Your 2026 Writing Resolutions: Believe. Begin. Persist.
In 2026 and beyond, I have some writing resolutions for you. Photo shows a writer with a pencil and a notebook.
Once upon a time, even after I had published some short stories and creative nonfiction essays and my first books, I held on to my imposter syndrome. As a writer with a day job, I believed that I didn’t “deserve” to take regular time away to write.
No more. Now I know that writing is not what I “do,” but who I am, and this believe underpins my 2026 writing resolutions and practice.
New Year’s Writing Resolutions 2026: Believe. Begin. Persist.
Believe: Ask our ancestors. Across all cultures and groups, we are all wired for narrative, for song, for storytelling and poetry. So let’s do what they’re telling us to do. Or let’s do what they were prevented or silenced from doing.
Know: Writing is good for our health. As well as being a creative act, over 300 clinical studies show that writing makes us feel better. Writing is a self-care tool that allows us to show up at our non-writing places (work, family, health issues) as our better or best selves.
Believe that you deserve to write. As a busy day-job worker or a family caregiver or both, writing is something that we deserve to do. For us. And, by extension, for how we show up for the people who need us. So why wait for some stranger or teacher or professor or editor to give us permission to be who we are?
Begin to write. This January, make yourself a New Year’s resolution or promise to write for 15 minutes, three times per week. Start small.
Persist. Build your habit. Find the time slot, the place or setting that works best for you.
Find some of the many online and in-person resources, prompts and creative writing workshops to get and keep you writing in 2026. Or watch my recent podcast interview on this topic (below)