resolutions

2024 reflections and 2025 goals

This is always one of my favourite times of the year, the beginning, the freshness. I know not everyone is a fan of new year’s resolutions and fair enough, I can see how they can be challenging and just more pressure on ourselves that we don’t need. But I personally love them. I love being able to look ahead to the year ahead and plan what I want to achieve, what I want it to look like. Of course, one can never plan exactly what the year will bring and that’s the exciting part of life, but having goals to work towards always makes me feel far more motivated.

2024 was probably the best year of my life so far, both personally and professionally. I really settled down in London. I’ve pretty much loved every minute of it since I moved over at the beginning of 2023, but it really feels as though I’ve rooted myself here now, I’ve found my community, I’ve found my comfort in this city. I moved into a gorgeous house with some friends, which is one of the reasons I moved to London in the first place. I thought I had been in love before but this year I fell in love for the first time and really understood the enormity and depth of what it truly means. I have a wonderful boyfriend (I have a lot to thank Dalston Superstore for but especially that fateful night in February!) I threw some parties and dressed up as Rachel Berry (and also all five of the Spice Girls at once). I hit 10k on my bookstagram which was a huge deal for me, because I put a lot of work and effort into that account, so it felt really monumental. But of course, the most important part of this year was that I signed with a literary agent. This is huge for me. Massive. I was walking on air for weeks afterwards, and to be honest I still am. I’ve been writing novels since I was twelve and been looking for an agent for the past couple of years, and finally, with a book that I feel so passionate about, things have finally slipped into place. I’ve loved, I’ve laughed, I’ve travelled, I’ve partied, I’ve missed my friends, I’ve cried, I’ve wrote, I’ve read.

All of this to say: I’ve had a pretty fantastic year.

But enough about all that! I wanted to make a little post today to talk about 2025 and share some of my kind-of resolutions, or just things that I’m hoping to aim for this year.

Reading

Somehow last year I read 180 books. That’s kind of insane. And although I’m very glad I did, and impressed that I did, it does mean I spent most of my time reading! And that’s good, that’s okay. I couldn’t live without it! And though there are already some cracking books I’m looking forward to reading this year, one of my goals for 2025 is to…read less. Yes, cue the gasps. Let’s be real—I’m still going to read loads. It’s what I love! But I’m going to try aim to dedicate more of my free time back to writing, back to other hobbies. I already do so much as it is, I know how to keep myself busy, and I think reading with the same fervour as I did in 2024 is something that I can probably leave behind. (I say all this now, as I’m currently bet into Holly Bourne’s latest, so, you know…go figure.)

Substack

I really want to write and post more on here! I feel like I say that to myself all the time, but I do mean it. I like that my posts are sporadic enough but also I feel like I can be more consistent, especially to all you lovely lot who have subscribed. I think, much like most people, I feel a bit of perfectionism when it comes to writing and publishing a post, and it’s probably what puts me off writing them in the first place. Like, God, the effort of writing something that’s completely perfect and without mistakes. I’ll just watch a movie instead! So I’m going to try commit to smaller, more frequent pieces, just as a reminder that yes, I know to write, and yes, shockingly, I quite like it too. If you’d like to see anything particular on here, do let me know!

Writing

Now this is the biggie! This year I’m planning big things for my career and novel. I am always ambitious if anything. I finished off 2024 with hitting 60,000 words in my novel Mammy, so I think I’m safely about 2/3 of the way now. It’s such a labour of love for me right now—I think it’s probably the hardest novel I’ve written, and it’s definitely taking the longest. But that’s okay. I’ve accepted that. Stories are different and each has its own demands, its own requirements. Mammy has been coming out slower than my previous books, and I think for a reason. But all going well, I’ll have finished the first draft by the early months of this year and might even have something to go out on submission to publishers by the end of the summer! Even writing that sentence gives me a thrill. But the book, well, it’s getting more personal the more I write, and I’m probably going to be terrified to share it with the world but I’m also so bloody excited. It’s all I’ve ever wanted and it really feels like, wow, this thing is happening. There’s somebody in my corner, you know?

Other things

And then there are some other goals. The standard sort of resolutions that usually never come to fruition. Get back into running! Get back into journalling! Manifest a Lorde album! Read the rest of Marian Keyes’s backlist, etc!

I love the excitement of a new year, I love how it brims with hope and potential and that feeling that literally anything can happen and anything can change! You won’t be the same person this day next year, and isn’t that terrifying and tacky and thrilling all at once.

Happy New Year! I hope 2025 brings all you could ever want. I’m off back to my sick bed to binge more of Girls x