I signed up for get your words out, meaning I'll be spending 300 days this year writing. I plan on holding myself acountable and writing something, anything until I'm writing regularly. Here's something I got from Abbie Emmons of youtube, an author who has had a successful career so far, it's a questionnare to help you achieve your writing goals.

2026 Writing Goals

1. Find your why Before you begin setting your writing goals, sort out the deeper reasons behind why you want to accomplish these goals.

When I imagine my dream author life, what does it look like?

I get up every morning and write until I need to take a break, then return to writing in the evening for a few hours. I want to get up every day around 5 o'clock in the morning and just write. Anything, everything. I see myself being successful, being a best selling author. It'll take grit, a little money and most importantly the fact that I actually write. I see myself doing book signings or author q and a's. I'll be nervous when it comes to that, but I know I can do it.


What first action steps can I take now to make this dream a reality?

Start writing everyday, no matter what time it is. But most importantly forcing myself to get out of bed on a regular basis and writing in the mornings. Going to bed every night. I plan on getting my days and nights switched around so I can do this. I don't want to see my dreams pass me by.

What writing projects am I the most excited about this year and why?
My fantasy novel involving a bard and his brother a knight, possibly making the bard a lot like aragon from lord of the rings. I have an idea brewing for it.

My Urban Fantasy Novel, about a young girl or boy who has magical abilities and has seven major archdemons to kill. (Basically)

my soap opera novel series about older and younger queer people who are in love and crazy shit is happening to them all the time.

There's a few more that have been stuck in my head for awhile. (I also have trouble writing because I'm afraid I won't have the mind to write certain stories, some of them are intelligent thought provoking POC thrillers and I don't even have a highschool education)

2. Begin with the end in mind If you don’t reverse-engineer your timeline, you’re going to be plodding forward into eternity with no end in sight. You need a finish line to help you measure the distance you must cover to reach it.

By this time next year I want to… be writing full time, (plus exercising daily, I think that'll help with writing too to be honest) plus writing in the mornings and in the evenings with exercising in between.

Starting at the end, what step comes before that? And before that?

To have written everyday, before that, to have written everyday and got my days and nights switched around in order for it to happen.

How does each action step connect to the final goal?

Exercise plus health goals help me get my mental health together. Not to mention they're upping my medications and that means I'll be able to focus more often and actually write.

3. Be realistic We all have limitations and that’s not a bad thing. Factor in your current priorities in life and accept the fact that you might not be able to devote all the time you want to devote to this particular goal this year. Be realistic.

Realistically, how much time can I devote each month/week/day to furthering my writing goals?

Four hours a day, possibly between exercising and writing on my relaxing downtime moments. so possibly 5-6 hours a day. Honestly.

If I could only accomplish one priority goal this year, which one would I choose?

To write everyday plus exercise. I can do it. Exercising is very important though because I need to get my legs stronger so I can stand properly and walk.

If I had a best friend who had the exact same lifestyle and responsibilities as I do, what advice would I give them?

Just take it one day at a time, eventually motivation and discipline comes. It creeps inside you, just think about it everyday until you get angry or upset and then that should drive you. Think about it until you're exhausted. make it your obsession. Obsess over it instead of food or drugs, do it until your mind is ready to finally start applying itself.

4. Give yourself more time than you think you need Even if it’s just a month or a couple of weeks. You’ll thank yourself later. And you’ll never regret giving yourself more time.

Considering all my other responsibilities, what’s the soonest date I could accomplish this goal by? What would happen if I pushed that date off a month?

I don't have a lot of responsibilities besides getting myself better. I have 300 days to accomplish this goal, my end date is December 31st 2026. If I pushed the date off a month, I wouldn't finish my challenge and that would make me feel very sad. I'm tired of failing, I want to raise up and actually do what must be done. I know I can do it. it takes courage, guts and fortitude.

5. Establish a system that suits your current lifestyle and set yourself up for success Rather than setting a goal and plowing your way towards it, mindfully consider all the things in your life that you can’t change and how you’re going to work around those things to accomplish your writing goals this year.

Considering my current lifestyle, is there anything I can say “no” to so that I can say “yes” to writing?
Writing instead of snacking all the time. Honestly, I need to do that. I can also stay awake despite being trapped in a bed, meaning if I wake up, I can start writing instead of feeling trapped all the time.

What distractions am I in control of? Can I remove those roadblocks before they trip me up?

Food, sleep and feeling uncomfortable. Writing sometimes feels uncomfortable to me, because I'm trying to feel something that isn't there. You're not going to feel like writing all the time, so you need to build a habit and discipline yourself. so that's what I'll do.

How can I protect my energy and creativity so I don’t get burned out?
Turn off discord, turn off videos and just write. That's how I keep myself from burning out.

This is the 2025 Mooglycal blanket. I was still attempting to use up the stash which, it transpired, had mostly orange and purple wool in it - not the most auspicious combination but there is now at least a lot less of it than there was and all that really bright orange has gone. The general concept was vertical stripes of red/orange and purple/pink with the darker colours at the top and lighter colours at the bottom. It didn't really work, in part because there was just so much of some colours. Anyway, I have decided to actually have a colour scheme next year since the stash is now under control (well at least that bit of the stash that involves the wool I use for making these blankets).

Here are my goals for the short term (over the next five years)

Leave the nursing home, get a house

Lose weight, Walk again, Lose Weight

Get weight loss surgery, the sleeve

Get my G.E.D

Go to college, take psychology, and English

Get a tattoo (I have an idea)

Get my lip pierced

Repierce my ears

get them double pierced possibly (I'm not into piercings like a lot of people. Like I don't want gauges)
get an eyebrow piercing (possibly)

Write a start up novel (Just something with my current skills, probably in romance with heterosexual and lgbtqa couples. I'm thinking something soap opera based, which is what most harliquen novels are)

Make friends

Build better habits (like brushing my teeth regularly, brushing and washing my hair, taking showers everyday)

Continue exercising and make it a habit

Reading more, focus on one book at a time

Start writing poems again, I'd like to study poetry prose

Invest money even if it's just a little

Learn to draw and practice almost everyday

Get back into cooking and baking

Get a puppy and two kittens with all shots and check ups spayed and neutered.

Start learning a second language with Rosetta stone

Take a class on graphic design

Work on freelancing after two years minoring in English for writing

Get a journal to write all these goals in

Expand my vocabularly (need a tutor)

Become part of a Coven (Wicca)

Learn to Garden

Learn to drive and save up for a car

Get my license


Long Term (in the next ten years)
Get a motorcycle and get my motorcycle license

See the Ocean

Go Camping

Learn more than two languages (thinking Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and French or Gaelic)

Move to New Orleans or California (Must invest first)

Buy a house (with six-seven rooms)

Get skin removal surgery

Get Transaffirming therapy, also get therapy for any issues I have (before I adopt) and Get on T

Go on a date

Get a boyfriend and eventually husband

Eventually marry whoever may be my soulmate

be a psychiatrist and make boku money doing it (or become a teacher, I have about six-eight months before I have to decide on a major. I may take four years of psychology to do therapy online and then four years to

be a business major so I can open my own publishing company. If I come into money or invest well, I'll just support authors who self-publish so they can market their books. it costs money)

Adopt four children: asian, asian indian, african american, south american and caucasian

Write my autobiography

Write a children's book for fifth graders and below

Write more serious fictional novels like horror, fantasy and scifi

Open my own publishing company that helps authors want to keep writing and focus on making novels

and That's all I can think of right now.

This is the cover from Lawrence Miles' Christmas on a Rational Planet New Adventure. This was his debut novel. I recall very little about it. I think many people immediately recognised him as someone with an exciting suffeit of ideas, but sadly, I can not claim to have been among them.

Mussaurus - the above, stolen shamelessly from Darren Naish's The Great Dinosaur Discoveries, is of a hatchling.

If you unfollowed me because I was updating so many icons, I'm done now and probably will never do that many at once again. Sorry about that! Just had a backlog to make up for.

(I am still working on #3)

for snowflake_challenge

Challenge #4: Rec Your Last Page

Any website that you like, be it fanfiction, art, social media, or something a bit more eccentric!

This is what I've been looking at today:

Massachusetts "Name a Snowplow" Contest Winners!
School children came up with these wonderful (and punny!) snowplow names, which will be used this winter (2025/2026)
My favorites: Master Snowda and Thaw Patrol

How to Create a Powerful Character Arc by Jerry Jenkins.
I was looking at this as a quick reference for a post I was writing of my own about plotting while pantsing. Hopefully a future post for getyourwordsout. It's a pretty clear guide for getting started with writing character arcs, as it says on the tin.

(by the way, pledging for 2026 ends January 15, so you don't have much more time if you want to join in a wonderful writing community with GYWO!)

Also, right now I have a tab open with my 5soulmates prompt table! I haven't started writing yet, but I've got some ideas percolating.

Another tab I have open is the deterweek themes list. I'm going to be writing one story with whimsicalmeerkat and one solo. At least that's the plan!

Reading: I just finished the Doctor Who Reader. The later essays were a lot more accessible, but more by the way of personal accounts and more in the mode of fan writing than the earlier chapters. They feel more like things that could be/would be/are intended to be primary sources collated together for future academics than secondary sources. The whole is interesting and, hopefully, useful. I get quoted in one chapter though my identity is obfuscated as I was one of the interviewees.

Listening: Not much running this week, I do not like slippery surfaces for running, so not much listening. Currently I have Toby Hadoke in Indefinable Magic musing on the various actors in Doctor Who have been awarded M/O/CBEs or knighthoods etc. Toby is always entertaining but, it has to be said, this is not a subject that particularly grabs me.

Watching: B and I are currently feeling very listless about the vast choice of watching material available. We spend much time scrolling aimlessly through the listings. We started The Acolyte but found it too grim. We've discussed watching Midsomer Murders which seem like our kind of easy evening watching, but these start at season 22 on Disney so we will clearly need to investigate where earlier seasons can be found. We keep falling back on watching NCIS and miscellaneous food programmes on the BBC.

This is my prompt table for 5soulmates

Table #0 - Custom
01. soulmates "live" each other's lives in their minds when they bond	02. empathic connection	03. first words	04. only one of the reincarnated soulmates remembers their past life	05. accidental soulbond

Texture in the last from spiritcoda.

Snagging is free. Credit is appreciated. Comments are loved.

just spent two and a half hours setting up a new phone for my mom and getting all her new contacts in it and everything...

I'm EXHAUSTED from this. she was so anxious about it and over my shoulder the whole time. omg. OMG. I need to sleep for a WEEK now.