IWSG: Plans for the new year
Welcome to 2026, and the first IWSG post of the year! What's in your plans?
Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writers - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting! Be sure to link to the IWSG page and display the badge in your post. And please be sure your avatar links back to your blog! Otherwise, when you leave a comment, people can't find you to comment back.
Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.
Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say. Remember, the question is optional!
I'm going to take this as an invitation to lay out my plans/goals/wishlist for the coming year. Not the one where I go all political, or even plot my hiking adventures, but about my writing stuff.
To answer the actual IWSG question, I really flopped last year with the short story stuff. I'm going to give it another shot, especially as I actually got helpful feedback with a couple of rejections, and want to revise those stories per the suggestions, or at least with an eye on the suggestions. That's the thing I'm working on right now. I also have several other stories that are either in revisions or partly written. I'd like to finish them. I always finish my novels, but I seem to have trouble with short stories. (Spoiler alert: they're hard!)
My other writing goals for 2026 are about the novels, and are pretty standard: I need/want to revise and edit Seffi #4, Logged Off, and plot and draft #6. I have only the faintest glimmer of what that will be at this point, but I've left some stuff in Seffi's personal life hanging in #5 (Painted Over) as it stands at this point, so there will be a #6.
Since I also have fairly ambitious hiking plans this year, including the Gila Wilderness, the Sierra, and the Grand Canyon, that's probably plenty to aim for!
Oh, and I think I have to accept a longer delay for publication, and actually PLAN to bring the book out in November, when I have time to work on publicity. I keep aiming for mid-summer, missing it, and bringing my book out between trips in late summer/fall, which isn't very good for marketing stuff.
How about you? any big plans, or are you taking another shot at something you missed in 2025? Or are you just hoping to hang on and keep sane?
Here's a nice sunrise for the new year!
©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2026
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It sounds like you have some great writing goals. And if you don't have time to market a book before November, it sounds like a good plan to wait till then to publish it.
ReplyDeleteI don't have solid plans yet, but I know from experience that I'll be out doing stuff (travel and hiking) well into October. If I want to do any advance work, I'd better wait.
DeleteA later release sounds good since you will be spending so much time hiking during the nicer weather. (Although your Iceland hikes looked very chilly.)
ReplyDeleteLet's just say I'll hike while there's daylight! Yeah, I got some seriously Icelandic weather in Iceland. It doesn't HAVE to be like that in September. But it was.)
DeleteGood, solid goals. I'm already looking forward to pics from you hiking adventures.
ReplyDeleteI still have some to backfill from last summer, and I'm in AZ right now getting more photos!
DeleteAnonymously Esther, East of the Sun. Key problem, often, can be other people's plans, but those people are important and I want to spend time with them. ,
ReplyDeleteRight. I definitely have reason to know that spending time with loved ones while you can is important.
DeleteYeah, short stories are hard -- but so much fun to write! Good luck with your goals. I'm an email away when you need help with the marketing :-)
ReplyDeleteRonel visiting for IWSG day An Author’s Goals for 2026
You have helped so much with your regular posts on the subject! And I really appreciate the boosts and shout-outs you've given.
DeleteLove your hiking plans! Can't wait for you to tell us about those trails.
ReplyDeleteSo many trails, so little time... :D
DeleteI admire your writing plans. I don't make them myself because I'm afraid I won't stick to them. Maybe I should change that policy. Maybe if I made a resolution I'll follow through. I hope. Only one way to find out.
ReplyDeleteI don't make them resolutions, so I can't break any :D. But I do need some plans and objectives or I just let things slip. Same goes for the hiking stuff, so it's not that I don't want to do these things. It's just that inertia is hard to overcome (an object at rest tends to remain at rest...).
DeleteSounds good to me. I didnt put enough time for beta reading in my plans, but that all counts, doesnt it :)
ReplyDeleteWell, your beta reading sure counts with me! Almost none of my books would be even as good as they are without your input (I can't quite recall where in my writing career we became friends and started reading for each other. Obviously after the Ninja Librarian and probably after Death By Ice Cream.
DeleteI seem to be able to whip up short stories but have a plethora of novels that need finishing. Maybe we need to swap writing problems for a little while. LOL
ReplyDeleteFall is a good time for book releases, people are settling down after a busy summer. November sounds like a good plan. Best of luck with your writing goals!
I think my problem with short stories is that I tend to start them without much vision of where they'll go--and when writing short, you can't wander all over the place to find the path. I guess you can, but then the editing is a mess :D
DeleteI met you following one of your hikes--across Britain? Or Scotland? Wish I hadn't missed the PCT as it's one I've read a lot about. I've also read a bunch of books on people who hiked the Appalachian Trail--that is amazing. I will enjoy following your hiking posts in 2026.
ReplyDeleteI did hike a piece of the John O' Groats trial in 2022. My hikes on the PCT have been relatively small sections, but you can find them. You could find them easier if I ever got my blog cleaned up and indexed properly. Here's the start of one of those: https://www.rebecca-douglass.com/2024/09/weekend-photos-pct-again.html
DeleteHappy New Year and thanks for stopping by my blog. I'm glad you're not giving up on short stories. I wish you all the best with your revisions and your hiking plans. I definitely look forward to the images.
ReplyDeleteI like writing short stories because I can play with different genres there, while my novels are pretty well stuck into the cozy mystery genre (that's not necessarily bad, it just is).
DeleteHappy New Year, Rebecca! It looks like you have a full and exciting year ahead! I do much better with short stories than longer pieces. One of my goals is to read your first Seffi novel this year. All the best to you!
ReplyDeleteAw, thanks! And happy new year to you (even if I'm a bit late getting to this).
Delete"Hang on and keep sane" is definitely high on my list for this year. That and continue to make progress on getting my first novel out into the world and getting the current round of edits done on my second novel.
ReplyDeleteSanity first. Which may be in direct opposition to my need to edit a lot of stuff!
DeleteGood luck with your writing goals for 2026.
ReplyDelete