📚Kyla’s Musings: I drafted a book in 3 weeks!
+my new year resolutions because this year is about being more ~cultured~
Hi friends!
Happy 2025!! I didn’t have the best start to the new year, but I’m trying to get my life back on track now.😊 I know January 1st is just an arbitrary date, and that New Year’s resolutions are nothing more than meaningless goals we set to trick ourselves into feeling better—dadadadeda. But I like resolutions! And I like getting myself into the mindset of wanting to make my life better and make myself better.
No books out this year?!
This is the first year since 2022 that I don’t have any books coming out… And after releasing two novels in 2024—Valley Verified at the start of the year, May the Best Player Win towards the end—I’m ready to just enjoy a year of downtime. Downtime being a relative word, since I still have to work on my 4th book Heirs of Infamy (coming out next year!)
I also have to continue promoting the three books I’ve already published. Speaking of which, if you’d like to bring me in as a speaker to your company/school/organization, just—
Anyway, I’m looking forward to putting my newfound free time to other pursuits.
My new year resolutions
In 2025, I aim to be more ~cultured~. Last year, I spent so much time generating stories that I didn’t have as much time and mental bandwidth as I’d like to consume stories. And I fervently believe that we become better storytellers when we actively expose ourselves to new forms of inspiration, in the form of books, movies, shows, music, exhibitions, etc.
So my big word for 2025 is Culture.
(Which I know a lofty word, but new year resolutions + loftiness are a tale as old as time.)
And towards that end, here are some smaller goals:
Attend at least one workshop/lecture/seminar/talk every month. It can be in-person or virtual, and it shouldn’t have anything to do with books.
Attend at least one book event every month. It can be in-person or virtual.
Read at least one new book every week.
Read at least one non-fiction book every month.
Attend at least one exhibition every month.
My non-culture goals:
Use up my pilates pass and stop skipping classes (oops).
Spend 15 minutes decluttering every day.
Yeah, that’s about it. No work-related goals this year… :)
A new book! My 5th book!
And over the Christmas-to-New Year break, I found myself with a bunch of free time on my hands. So I got the urge to start writing… And voila! I drafted my fifth book over three weeks. At ~70k words, I think this is the shortest first draft I’ve ever written…? It felt incredibly fun to write just for the sake of writing, without any pressure or expectation.
You might see that I wrote zilch on Jan 4 and Jan 5. That was when I discovered a big plot hole and I spent two days trying to work out the kinks.
I’m trying out a new genre (thriller)… and having a lot of fun with it! My books are becoming increasingly gory—Heirs of Infamy centers on underworld crime; this one is a murder whodunit. (I kid, they’re really not that gory.)
If anyone’s interested in beta-reading, hit me up and I can share more details about the story with you.😏
☝️And that’s me doing a TV interview for May the Best Player Win! It was the coolest experience and I’m glad that my outfit (unintentionally but nicely) matched the backdrop.😉
That’s all for now. A pretty short newsletter to kick off the new year. I hope you all have a marvelous rest of your January. <3
All my best,
Kyla
Wow! Congrats on the draft, let's go 2025!!
Heirs of Infamy sounds amazing, looking forward to it!