2025 Wrapped: Setting Attainable Goals

I am terrible about writing blog posts. Maybe that can be something to focus on in 2026 (she says, as if she hasn’t said that for the previous two years). Anyhoo… what did we accomplish in 2025?

In the wake of the downfall of NaNoWriMo, the head of my local writers group started something called The Write Brave Challenge: thirty days of focusing on your personal writing goal – whatever that might be. Some people set a word count goal, others a set an amount of time or number of pages they would write each day. There were virtual planning sessions, daily affirmations, and weekly virtual write-ins to keep us on track. We even doubled the challenge by having one in the Spring and one in the Fall.

For the Spring challenge my goal was to outline and plan out a new novel that I would then write during the Fall challenge. For the Fall challenge, my goal was to write 12,000 words of the new novel I had outlined in the Spring. Chat, I met both my goals!

The outlining was easier than I expected. Then, as long-time pantser, I found having a detailed outline to guide the story was a vital tool when it came time to actually write the story. We all wrote for 30 days. Some days I crushed my goal, others were more of a struggle but... I kept going. I didn’t finish the manuscript, and that’s okay. That wasn’t the goal. But the groundwork that has been laid will make it easier to continue when the time comes to pick that story up again.

December is absolute chaos at the day job, not to mention all the holiday planning going on this time of year so…no writing gets done during this month. But I love the end of December, when we start looking forward to the new year and all that is to come. What will 2026 bring?

·         Setting reasonable and achievable goals

·         Attending the weekly writers group meetups to stay on track

·         Writing Brave!

·         Allowing myself time to breathe

Whatever goals you set for yourself in 2026, make them measurable and attainable. Try starting small and growing your expectations slowly. Marathon runners don’t do 26 miles on their first day of training – they work up to it. Think about what your final finish line looks like, then map out the route to get there. Cheers to a new year!