Blogmas Day 21 - My 2026 writing goals
One of my three primary focuses for next year is to become a more polished writer and build out a portfolio I can one day use to land freelance jobs. While writing more or becoming a better writer is a goal of some sort every year, I very rarely get specific which would probably be a good reason for why nothing every really happens with it from year to year.
So in a similar fashion to my Blogmas Day 2 post where I talked about my reading goals for 2026, here are my writing goals for next year.
Write 100,000 words for the year
I've learned that seeing word counts is very rewarding to me, so one of the easiest ways for my to keep up with a consistent writing routine is to set a word count goal I can work towards throughout the year. The aim is 25,000 words per quarter which is about 8,400 words a month and just under 100 words a day.
Rewrite my poetry book
Two years ago I self-published a poetry book with poems I had written over the course of 5 years. From the moment I had the physical copy in my hand and read it, I abhorred it. It just did feel like something I was proud of. Since then I haven't written much poetry, but it's still something I would like to do and get better at. So for 2026, I'm going to spend time learning some formal poetry craft and techniques and apply them to those poems. The goal is to re-publish those poems and actually feel proud of them.
Submit to at least 3 literary magazines
...And hopefully get some sort of a response. I've submitted my work a few times and have heard absolutely nothing which is very unhelpful. My goal is to submit to a few lit magazines that have clear submission guidelines and are known for at least letting the writer know if their submission was read or not. I'm fully prepared to be rejected, but the primary objective of this particular goal is to get in the practice of putting my work out there.
Join a writing group
This one makes me nervous because as it turns out, I'm not as social as I thought I was. I'm actually pretty damn shy and connecting with strangers has gotten a lot harder for me over the last few years. I know that joining a group is not only a great opportunity to meet other fellow writers(writing can be such a lonely occupation) but also a good idea for getting actual feedback that I can use to improve my writing. This is by far the scariest goal I have, but it's likely the most important one.
Share my fiction writing
Okay, so maybe joining a writing group isn't the scariest goal. I started anonymously writing fanfiction as a preteen, but have never once put a piece of original fiction out into the wild with my name and likeness attached. The very thought of it kind of makes my butt hole clench if I'm being honest. But similarly to joining a writing group, this is another way for me to get familiar with feedback loops that will ultimately help me become a better writer.
And that's it! These goals are probably not going to change because it took me way too long to settle down and admit that this what I need to focus on. Had this been written by Gina from January of this year, there probably would be some overly ambitious goal to write the first draft of a novel or submit to 100 hundred lit mags or something like that. Thankfully December Gina has her head on straight and understands that big goals make her squeamish.
Anyways, talk to you tomorrow.
Catch up on Blogmas