Plan Your New Creative Year
Do you make plans for your new creative year? Or do you prefer to let it spool out on its own? If you’re a planner, now’s the time – the tail-end of 2025 – to focus on what you want for the coming year. (And keep reading for a free year-end planning offer from me, plus the link to purchase my creativity handbook on sale through year-end.)
I’m usually a middle-of-the-roader with this planning stuff. I like to think about broad outlines of my intentions, while leaving oodles of wiggle room for things to happen. With my music plans, however, I’ve gotten more specific. A lot more. Here, I’ll share with you my plans, for writing music and for writing sentences, in the new year. (Feel free to email me back with yours or schedule One Next Step.)
Full Moons 2026
Welcome to the Luna Project. On each of the thirteen full moons in 2026, I plan to release a short piece of music, a song without words. I started each one under the full moon whose name it bears, a while ago (during a year that, like 2026, had thirteen full moons).
And then life happened. Hand surgery, death in the family, moves, work changes, etc. The pieces never got completed or polished.
Now it’s time to give life to these little pieces written to honor the mystery and power of the full moon, which is often associated with abundance and completion. If you’re just now finishing something, might you want to observe the full moon as part of celebrating that ending? If you can’t wait to actually get to the end of something, might you want to invite the full moon to strengthen your resolve to get the thing done? Join me observing the tides and pulls of the moon as it cycles through the new year.
Starting on January 3, Wolf Moon will go live at the Anne Carley Creative website and on my Bandcamp page. Apple Music and other streaming services will follow (their processes take the time they take). I’ll post a link as well on my YouTube channel and on LinkedIn and Substack (the only social media I visit occasionally).
Will you join me? I’ll keep you posted here in my monthly newsletter and blog. (If you want to know each time a new Luna Project piece goes live over the year, subscribe to my YouTube channel.)
Music Plans
My most focused intention for 2026 is the Luna Project, mentioned above. I’m challenging myself to polish (and/or complete and polish) each of the thirteen pieces that have been languishing in a hard drive for too long. Not only that, but I’m upping the challenge to release each one on nature’s timetable, starting on January third and continuing through all thirteen (there’s a blue – second – moon in May) to December 24th. Each one is named from folklore – Wolf Moon, Strawberry Moon, Moon When All Things Ripen, etc. I love those names and the long traditions of meaning they carry.
Publicly challenging myself to do each one, on schedule, is a stretch. I think I can. I think I can! In preparation, I’ve been down a rabbit hole the past several weeks, educating myself about all the amazing changes that have been made to the music software I use, Logic Pro. Holy cow. It’s so different from the Logic I knew back when, the last time I worked with it regularly. I got excited, taking a Udemy course, to see entirely new capabilities that I can really use. I wake up in the night, happily imagining how these new features will assist me.
Now that I’m reacquainted with Logic, there are also a lot of other projects I’d like to revisit and complete (and begin). We’ll see how the time allocations sort themselves out over the coming year. Because there are sentences to get to, too.
Writing Plans
For my writing (sentences) in 2026, another, looser set of plans. I’m in the home stretch of awaiting responses from the final group of literary agents, and one publisher, I approached earlier this fall with my first novel, Andie Jordan. Once I hear from them, I’ll move ahead. Likely, this will mean making the decision to self-publish the novel. If I am surprised by an agent or publisher’s interest, then I’ll happily pivot to work with them toward publication. One way or another, I’m hoping the book will see the light of day – or be well on its way with a publisher – in 2026.
As to the other novels, I plan to make progress. The second is written but not yet polished. I’ll keep dipping into that one, from time to time. I find that’s the best way to approach this kind of finishing work. Expecting to immerse and stay immersed is not a good strategy for me, at this point in the process. Better to revisit it now and then. I think it helps keep the material fresh.
The third novel is not written yet. So far, I’ve been figuring out how it’s going to go, which character is going to narrate it, the dates the various characters lived, where, with whom, etc. Sketching out the biographies of the key players. Scouting the locations where significant events happened. What were the roads like in those mountains back then? I’m also enjoying noticing the little connections among various secondary characters from all three novels. Those two went to rival high schools back in the day. That one met the character’s child in another book. That sort of thing. I expect the sentences and scenes and chapters of this story will start accumulating during 2026.
What About You?
What about you? Is there a personal essay you’re close to completing? A painting that you love so much you’re not sure you can sell it? A short story you’ve been perfecting? A piece of music you’re delighted with? A novel that’s marooned in the mucky middle? A new print series that’s stretching your abilities? A play you can’t wait to see performed? What will your next steps look like?
Take one next step.
One Next Step
If I can help you think about these questions, get in touch. I offer One Next Step at this time of year, for that purpose.
It’s simple. Set up a free chat with me to brainstorm together. (Limited slots are still available this week, and then start up again after the holidays, on Tuesday 6 January 2026.)
Gift Idea
Looking for a last-minute gift for the creative people in your life? My creativity handbook, FLOAT: Becoming Unstuck for Writers, is not just for writers!
Reviewers have confirmed it:
“Just about anyone should be able to find one or more techniques to crack open a creative mind that is feeling constrained” Reviewer
“Part toolbox, part emergency first-aid kit, this is essential reading for writers and anyone else engaged in the creative process” N B
“FLOAT: Becoming Unstuck is a prescription written to aid blocked or frustrated writers—but it could also be used as an off-label prescription for other creative types who are having trouble finding a way forward.” Reviewer
“A must have for authors of all varieties. Actually for all artists, as well.” C O
“I had a hard time thinking of anyone who would not benefit from this book – be they artist, engineer, or manager wanting to motivate their staff.” J S
Get copies for your family and friends at a special year-end discount, from now through 31 December.
It’ll be mid-January 2026 the next time I write to you. Here’s to a satisfying holiday season, with a lovely balance of togetherness and solitude, activity and stillness.
As always, thanks for reading.
~ Anne