Story Magic

114 - Happy New Year! 2025 Wrap, 2026 Dreams

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Today, Emily & Rachel talk about their 2025 years, and what they hope for 2026!

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Rachel:

Hey, writers. Welcome back to Story Magic, the podcast that will help you write a book you're damn proud of.

Emily:

I'm Emily.

Rachel:

And I'm Rachel.

Emily:

And today we are talking about the new year. Welcome back, everybody. It's been a minute.

Rachel:

Hello. Happy New Year. We took another break, but we're back for real this time.

Emily:

We are, man, 2025. It really tested us. We are recording this ahead of time because we are preparing episodes because that is something we learned this year that might be nice to try. So.

Rachel:

Well, we did that for a while.

Emily:

And then we did.

Rachel:

We're like, we need to be more on the fly. And then we stopped. But then that has an unexpected consequence, which is when you're on the fly and you can't do something, then it doesn't get done.

Emily:

So. And a lot of things were on the fly this year. Yes.

Rachel:

Which is what we needed. I mean, I am not, like, sad that we had fewer podcast episodes last year.

Emily:

No. The stakes are zero. The stakes are nothing. Did you guys even notice?

Rachel:

You probably didn't even care. This is just something we do for fun, and if something happens where we can't record, then we just don't. We love the podcast. We do. And I think we. The reason that we love it is because we treat it like something that is fun for us to do, and it's not like a burden that we have to. That we have to do.

Emily:

Yeah. I think for so long, when we were thinking about doing a podcast, it was like, oh, well, it has to, you know, hit certain numbers, and you have to do it in a certain way, and you have to, like, show up in a certain way. And there was, like, all this pressure to, like, pre sell it, like, all this stuff, and we were like, we're never going to do it if we take it that seriously. And I just don't think everything in life needs to be taken 110% seriously. So a few. Most things don't need to be taken 110% seriously. So. Yeah. So that's why we're here. That's why we're. We're still. We're still here. We're still doing. This is one of those things that falls off when life gets crazy. And life got crazy a lot this year, and that's. That's why we designed it this way.

Rachel:

Exactly. We've heard from quite a few people that. That 2025 was a shitty year. And it was. If you had a great year, I'm very happy for you. I think it was not a Great year. It just was a lot of chaos. It was. A lot of. It was very draining. I think 25 was very draining. I did a lot.

Emily:

Cool.

Rachel:

Great for us. We accomplished many things.

Emily:

We did.

Rachel:

But the vibe was wrong all year.

Emily:

The vibe was definitely off. Yeah. I think you had a rougher year than me. For me, this year was a little. It was a little nice because it was like I hit that. That spot, that postpartum spot where my brain came back, and I'm not gonna lie, that was really nice. My brain came back. My life stabil stabilized a little bit. I think 2024 was a little more insane for me than 2025 ended up being. But that was my personal life. Everything outside my personal life is on fire.

Rachel:

Yeah. Yeah. The world is tough.

Emily:

The actual world is. Yeah. Yeah. Messed up.

Rachel:

So we're recording this mid December. I don't have high hopes that things will even out in the next two weeks. I truly hope we all have a great holiday, a great new year, but I don't think that when this episode comes out on January 1st, it's gonna be like, oh, my God, everything is so much better.

Emily:

No, No, I doubt it. The world's on fire. It's not. It's not a fire that's gonna be easily put out, unfortunately.

Rachel:

So we must carry on. I did, like. So Aaliyah, our amazing assistant, asked us to write these little, like, notes for 2025, wrap up on, like, the year, and she's gonna post em on social media. But I did that this morning, and one of the things that stuck with me as I was writing it this morning was that despite how shitty the year was, I'm really proud of how I think everyone persevered through it. I think in the writing community, there was a lot of, we have to continue. We have to go on. It's not always fun to make art when the world sucks, which we've talked about on the podcast before. But I do think this year we all persevered through it.

Emily:

Yeah.

Rachel:

And that's. That's a big deal. That's a. That's important to note.

Emily:

So. Yeah. Tenacious writing. So for anybody who's not familiar, we have an online program for writers called Tenacious Writing. And it is part program with lots of mindset and craft resources and part community. And I think all the time about how I feel like Tenacious Writing is half of the reason I still have sanity and hope. Me too. Because it's just a lot of people who are all, you know, facing down the same Fire and sort of trying to take care of ourselves so we can take care of the world and, like, looking at things in an anti, you know, without shame, but with so much love and empathy and just from a place of, like, the more we can be better to ourselves, the better we're going to be to the world and the better the world's going to be. And I think art is a huge part of that. And so it's, you know, watching people persevere through the community and watching people keep showing up for themselves and for others just gives me, like, it's. If I didn't have that, I. I think there would be a gaping hole in my life. Like, I would not have as much hope as I do. So. Thank you guys for being in our live.

Rachel:

Yeah.

Emily:

Lives. Lives.

Rachel:

Thank you, tw. But also, you guys listening, like, we like to have fun with you, even though we don't know every single one of our listeners personally. And this is something we do to have fun. Like the podcast. I. We're all in it together. That's my vibe. Like, that's what I feel like is we're at least we're not alone.

Emily:

Yeah.

Rachel:

And, like, thank goodness for the Internet in all of its complexities. I wouldn't, you know, my in real life friends don't do this. They're not writers. I don't have a lot of in real life writer friends, so my friends live on the Internet, and without the Internet, I probably wouldn't have friends 100%. I would just be lonely. No, but, like, that's. I live on my computer. I was joking. We recorded an episode or we recorded something with some good friends of ours, and I was like, no, I have, like, a. A pair bond with my computer because all my friends live on it. Like, I'm looking at this screen and I'm like, this is where you exist and I know you outside of. Yeah, outside of the computer. So, like, I know what your body looks like, but for many of my friends, I just know what their face looks like.

Emily:

How tall are you? Are you.

Rachel:

How tall are you? What do you look like? I just see your little face on a box. But it's important to me.

Emily:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rachel:

I have, like, real relationships with people.

Emily:

There's so much support and camaraderie that can come through the screen. And if there's something to be grateful for, the Internet, it's that for sure.

Rachel:

Exactly. Yeah. Which I think we all. We all need right now because it's not fun.

Emily:

Well, what did you accomplish and learn this year.

Rachel:

I did a lot. You did?

Emily:

Against all odds.

Rachel:

Against all odds. Against the world and the universe and my body fighting against me. Well, I mean, I. I published Caught in the Crossfire, which was exciting, but I wrote, like, almost all of it this spring, and it's like 150,000 words. And then I rewrote 50,000 or more of those words, like, from scratch. Then I revised all of those words all over again. And, like, there were a lot of rewrites to that book. So we rewrote a lot of things. All of that revision, all of that work over the summer. In the spring and the summer. And then that came out. Yeah, basically. And then that came out. And then I. You know, in our personal life, I was really sick. Um, I wrote an email about this. I had a lot of health problems this last year, and it was really annoying and very draining and stressful because it just seemed like what I was used to my body doing was no longer the same. So it was all. It was doing all sorts of weird things at all times and, like, not really letting up. Then we bought a house. We owned our house in Arizona, but we sold it when we moved to Colorado. And then we've been, like, renting. So we bought a new house, moved into the new house, had family, rose, went to kindergarten, all that stuff this fall. And then I started drafting my fourth book, and that is currently at, like, 65 or more thousand words. But the last couple weeks, I've put it on a little bit of a back burner because I've been so tired. Definitely, like, a little bit of burnout, but also, like, a very real physical, like, medical fatigue, which is not necessarily, like. I think that's part of what I was learning was that my, like, the energy reserves that I have are not the same, and they weren't this year. Like, I was much more prone to illness. I was much more prone to migraine. And because of those things, my energy reserves were lower than I was used to. So I kind of had to adjust. Like, the habits that last year, in 2024, would not have affected me at all. Just somehow the habits this year were, like, a lot more draining.

Emily:

Yeah.

Rachel:

Yeah. So I feel like, you know, I don't know that I. I learned any brand new lessons. I'm sure that I did, but just the stuff that kept showing up was like, take care of yourself, please, and stop. Like these. You can. You can only achieve as much as your body will really let you achieve on, like, a timeline. I mean, I. Not to say that you can't achieve things outside of, like, if you have chronic illness or anything or like, disability, because you absolutely can. But for me, it was very much like you're pushing yourself to a limit that is always changing right now. So you need to, like, adapt to that limit and get used to or like, really listen to how your body's working presently. So we'll see if 26. 2026 is any different. I don't know if it will be better, worse, or the same. Um, but this year was very much, like, mindset wise. You have to take care of yourself and it's okay to slow down. And you might try really hard to meet, like, the goals and the timelines that you have, but those don't really matter if you end up being sick all the time. Yeah, for me. For me. Um, so, yeah. What about your year?

Emily:

Big year? Um, yeah, so last January feels like a million years ago. So last January, I was finishing up Molten up in Molten Lights, which is the sequel to my Crimson Curtain series that was published by an Amazon publishing house. And so I finished that up in January. And then I started a new project, which I've been calling Project Storm. And so I did seven drafts of that this year. It is a much shorter draft book than anything I've written before and certainly anything you have written. But. But yeah, so I did. So that was most of my year, was working on that project writing wise. And I learned a lot. I feel like this was the year of, like, redefining my life. Yeah. Well, just because, like. So I've told this story a million times, but. Right. I had my daughter, I sold my book, and then it was just chaos for like two years, a year and a half, really. Because, you know, there's. When you're pregnant and then postpartum, there's like all kinds of weird stuff going on with your brain and your body. And then you have a kid and like, everything is different once you have a kid. Your priorities have to change. But I feel like, um, my priorities were sort of all over the place. Cause I, you know, I had, like, my priorities, but then there were the priorities of, like, my publisher and like, deadlines and like, all these things and kids have needs. And so it was sort of. I feel like for like a year and a half, I was like, I don't even know. I'm just doing the things I need to be doing. I don't even know what I want to be doing.

Rachel:

Right.

Emily:

Yeah. So this was the year where, you know, I was out of contract by January. And so I got to kind of redefine, like, what do. What do I want to write? How do I want to write? How often do I want to write? Like, what genres do I want to write? Like, I just feel like I never really answered any of those questions before I sold Crimson, which seems kind of weird, but I don't know. It's just. That's the kind of. You know, sometimes we don't know what we want until we're in the middle.

Rachel:

Exactly. Until you go through the. That experience, you can't contextualize what it means for your life.

Emily:

Yeah. So I kind of had like, this, well, what do I want my brand to be? What do I want? And that conversation was kind of happening as I was writing Project Storm. It was like, what genre is this book gonna be? I don't know. I don't think I knew until, like, draft four. So. So there was, like, writing stuff going on there. And then, you know, Molten came out and there was. I feel like there was this. So my series did fine. It did not do as well as I hoped that it was gonna do, and it did not get me another book deal. So my publisher. And I feel like this is important to tell people because sometimes these stories aren't told. And I'm not telling this from a place of shame or a feeling of, like, a failure or anything like that. It's just like, the reality is that my. My book did not do well enough for my publisher to buy my next book on Proposal. Right. And so that gave me both sort of like, this. I don't want to say that's the worst that could happen. Like, that's like, that's not what I mean. Right. That's not the worst that could happen by far. But there was this, like, sort of moment of like, oh, that didn't work, where I got to kind of face myself and be like, I had to let go of the self worth, like, completely. Like, the self worth ties to my art completely. And I feel like it was sort of a blessing in disguise in that way where it was sort of like, oh, this. You know, from other people's perspectives might look like a failure, but, like, I'm not a failure. Right. And I. And I feel like I finally. I had a lot of identity, and I think part of it was pregnancy hormones and postpartum hormones. But, like, you know, that anxiety of, like, my first before I need it to do good, it's like, tied to my self worth, you know, like, and I tried to separate myself because I Recognize. You know, I have been learning about mindset stuff for a long time, but I feel like with molten coming out and then like, you know, Amazon turning down my next project. It was sort of this moment of like, ah, this is not my work, is not me. I get to decide what happens next. So I'm going on submission with Project Storm in January and I'm actually feeling really chill about it. Someone's going to want it or they're not. Yeah. I love it. Yay. That's good. Yay. It's going to be one way or another and so yeah, so we're gonna see what happens. So. Yeah. Anyway, it was this, it was this year of being like, well, what actually matters to me? Where do I derive my self worth? Like my priorities are shifting away from, you know, what I thought my dreams were to more family oriented stuff and just like wanting to be with my kid more, not wanting to write like I did last year on like that crazy deadline. So just like, yeah, a lot of clarity I guess on what I want out of life, what I want out of writing and what I want things to be. That said, 2026 feels a little bit like a black hole. Cause I don't know what's going to happen.

Rachel:

Right.

Emily:

Yeah, I don't have, you know, like I've had deadlines and things and you know, I had to get proposal out to Amazon to see if they wanted my next project which was something of a deadline. And now it's just kind of like, okay, I'm on submission, we'll see what happens.

Rachel:

There's a lot of different possibilities.

Emily:

Yeah. So my, my goals with 2026 are pretty much to just continue really being in check with like what it is that I want and what I want out of life and what my definition of success is and just trying to stay in tune with that and like do the things that make me happy and keep my bills paid.

Rachel:

Yeah.

Emily:

And you know, chill out a little bit on some of my crazy ambitious things that have driven me for the past.

Rachel:

Right.

Emily:

So yeah, anyway, yeah, that's my, that's my story.

Rachel:

I think one thing that's really interesting about both of our years is that you know, we've been doing book coaching and working with clients on mindset stuff and this, you know, on my side like resting and on your side identity for a very long time. These aren't like new concepts to us or like new lessons but, but like they never go away. It, this is just a constant learning of like. Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me or okay, now I can see this in a little bit new of a light. Or I'm, I'm interpreting this mindset thing in a new way. And now it's a slightly different meaning for me because it's these like groundbreaking. Your self worth is not tied to your art.

Emily:

Yeah.

Rachel:

But you have to like, learn that. You have to like go through that to like really internalize that. And I'm sure it'll be, it'll come back in five years. I mean, like, it's always going to be.

Emily:

It's gonna come back on January 12th when I go out on submission and the little gremlins are like, your baby's in the world. No, for sure. Absolutely.

Rachel:

It doesn't go away.

Emily:

Yeah, but I think it's. Yeah, it's like we talked about in an episode that you all are gonna listen to soon with Monica Hay about like, you know, training my nervous system to not be so activated by, you know, that self worth stuff which is gonna continue to pop up. I mean, it always does for everybody, right?

Rachel:

Yeah, but I mean, people have this misconception that like, you deal with it and then you move on and then it's like no longer a thing. And that's untrue of any aspect of life.

Emily:

Yeah.

Rachel:

I mean writing or writing related or non writing related. Like all of a sudden you'll be like, oh, I forgot how character arcs work. I have to go back or be like, oh, okay. All of a sudden my process is not the same because my body decided to do something stupid and now I can't, I can't function the same way. And so like these, these lessons, I suppose, or this learning journey is a circle all the time. There's no linear like experience in life. I think it's just always a circle.

Emily:

That used to give me so much anxiety. I'd be like, what do you mean? I can't get rid of my perfectionism. But no, I feel like the older I get, the more I'm just like accepting that life is constant change and change is triggering and everything just gotta come back up.

Rachel:

Exactly. That's the only thing that you can count on, is that you will be triggered again.

Emily:

Yeah.

Rachel:

And when that happens, how are you going to deal with it?

Emily:

100%.

Rachel:

I like to feel like, yeah, I like to feel like I'm getting better at dealing with it. I think that's probably the only change is, is as these problems continue to come up, my hope is that it gets, I get a little more awareness and how to acknowledge and, and process it and manage it so that it's, I don't want to say faster because it's not like a, I'm not like on a timeline to deal with my problems, but hopefully I just have a little more confidence in dealing with them or a little more knowledge in managing myself or others around me really, from mindset work.

Emily:

I think that's exactly, that's the goal. Well, we have some really cool things coming up for you guys in 2026. We are going to try to live our spoken values and we're going to, we're taking, we're going to take it light over the summer because we have kids now, kids in school. We're going to go, we're going to have more fun in the spring and fall. We've got a bunch of stuff planned and all of it is really juicy and fun. We've got some free events coming up, some low cost events coming up, some workshops coming up. We're just really excited. It's going to be a good, I think it's going to be a good year.

Rachel:

It is. We're going to continue to persevere and I hope it will be just a little more fun and maybe grounded than last year. Yeah, that'd be great. So if you are listening and you're not on our email list, you should be because that's where we talk about all the cool things that we're doing most of the time. I mean, we'll have some overlap into our podcasting, but if you want to be in touch with, you know, what is up with us, what's the latest drama or the latest hot take or like, why do we have to get on our email list? And you can do that@goldenmayediting.com subscribe.

Emily:

Yeah, we hang out all that. We just give tips, tricks, insights. It's a really fun little love letter to all our writing friends and then we, that's where we share the most up to date information about events and things that are happening.

Rachel:

So, so awesome.

Emily:

Definitely go check it out.

Rachel:

Well, happy New Year, everybody. We'll see you next week. If you want to build a successful, fulfilling and sustainable writing life that works for you, you've got to get on our email list.

Emily:

Sign up now to get our free email course, the Magic of Character Arcs. After seven days of email magic, you'll have the power to keep your readers flipping pages all through the night.

Rachel:

Link in the show notes. We'll see you there.

Emily:

Bye.