing, pacing, characterisation, and plotting, along with other writing courses I’ve been on (and am happy to recommend if anyone’s interested!), and further books I’ve read on craft, namely: On Writing, by Stephen King, Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, by Jessica Brody, and The Art of Writing Fiction, by Andrew Cowan, but as I learn more and more about the world of publishing, it’s a business at the end of the day. Which not only means that the book has to be well-written to be in a position to compete with what’s currently on the market, but there also has to be a market for the book. Something I didn’t pay too much attention to whilst writing the first two manuscripts.
So my first goal this year is to write a good book, one I hope will be good enough to achieve my second goal.
Goal #2: Get a literary agent.
Again, a lot easier said than done, and something that, unlike the writing of the book, is somewhat out of my control. Sure, I can write the best book I can, polish my pitch package (usually a cover letter, a synopsis, and either the first three chapters or 10,000 words depending on the agent/agency), write the greatest synopsis in history (usually a one-page outline of the entire story from start to finish which is as, if not more difficult, than it sounds), and follow the submission guidelines to a tee, but reading being the subjective experience it is, that still doesn’t guarantee that an agent would offer representation. Even if they ultimately liked the writing, there could be a number of other factors that would prevent them from making an offer, such as whether or not they’re currently expanding their list of clients, whether they already represent a similar writer with similar work, or if they felt that the chemistry between them and the author just wasn’t there.
With all that being said though, it can be done.
And when I’ve written the best possible version of the story, I’ll be submitting my manuscript to a carefully curated list of agents in the hopes of landing one!
Goal #3: Get a book deal.
Now, this may be an ambitious one for 2025 simply knowing the timelines of the publishing industry, but I’m putting it out there nevertheless. Though if the chances of securing a literary agent is 1 in 1,000, a few zeroes could be added to that for the chances of getting a book deal, too. I’m also under no illusions that this is the be all and end all of having a successful writing career but a first step in getting your work out into the world where, hopefully, it find readers who love your writing and would gladly read your next one. For as long as I’ve obsessively followed authors online, it’s quite often their later works that go on to be international best-sellers and award-winning novels, but none of them would have happened without that first deal. So for me, for now, the goal is that first deal.
But as the saying goes, a goal without a plan is just a wish.
So, here’s the next six month timeline I’m working towards for no other reason than hopefully it acts as some kind of accountability!
April: First Draft (currently about 38,000 words in)
May: Finish First Draft (meaning I have a weekly word count goal of approximately 8,000 words)
June: Second Draft
July: Third Draft
August: Send to beta readers for feedback
September: Revise manuscript following feedback and start submitting to agents
September-December: Hope, pray, laugh, cry… and start writing a new story to prevent myself from obsessively checking my inbox for replies!
So, there you have it, my writing goals for 2025.
But for now, it’s back to the manuscript and the weekly word count.
Thanks for following along!
