Friday Five: what’s ahead

“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” So said Dwight D. Eisenhower, one of the military leaders who planned Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy against Nazi German forces.

As a career military man, Eisenhower knew what he was talking about. It was in the military where the terms SNAFU and FUBAR originated.

I was thinking about Eisenhower’s words recently as I thought about my writing plans for 2026. I also went back to my first journal entry of last year, in which I laid out my plans to finish the first draft of my novel by the end of that January 2025.

Major failure on my part. I barely touched the draft that month, nor in the months to follow. I told myself I would get back into the swing of that project later, but things happened that diverted my focus. For example, from late spring through much of autumn, a health situation in our family required me to turn my attention to caregiving. That experience, and some similar issues in 2024, served to remind me frequently of the fragility of life, and the importance of focusing on the things that matter most, like caring for loved ones and those closest to you.

Nevertheless, planner that I am, I do have some writing goals in mind for 2026. They are less structured that last year’s, and they don’t involve any hard deadlines, even though I would like to finish the novel this year.

Here’s what I’m planning for 2026:

1. Do less, better. This is my overarching mantra for 2026: to focus on the essentials. For me, that means to focus on writing and reading, not to achieve a certain quantifiable goal–if I hit 100 rejections this year, it won’t be by intent–but to become a better writer. I hope to slow down, write the things I want to write, and read more slowly and deeply, to let ideas seep into my mind. On top of everything else, I have a couple of freelance projects to balance. If you want a crash course on do less, better, read this essay on Medium, and maybe look at my 2014 take on the book Essentialism.
2. Less blogging. I plan to scale back my blogging. I’ve come to the realization that the effort does not produce much benefit in terms of visibility or recognition. It isn’t adding much value to my writing mission. I’m sure I’ll still post on occasion, but not as frequently. That’s the plan, anyway.
3. Fewer Friday Five author interviews. I have a few commitments to interview some authors for upcoming Friday Fives, but I do not intend to do as many of these as I have over the past two years. Last year, I did 32 Friday Five Q&As with authors, editors, and podcasters. I hope the posts benefited those featured, but if I’m going to focus on my own writing, I’ve got to cut back on other endeavors.
4. Deeper dives into reading, including readings on spiritual matters. Since January, I’ve been reading chapters from the Book of Psalms and the Book of Proverbs, two of the “wisdom/poetry” books of the Bible. In late December, I started reading Thomas a Kempis’s classic, The Imitation of Christ, which I’d picked up at the local library book sale. I’m still reading through it, deliberately ponderously, hoping that by meditating on those words, and the words from the Bible, my inner person will continue to grow. I’m also hoping to read one or two classics this year. I’m thinking either Middlemarch or War and Peace, both of which I’ve never read. Of course, I have stacks of more modern works to get to, but I’m not going to rush through them just to meet a numerical goal. I have nothing to prove in that regard.
5. There is no number 5. See? I’m getting the hang of doing less already.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com