So, on New Year’s Eve I committed to a writing-related New Year’s Resolution: to write every day for at least 30 minutes. And blogging (like this) or writing-related time on social media would not count towards that total.

And I’m pleased to report that, so far, I’ve kept it up. For a whole nine days! At least half an hour, and often longer. (Look, don’t knock it; willpower and consistency are not my strongest personality traits, so keeping something like this up for very nearly one-third of the way through January is genuinely no mean feat.)

But how have I been using this time, I hear you cry? (What, I don’t hear you cry? Well I’m telling you anyway.) I’ve written two new short stories: Checkout, which I posted a few days ago, and another which I will post soon. But although I want to write a lot more short fiction, I do find it virtually impossible to come up with enough new ideas, every single day.

Therefore, on some days I’ve been working on my next novel – or what might be. Provisionally entitled Earthbound, it will be the fourth book in the Danny Chaucer’s Flying Saucer series. And I started it in 2017! Prolific I am not. But already in 2025 I’ve made more progress than in the previous seven years, so … I am unstoppable! Well, fairly unstoppable.

Now, writing novels takes a long time and a lot of effort, and I’d decided a while ago not to attempt another one for a while. However, this one was already outlined and started, and if you do manage to do a bit every day, the word count soon mounts up. And at least with a novel, a single project, you don’t have to keep coming up with new ideas every day …

How is your 2025 writing journey going?