I would like to hear more about what you can expect from a developmental editor. The ones I've hired have been too soft. Too accepting and not challenging enough. And they certainly could have given me better guidance for the first ten pages.
Yes more blunt, but also with a focus on the opening. And more back and forth exchange. That might do it. I just expected more real development help. Like help making it more engaging. Not a general review.
As a budding editor myself, I would say that it's often about the relationship fit, and that an editor will generally try to ask questions to open the conversation and spark ideas rather than closing it down by being too prescriptive. That being said, advice should always be clear and actionable, as it's not really fair on the writer to be given false impressions on their writing either. It's perhaps made harder when the relationship is quite transactional and you don't work with each other for very long, as opposed to ones with multiple back and forths? Maybe you can specify to your next editor that you would like them to be more blunt?
Excited to put together my goals for 2026! Trying to figure out how to balance being afraid I'll fail a goal against setting a realistic goal. And shooting for the stars to see what I will hit!
Hey Mallory! I applaud the ambitious 2025 goals hahaha. Every year I tell myself this is the year I will query for my novel, and every december I have to come to terms with the fact it's not gonna happen. I recently got feedback on my novel, and incorporating it will take much of the first half of 2026, though hopefully not more, then perhaps we can be in the query trenches together! Good luck on all these nice goals though xxx
My 2025 goals were: finish editing passes on my novella and read 100 books.
My 2025 results: finished those edits, wrote the first draft of another novella in that series, read 133 books.
My 2026 goals: edits on novella two, first draft of novella three (which fits between the first two), read 52 books - though that tends to increase as the year goes on.
What stood out to me here is the shift from setting goals based on desire to setting them based on capacity. Not lowering ambition, but grounding it in reality.
There’s something quietly stabilizing about the way you let the process lead instead of forcing outcomes. It reframes “failure” as information rather than a verdict, and continuity as the real success.
The community piece feels especially important in that context. Writing alongside others not as accountability, but as shared presence, really does change the nervous system math. It makes the work feel less isolating and more sustainable.
The community ideas you mention sound genuinely exciting, and I’d love to be part of what you’re building. A few things that would really resonate with me:
• low-pressure live writing sessions that prioritize presence over output
• optional quiet co-working blocks with a simple open/close check-in
• a space to talk process and stuckness without it needing to become advice-heavy
This all feels thoughtfully recalibrated, not scaled back.
I don't do any formal goal setting. I set intentions and I focus on new ways to prioritize my writing. My feeling is that the books get done when they're intended, so long as I keep putting writing time into my calendar, I try to let go of outcomes because...life.
I have no formal goals. In 2025 I was supposed to draft, rewrite, edit, publish my 5th novel. I got through 3/4 of the draft and realized the story's projected end made the beginning irrelevant. 😭 That was in September. I have yet to figure out what to do with it.
Also... For years I read nothing but nonfiction during the day, and fiction before bed at night. But that meant a long novel (Tolstoy, Eliot, for example among many others) took months to finish. Lately I've been on a "classic fiction kick day & night (currently 3/4 thru Dracula).
Finally, I have not written a blog essay or book review (all nonfiction on the blog) in months! I have never reviewed novels by long dead and famous authors (what can I add to the Tolstoy or Eliot cannon?) but I do feel the itch to get back to writing something...
I would like to hear more about what you can expect from a developmental editor. The ones I've hired have been too soft. Too accepting and not challenging enough. And they certainly could have given me better guidance for the first ten pages.
Yes more blunt, but also with a focus on the opening. And more back and forth exchange. That might do it. I just expected more real development help. Like help making it more engaging. Not a general review.
Is that too much to expect?
As a budding editor myself, I would say that it's often about the relationship fit, and that an editor will generally try to ask questions to open the conversation and spark ideas rather than closing it down by being too prescriptive. That being said, advice should always be clear and actionable, as it's not really fair on the writer to be given false impressions on their writing either. It's perhaps made harder when the relationship is quite transactional and you don't work with each other for very long, as opposed to ones with multiple back and forths? Maybe you can specify to your next editor that you would like them to be more blunt?
My favorite was: Build a Writing Community. There is no greater joy than finding people that you vibe with..
Tell me abt it. I said I’d finish revising my first draft by the end of the month and I’ve only done one scene. Not even a chapter.
Excited to put together my goals for 2026! Trying to figure out how to balance being afraid I'll fail a goal against setting a realistic goal. And shooting for the stars to see what I will hit!
This is so real. I’m setting mostly itty bitty goals this year because not hitting the big ones is so demoralizing. Love this approach!
It’s also my goal to build more of a writing community, and I’d love to hear how you’re doing that - very excited for the upcoming posts!
We're always ambitious with our goals. I've almost never met my writing deadlines, but like you mentioned, they motivate us.
The fact that you reached one of your goals is still very good 🙌🏽
Hey Mallory! I applaud the ambitious 2025 goals hahaha. Every year I tell myself this is the year I will query for my novel, and every december I have to come to terms with the fact it's not gonna happen. I recently got feedback on my novel, and incorporating it will take much of the first half of 2026, though hopefully not more, then perhaps we can be in the query trenches together! Good luck on all these nice goals though xxx
My 2025 goals were: finish editing passes on my novella and read 100 books.
My 2025 results: finished those edits, wrote the first draft of another novella in that series, read 133 books.
My 2026 goals: edits on novella two, first draft of novella three (which fits between the first two), read 52 books - though that tends to increase as the year goes on.
What stood out to me here is the shift from setting goals based on desire to setting them based on capacity. Not lowering ambition, but grounding it in reality.
There’s something quietly stabilizing about the way you let the process lead instead of forcing outcomes. It reframes “failure” as information rather than a verdict, and continuity as the real success.
The community piece feels especially important in that context. Writing alongside others not as accountability, but as shared presence, really does change the nervous system math. It makes the work feel less isolating and more sustainable.
The community ideas you mention sound genuinely exciting, and I’d love to be part of what you’re building. A few things that would really resonate with me:
• low-pressure live writing sessions that prioritize presence over output
• optional quiet co-working blocks with a simple open/close check-in
• a space to talk process and stuckness without it needing to become advice-heavy
This all feels thoughtfully recalibrated, not scaled back.
I see we share a love for fantasy and romance books! I hope you find some books that you will enjoy reading.
I don't do any formal goal setting. I set intentions and I focus on new ways to prioritize my writing. My feeling is that the books get done when they're intended, so long as I keep putting writing time into my calendar, I try to let go of outcomes because...life.
I have no formal goals. In 2025 I was supposed to draft, rewrite, edit, publish my 5th novel. I got through 3/4 of the draft and realized the story's projected end made the beginning irrelevant. 😭 That was in September. I have yet to figure out what to do with it.
Also... For years I read nothing but nonfiction during the day, and fiction before bed at night. But that meant a long novel (Tolstoy, Eliot, for example among many others) took months to finish. Lately I've been on a "classic fiction kick day & night (currently 3/4 thru Dracula).
Finally, I have not written a blog essay or book review (all nonfiction on the blog) in months! I have never reviewed novels by long dead and famous authors (what can I add to the Tolstoy or Eliot cannon?) but I do feel the itch to get back to writing something...
This year is the first time I've set writing goals and it's not going well at all 😭 lol
This was really nice to look over as I’m working on setting my goals for the year too