2025_wrapup

Posted on by arrowmakerbooks

Sorry Oasis, I will be looking back in anger – and in pride, joy, disgust, and confusion – at my writing progress and my efforts to spend more time writing; at the books, TV shows, games, and music I’ve enjoyed; and at a few of the events that coloured my 2025.
I’ll also be looking ahead at what might happen in the next twelve months (Lord help us).

Like most years, 2025 began with fireworks, but more so than usual in the White House, where Trump and Musk blew up anything that helped people less fortunate than themselves. The resulting ash cloud has hung over the whole year, even on this side of the Atlantic, from where we can only watch and shake our heads/fists.

Starmer has been trying to defuse the threat of Trump’s UK patsy Farage by becoming him, annoying everyone who put him in Number 10. At this rate, by the time of the next election, I wouldn’t be surprised if Labour and the Tories are both outside the top two. And who would have thought that possible just five years ago?

The lie of AI has continued apace, although some are beginning to understand anything taught on unverified information can’t be trusted to give the right answer to even the simplest questions. Crap in, crap out.
A couple of countries look like they may enforce their own copyright laws and penalise the tech companies for stealing artist’s work, which is a novel idea. Not in the UK, of course, where the government’s dragging it out to the point it’ll be too late, or the US, where payment’s already been made to the President.

News just in: Trump’s announced he’s stopped a 327th war since coming into power, this one between Azerbybaby and Whothekazistan. The next Nobel Peace Prize will surely sit on his mantlepiece next to the joke FIFA one, as long as they ignore him sicking the US army on his own citizens. And his continued threats to Greenland. And Canada. And…

With all that, and everything else, going on, it’s no wonder I value the escape of fiction more and more. Even Alchemised wasn’t as dark as the real world (more on that later).

I began 2025 partway through writing the second draft of The Spike Volume 2, with the hope of having the book ready for publication by the end of the year.

Yeah, I’m really bad at predicting how long it’ll take me to do things.

At the end of March, I took a decision to stop wasting so much of my free time. I had a habit of playing a puzzle game, usually Hexcells Infinite, whilst watching YouTube videos. I wasn’t properly engaged with either, and was occupying my time without doing any of the things I actually wanted to do. It was easy, but unproductive.

I uninstalled Hexcells Infinite (nothing against it, it’s a really good game), and any other game I could play whilst watching something else, and began properly engaging with whatever I was doing.

This isn’t to say I stopped playing games (more on those later too) or watching YouTube. But when I was playing or watching, they were things I actively wanted to enjoy.
My favourite YouTube channels from the past year are:

I also made more of an effort to sit and actually watch some of the TV that had been on my watchlist for ages, but I’d been putting off because I wanted to give them my full concentration. I haven’t watched much – I still prefer gaming, reading, or YouTube – but these are the TV shows I enjoyed watching most this year:

I was interested to see the BBC announce a new season of Line of Duty is in the works. The show’s adeptness at keeping everyone guessing and doing the unexpected are traits I try to give my writing, and whilst I’m wary of where the Line of Duty story can go from where it left off, I’m looking forward to seeing what Jed Mercurio will surprise us with this time.

My time-wasting decrease helped increase my writing output.
For the first two months of the year, I averaged 7.5 hours per week working on my writing.
For the next two months, I averaged 8.5 hours per week.

There were further gains to be made, but that increase helped me finish draft 2 of The Spike Volume 2 at the end of April.
It was a relief, but there was still much work to do. I had multiple lists of ideas for things to add, from small changes like adding a line or two, to creating whole new chapters.

Whilst there are advantages to writing a sequel with the things that can be carried forward, like characters and locations, the main disadvantage is ensuring factual consistency between the two.

Hence, I began combing through The Spike Volume 1 to create The Spike Series Bible that I could refer back to when writing future books. My hope was it would take a couple of months, max.

There were celebrations in May, not for me finishing the series bible (not by a long shot), but for my sister’s wedding. As an obvious ploy to double the number of anniversary presents she’ll get in future, it was spread over two days, and it all went beautifully. Congrats again Claire and Joe!

Going against that May theme of marriage, I decided on a divorce: the opinion pieces that had been part of my WeeklyWritingWrapups since the beginning were too restrictive, so I separated them. The WWW has continued, more focussed on my writing progress; and season 2 of my blogposts has been much more interesting, especially for the last couple which are short story/blogpost hybrids (more on how they came about later):

For completeness, there’ve also been quarterly reports on what I’ve been reading, plus reviews and analyses of artworks I felt compelled to write about:

Part of the reason for splitting my blog was because I wanted to be able to write more in-depth on certain topics, which was difficult to do within a week, especially whilst the post had other functions too.

The main inspiration for this was Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
I don’t like to make snap calls about my all-time favourites, but Expedition 33 is undoubtedly one of the best games I’ve ever played. Hell, it’s one of the best told stories I’ve experienced in any medium.
When I finished it, I needed to write about it, but there was so much great stuff to write about, I had to take a breath. I wasn’t the only one who’d been inspired, and there are so many pieces online extolling the game’s virtues. If I was going to write something, it had to be different.
I opted to write a line-by-line, shot-by-shot breakdown of the opening scene, which is linked above and here. I learnt some lessons I applied when redrafting the prologue of The Spike Volume 2.

There were other games I enjoyed this year too:

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 also provided my favourite music of the year. I didn’t get many new albums, but the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 OST would have stood out in any year. With over eight hours of a wide variety of music, much of what I’ve written this year has been soundtracked by it (including this wrapup).

The Spike Series Bible of course took longer than anticipated. I finished adding Volume 1, and the short stories 0.1 and 0.2, at the beginning of October. It’s already been useful, so I’m glad I did it; I just wish I was quicker.

Over August and September, I’d still been averaging about 8.5 hours per week working on my writing, and I wanted to do more.
AuthorTuber Sara Lubratt mentioned in a vlog that she wanted to “focus more on creating over consuming”, and this triggered an idea. Since early October, I’ve been recording the time I spend consuming content as well as the time I spend writing, and been comparing them in my Creativity vs Consumption percentage.
It began at 30%, grew to 54% for one week, and is currently settled in the mid-forties. Over November and December, I’ve averaged over 15 hours per week working on my writing – double the 7.5 hours I averaged for January and February – so it’s clearly had a significant impact.
There are rules I keep to, and I intend to blog on the experience early in 2026 in case it’s useful for anyone else.

On the subject of my blog, I went through a difficult patch trying to write for it. I’m not going to publish or post anything unless I feel I bring something a little different to the subject matter, and every time I began, I found myself writing in circles. At least three subjects were shelved.
I’ve always found it easier to write fiction.
That’s when I had the idea of writing a hybrid short story/blogpost: a piece that switches back and forth between fiction and opinion, each feeding the other. The first topic I chose lent itself to this format – you’re missing out if you only read your favourite genre(s) – and I was pleased with the result. I may try more in the new year, although I’m aware it won’t work for every subject.

At around the same time, in early October, I set to work on draft 3 of The Spike Volume 2. I began revisions with the hope of completing them by the end of 2025.

I know, I know. I hit less targets than a blind archer.

I have a list of 179 revisions to make in draft 3, and I’m finding more as I’m going along. For example, I want to add real places and road names whenever possible, and this has meant trawling maps for locations that will work with the necessary story beats, then usually rewriting the whole chapter that I’d drafted previously.
The chapters I’ve recrafted so far have been a lot of work, but are definitely stronger as a result.

I’m sure everyone who works a nine-to-five will know what a mushy brain feels like, and sometimes, no matter how long I stare at the blinking cursor, words won’t word. Instead of fighting it, I’ll shift focus to one of the other tasks that need doing.

For example, throughout the year, I’ve worked on different ideas for a new cover for The Spike Volume 1 second edition. I have one completed that I think is ok, but I’m keeping that as a backup because I have another idea that I prefer, as long as my artistic skills don’t let me down.
You may suggest using a cover artist. I’ve considered it, but I want my books to be completely my original creations.

I began 2025 wanting to read more books than I have done for a long time, and set a deliberately conservative target of twelve. I half-expected to beat it, but not by as much as I did – I read twenty-three.
The full list is on my reading_report_2025q4; these are the books I enjoyed most this year:

For my favourite, I can’t pick between two: The Final Empire (Mistborn Saga #1) by Brandon Sanderson; and Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse #1) by James S A Corey. Both were top-notch, and I’m looking forward to continuing their respective series in 2026.
Special mention to Alchemised by SenLinYu as well, which compelled me to write a review and analysis of major story points, which is linked above and here. It’s a difficult novel to recommend because it’s so dark, but I suspect it’ll be the most memorable book I read this year.

Reflecting on my writing during 2025, I’m pleased that I’ve doubled the amount of time I spend writing in a typical week. There’s a limit to that, though, so if I’m going to finish tasks quicker, I need to find a way to increase my pace. I’m not sure how to do that without compromising the quality. I’m a perfectionist, so literally every word is considered carefully. Research required.

As for my goals for 2026, most of them revolve around my progress with The Spike Volume 2. I want to have it ready for publication, but there’s a lot I want/need to do in the build up; here’s an incomplete list, in no particular order:

  • Devise a publication and marketing plan.
  • Publish a second edition of The Spike Volume 1, and for the first time publish the two parts of Volume 1 separately.
  • Submit three currently-unpublished short story prequels (0.4, 0.5, 0.6) to magazines/ezines/collections.
  • Publish a collection of my short story prequels as The Spike Volume 0.
  • Create covers for all my books.
  • Finish revisions and editing of The Spike Volume 2.
  • Complete redesign of my website.

Each of those have many steps to them; there’s a lot of work involved with writing a book, never mind self-publishing it too, and once my intended release schedule has culminated in the publication of Volume 2, I’ll have eight(!) books on sale.

I have a list of blog topics I want to write about; and my WeeklyWritingWrapups will continue.

Having read twenty-three books in 2025, I’m targeting eighteen in 2026. I could aim higher, but I have several chunky fantasy and sci-fi books I want to read, and I don’t want it to be become a chore. Also, I don’t want to be able to use it as an excuse to not write. Writing is priority one.

Other hopes for 2026 that are outside my small sphere of influence: more people start smelling Trump and Farage’s bullshit; Radiohead record a new album; Russia get out of Ukraine; Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey meets the standard set by his previous films; companies stop trying to force AI on users; and someone releases a new game/book/show that flabbergasts in the same manner as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

And, dear reader, I hope 2026 treats you well. Thank you for visiting my little home on the web; I hope you’ve found something here interesting and/or entertaining.

I want to finish by sharing New Morning by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, a track I play every 1st of January. It’s nice to start a new year with naive unjustified hope…

Thank you for giving
This bright new morning
So steeped seemed the evening
In darkness and blood
There’ll be no sadness
There’ll be no sorrow
There’ll be no road too narrow
There’ll be a new day
And it’s today
For us

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