2025 in Review & 2026 plans

N.J. Lysk
6 days ago
2 min read

Updated: 5 days ago

2025 was the year I wrote the most (363,967 words) since the infamous 2018 (434,520). And in 2025 I did it while treating myself as a person instead of a word-producing-machine so I’m giving it extra points.

December (64,671 words) was actually the best month not just of the year but in recorded history since 2017, so that’s a nice way to end things! Also, hitting 65,000 just became my fairly achievable goal for January (or any month this year, because, yeah, I'm taking it easy).

Bar chart: Words written by N.J. Lysk from 2017 to 2025.

Why are you not seeing me publish millions of things? Turns out the older I get, the longer my novels do. But worry not, I have decided to write shorts set in different world books in 2026! I’m having so much fun and I’m actually considering only ideas that will be under 2k instead of pretending I can write a story in 10k and ending up with yet another WIP.

I have already done ones for The Mating Habits of Werewolves, Always His (short scene here!) and a crossover between The Alpha Solution and His Brother’s Dowry I think it’s deliciously evil. Which one you want first?

Prompt away if you got ideas for scenes you wanna see for your faves!

Drawn to You is very near the 160k mark now, but also only a couple chapters away from being done and then it’s time for me to work on the amazing commission story.

But wait, this is a review of 2025!

English books:

The Stars of the Pack: Glimpses of the Future (January)

Secret contemporary novel (unpublished, barely under 200k)

The Price of Ice (April, 170k)

The Way Back (April, 11k)

A Quiet Fire (October, 40k)

English audiobooks:

Alpha for the Pack + cut scene

The Stars of the Pack (volume 1)

Translations:

The Stars of the Pack: Glimpses of the Future (German, French & Italian)