May 1: My Writing New Year
Every May 1, I give myself permission to start over—without pretending I haven’t been here before.
Thirteen years ago today, I made a resolution to write more stories, and I was going to begin with the image in my head: a man in a fedora, knocking on a door, and bullets ripping through the wood. That idea became my first published novel, Wading Into War.
Every May, I come back to that decision and take stock of the work. I call it my Writer’s New Year’s Day. Some years are good. Others aren’t. But on May 1, I reflect, reset if necessary, and keep going.
In past years, I laid out my plans for the coming year. Upon re-reading those past entries, I cringe at missed opportunities and goals not fulfilled. I used to really beat myself up about missing those milestones. I don’t do that anymore. It’s not constructive and obscures a more positive outlook on my writing life: persistence always wins.
What the last year taught me
Last year at this time, I was neck deep in a novel entitled Mid-Lives. It is the story of four middle-aged guys all dealing with various aspects of things we encounter around the age of fifty. I started the book in 2019, set it aside multiple times, and then picked it up on 1 Jan 2025 with the resolve to finish it.
I finished it on 27 June 2025. By far the longest stretch from start to finish. What made reaching “The End” especially fascinating is that in 2019, I had a vision of what the last chapter was going to be and who was going to be the main POV character. The night before I wrote that final chapter last year, I changed the POV character. Five years, all driving toward one ending—and it changed the night before I wrote it.
That’s the kind of trust I’m learning to have in this work, especially as I near the end of my current novel. I don’t know how it’s going to end, but when the moment arrives, it’ll be great.
A mere week after writing “The End” on Mid-Lives last year, I started not only my first collection of short stories, but my first-ever romance stories. Lucky and Unlucky in Love: A Meet-Cute Collection was written in a burst of creative energy that surprised me not only in its pace but the sheer joy of writing romance tales.
I published the book last September and it has been received well. One of the story prompts for that short story collection was so good, I knew it needed to be a novel. Cut to 2026.
2026: A year of discovery
On New Year’s Day 2026, I returned to that story prompt and began writing my current novel. And let me tell you: it has been an education.
I write quickly because I have to. I get an hour at 4:45 am and another at lunch so I have to get words down at the drop of a hat. In the past, I have very little resistance when I begin one of those writing sessions, but this year is different. You see, I’ve never written a novel-length romance book, especially one that changed so much since I started.
On 1 January, I wrote the first words of a story I expected to be a traditional romance. What I have now is still that, but it has grown deeper and expanded. Now, it is a tale of two people, both creatively stifled and seeking ways to unblock themselves and discover that it is okay to be seen as unrefined and unsure.
And I’ve had to learn how to write that kind of book. I know how to write thrillers, westerns, mysteries—even with romance woven in. But writing a novel where the only conflict is internal? Where the antagonists are doubt, fear, and creative paralysis? That’s wildly different. And it makes this current novel the most difficult I’ve written since my first.
But, and here’s the key takeaway: I’m loving the process. I’m loving the self-education it is taking to write this story, and I’m loving how it is redefining not only how I write and what I write but myself as a writer.
So on this Writer’s New Year’s Day 2026, I’m grateful—not just that I get to write, but that the work still surprises me. These days, what I’m writing entertains its first reader: me. And that’s reason enough to keep going.
I’m looking forward to sharing this one in the fall.
So on this Writer’s New Year’s Day 2026, I’m continually thankful for the talent to be a writer. I’m grateful that I get to do it in a manner that enriches me. And it makes me laugh and smile that what I’m writing entertains its first reader: me! I’m really looking forward to sharing this book with everyone this fall.