How to Turn Your Year Around: Getting Your Novel Plans Back on Track

How’s 2025 been going for you?

Maybe you started the year feeling enthusiastic and motivated: this was going to be the year you finished your novel. But we’re close to halfway through the year now, and perhaps things haven’t quite gone to plan.

Novels often take longer to write than we’d hope—especially first novels. I know novelists who spent upwards of a decade working on their first novel. Taking years on a novel isn’t uncommon: J.K. Rowling spent six years writing Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and George R.R. Martin spent six years on A Dance with Dragons (the fifth book in the Game of Thrones series). But if you feel like it’s taking you forever to finish your novel, it can be really frustrating and demotivating.

Whether you made it a few months into the year before things went off track, or you started strong in January and stalled in February, or you didn’t even make it past the first week of January … there’s still time to make massive progress before the end of December.

First, we’re going to dig into some (common and very understandable) reasons why your writing plans may have gone off-track. Then, we’ll dig into how to turn things around so that you’ve got a sustainable writing plan for the rest of the year that fits into your life as it is, in all its complexity.

Five (Very Understandable) Reasons Why Your Novel-Writing Plans May Have Gone Awry

Writing a novel is often a messy and complicated process … and whether you’ve hit a roadblock in the writing itself, you’ve lost motivation, or life is just plain busy, it’s no surprise that you’ve not managed to get as much writing done as you hoped.

Here are some of the most common reasons I see for novels going off track—in my own writing life, with my Writers’ Cafe members, and when I work with people through one-to-one coaching.

Reason #1: Life Got In the Way (Big Time)

Life happens! And sometimes, however good your writing plans looked in January, life brings up something unexpected.

Perhaps one (or more) of these major events has happened. (Every single one of these has happened to one or more writers who I know…)

• You’ve had more responsibilities dumped on you in your day job.
• You found out you have a baby on the way.
• You had a flare-up of a chronic condition.
• You (or a loved one) suffered an injury or major illness.
• You’ve taken on caring responsibilities for an elderly relative whose health is declining.
• You went back to university as a mature student.

Whatever happened, and whether it’s a happy or sad situation, it’s something big that’s taking up a huge chunk of your time and (most likely) a lot of your energy and focus too.

Reason #2: Life Got in the Way (Smaller Things)

Sometimes, there’s no one major event that precedes writing plans going off-track. Perhaps it’s more like a steady drip-drip-drip of little things that add up.

It could be almost anything, like:

• Your child has moved to a new school – affecting your family schedule.
• Your partner has increased their hours at work (so you’re doing more of the chores etc).
• You’re feeling a bit stressed and not sleeping as well as usual.
• You’ve taken on a new volunteer role in your church, community, etc.
• You’ve had some kind of technological issue (e.g. your trusty laptop isn’t working well).
• You’ve been a bit run down or had some minor health issue that’s taking a toll.

Any one thing like this might be manageable, but if several little things are all going on at once, it can easily wipe out your writing time — and your energy levels.

Reason #3: You Had Hopes … but No Firm Plans

Maybe nothing exactly went wrong, and your usual busy life has continued from 1st January up until today. But despite all your hopes of fitting in hours of writing each week, there never quite seemed to be time.

I’m often baffled by how quickly my time seems to fill up. It often seems like I’ll surely have some spare hours to write—but they don’t quite seem to emerge.

Maybe it’s the same for you. That spare time you were anticipating never appears. You wanted to write, say, 2,000 words every week … but most weeks, you get to Sunday evening and you’ve written little or nothing.

Reason #4: You Got Stuck With the Writing Itself

One of the most common reasons I see writers struggling is because they’ve got stuck at some stage of the novel-writing process.

This can happen at almost any point, but a few common ones are:

• Being stuck on the starting line, with character sketches, an outline, etc, but not knowing quite how to begin.
• Getting bogged down in the “saggy middle” of the story.
• Hitting a problem or plot hole that’s not easy to work around.
• Finishing a first draft, then feeling worn out or totally unmotivated for redrafting.

If you’re stuck on the writing itself, it can be particularly hard to know how to move forward. Often, writers wait for a solution to come or wait to feel inspired … but they may find that instead, they feel more and more disconnected from their story.

Reason #5: Self-Doubt (or Even Guilt) Crept In

Writing fiction can be wonderful and fulfilling … but it can also leave you doubting yourself. Almost every writer I’ve ever known has had feelings of self-doubt.

Another really difficult emotion that can come up is guilt—especially if you have a lot of other responsibilities in life. Some writers suffer both ways: they feel guilty when they take the time to write and they feel guilty when they don’t write.

Some of these reasons might be helpful to explore through journaling, with a trusted friend or family member, or even with the support of a therapist. But in this article, I want to focus on some practical ways forward.

Whatever the reason you’ve stalled, these steps should help you come up with an achievable plan for the rest of the year.

How to Turn Things Around in the Second Half of 2025

Before we get into planning, I want to be clear about what you won’t be doing as part of this!

You won’t be giving up important things in your life. Sometimes, we get the impression that writing success involves almost superhuman feats. But that’s probably not realistic for you.

So as we plan for the rest of the year, we won’t be sacrificing:

• Sleep! (It’s very hard to be creative or stick to plans if you’re exhausted.)
• Family time. If you have kids—mine are 10 and 12—you probably want to spend time with them.
• Other hobbies (or downtime). I won’t suggest you give up TV, drop your book group, etc.

The good news? You can still get a lot done between now and the end of December.

Working Out a Good Weekly Writing Goal

Let’s say that, on January 1st, your goal was to draft a novel this year.

You wrote 2,000 words in January … and nothing since. Still very salvageable.

If your goal is 80,000 words and you’ve got 78,000 left, and 26 writing weeks remaining:

78,000 ÷ 26 = 3,000 words/week

That’s ~430 words/day (daily) or ~600 words/day (weekdays only).

Even if you’re reading this later in 2025, here’s a rough breakdown:

How much of your novel do you have left? Work out your target word count per week.

Note: A weekly goal often works better than a daily one. But choose what suits you.

How to Make and Protect Your Novel-Writing Time

3,000 words a week takes more than quick snatches of time. You’ll probably need 3–6 hours/week.

Try this:

#1: Set Aside Dedicated Timeslots for Writing in Your Calendar

Blank space on your calendar won’t stay blank. Block specific times for writing.

#2: Write Early in the Day, if You Can

It’s often easier to protect time earlier in the day. Not because it’s magically better—just less likely to get eaten up.

#3: Look Ahead in Your Calendar for Bigger Chunks of Time

Can you find a future weekend to block out? A full Saturday and Sunday could equal 8,000 words.

#4: Minimise and Tackle Distractions and Interruptions

Turn off notifications. Let others know you’re unavailable. Don’t let one interruption derail your whole writing session.

What Could You Achieve by the End of December?

Don’t give up on 2025 just yet. You could:

• Complete a full draft of your novel—however rough. Massive achievement!
• Finish a revised second or third draft.
• Build a solid writing habit and strong momentum for 2026.

If you’d like some support, join us in Writers’ Cafe. It’s just $5 for your first month. You’ll get access to live writing hours, prompts, forums, and more.

Find out more about Writers’ Cafe here.

Or, if you’d like personal feedback and accountability, my coaching might be a great fit.