2025 was an amazing year for writing. In January, I finished the first draft of the novel I’ve been working on since 2021. In March, I dove into a ten-month class on novel revision. A second draft was read by the class in June. A third draft went out to beta-readers in August. At the end of December, I finished the fourth draft of the novel and sent it off to two beta readers.

Also in December, my publisher and editor sent me her line edits of the third draft. These were mostly punctuation and grammar comments. But she had a surprising suggestion to end the novel after what is currently the penultimate chapter. My first response was that the final chapter was so wonderful and it had to, had to, had to be there (a bit of a whine, I admit). But the more I thought about it, the more interesting this suggestion appeared. I have written through the alternate ending and it feels… good.

A few people from my 2025 writing class have agreed to meet monthly as accountability buddies. I’m excited about continuing to connect with them and the novels they’re writing. And I will test a new ending for my novel on them. 

It’s hard to let the novel sit, while I wait for feedback. I have the urge to tweak, even as I know that letting a piece of work sit undisturbed for a time is useful. Itchy fingers, me.

Writing in the new year is a road with too many twists and turns for me to see clearly. There are many other writing tasks that I could tackle in the new year: planning promotion, soliciting reviews, finding novel contests, new pieces of writing, et cetera. What calls to me?