Do milestones make up for writerly failures?

I can't tell you if I reached most of my goals in 2025, for one simple reason: I forgot what goals I even made at the beginning of the year. And, somewhere in our latest pass around the sun, I deleted the (digital) paper trail.

But what about that one goal I do remember? You know which one I'm talking about. The one I've talked about on this very newsletter, on LinkedIn, among my friends and colleagues, and even with unfortunate strangers who couldn't escape our conversations: finishing the first draft of my novel.

Back in October, I declared my first draft done, and I put the project on the back burner until 2026 rolls around. But, now that I've had some time to reflect, I'm not so sure I did in fact reach my goal.

Below are a few reasons I may have declared victory too soon.

The word count is far too low

Because my novel is literary, I'm flexible in regard to certain specifics, including word count.

Rather than make my own arbitrary goal, I stole NaNoWriMo's arbitrary goal of 50,000 words for my first draft. (I stayed clear of their 30-day deadline and instead spent most of the year working on my novel.)

The only problem is that my first pass at the novel consisted of only around 32,000 words.

I could argue I succeeded merely because I finished a draft—it just happens to be a really short draft. Regardless of how I told the goal to others, I knew I wanted about 18,000 words more than I got.

So, you can see one of my major focuses when I return to the novel next year.

A mess in three parts

Nothing about my alleged draft suggests orderliness, as it's divided into three parts:

1. Prose
2. Scenes yet to find their way into the novel
3. Notes for revisions

It's going to take a lot of work to make sense of these materials. I'll need to make some flowcharts and outlines to keep track of my story threads and see any structural problems.

While I want to jump straight into prose in 2026, I know I must slow down and tackle other issues first. Great writing is iterative, after all.

The voice likely ain't there yet

When I jump back into my draft (or my 32,000-word outline, whatever you wanna call it), I'll be paying special attention to the voice because I drifted in and out of styles and methods. That's okay, because I started this novel without a plan or outline. Instead, I found a weird premise and ran with it.

Now, I got a mess on my hands. But this mess is a big step in the right direction.

Reaching milestones while missing goals

While you can easily make the case I failed my goal of writing the first draft of my novel by the end of 2025, you can't deny I reached a personal milestone.

32,000 words.

That's a lot of work. That many words don't come easy.

But there's a lot more work needed yet.

So did I reach my goal or not? Who cares.

Because, either way, this story ain't ready for the public yet.

Now that you know my focus for 2026, let's turn it back to you:

What project are you excited to take on in 2026?

Also, what are some milestones you're proud to have reached while failing to reach your goals?

Feel free to let me know by replying to this newsletter.

Oh, and one last thing:

Happy holidays and happy new year and all that jazz,

Jake