Small New Year's Resolutions For Writers

With this year drawing to a close and a new one dawning in just a few short days, many people are reflecting on the past twelve months (I'll be posting my own wrap-up here on December 31) and making plans for those ahead. And keeping with tradition, I'll be sharing my writing goals in my first January post.

We're encouraged to dream big, especially around the start of a new year, and a common goal is picking up a new hobby or creative outlet—and for many, that might mean finally writing the book they've always dreamed of!

But here's the thing about big New Year's resolutions: they often fall through. We're pretty enthusiastic and brimming with hope and holiday spirit when we make those resolutions, and likely have been since retailers put their decorative wares on the shelves in October if not sooner and your local radio station has been playing the same forty-three Christmas songs on loop since a week before Thanksgiving (a chunk of which are the same song in different fonts). Once life returns to normal, though, that motivation becomes harder to maintain.

And if you're like me, falling short of your goals flat-out sucks, leaving you feeling defeated and deflated.

That's why I've taken to setting smaller goals. That's not to say I don't have those big goals—believe me, I do—but those smaller goals are less intimidating and therefore easier to take on alongside those bigger ones.

Looking for some small New Year's resolutions to keep your writing on track? You've come to the right place.

Build A Steady Writing Habit

An incredibly common bit of writing advice you'll hear is that you must write every single day. No exceptions. No excuses. Even if it's only 100 words, you must write every day without fail.

It's an admirable goal, but it's not always realistic or sustainable.

Stuff happens. Things come up, like illness or injuries and power outages. There are responsibilities we can't neglect, and prioritizing them might leave our writing on the back burner.

Not to mention writing every day is a common cause of burnout.

Instead of aiming to write every day, make a resolution to build a steady writing habit. That will look different for everyone. For example, if you typically have Thursdays off, it could become your main writing day, while additional writing can be squeezed in if you have spare time. Or you use the time you're waiting for your kid's soccer practice to wrap up to get a smidge done. That way, you're still working on your WIP consistently, but without the pressure or guilt that can come with missing a day of a more rigid schedule (even if it's because of something out of your control).

Read For Quality Over Quantity

This was one of my own resolutions from last year, and it's one I'll be taking up from here on out.

When setting bookish goals for the new year, it's common for readers to aim for a certain number of books read by the end of the year; I've seen posts anywhere from finishing twenty to a hundred.

The number of books you read in a year is contingent on several factors, including the time you have available for reading, your reading speed, and the length of the book, to name a few.

I've also found that reading with a numerical goal in mind makes it less enjoyable for me. It puts me in competition with myself and others. I've ended up rushing through books just to finish them instead of savoring them. And if we're only counting books read cover-to-cover, it can mean slogging through books I would have otherwise DNFed.

Even as a writer who has a habit of overanalyzing what I'm reading from a craft standpoint, reading should be enjoyable. Chasing a fixed quantity of reads can make reading less fun.

That's why I've started reading for quality over quantity. I'm more focused on choosing reads that spark my intrigue than I am on how many I can get through. I've gradually learned to be okay with DNFing books I don't vibe with and moving on to something I'll like better.

And since I'm enjoying what I'm reading, I end up reading more! Reading for Quality over quantity sounds like a small change, but it amounts to a substantial difference. It aligns with how books end up on my mile-long TBR in the first place: because I want to read them, not because I have to.

Learn Something New Every Day

You'll often see me say writing is an art of evolution. It's a process of discovery, trying new approaches, and finding out what works and doesn't work for you both as a writer and as a reader.

Learning is an essential part of being a writer, whether we're doing research for our stories, finding inspiration, or improving our skills—and that makes the resolution of learning something new every day worthwhile.

Maybe that means picking up a fact-of-the-day calendar or signing up for an emailed one, listening to a nonfiction audiobook or podcast while you get things done around the house, watching interviews with your favorite authors, or finding new educational pages to follow on social media.

You don't know what you don't know until you know that you don't know it.

Even if it's only in bite-sized sessions, making the effort to learn something new every day will not only make you a better writer but a more well-rounded human.

Reduce Screen Time

The nature of the digital age has made us writers dependent on our screens.

Modern tech allows us to write more efficiently than ever before, and the plethora of writing software on the market makes it easy to curate a setup with the tools that work best for our individual needs. So much of our research is just a few clicks away. We're able to find community and friendships through social media and so much of our networking is done in the digital landscape, too.

We absorb so much content when we power on our devices, and that can leave us feeling mentally cluttered.

Screens are integrated in virtually every aspect of our day, especially in our writing, which might make a resolution to cut down on screen time feel impossible.

I'm not saying you quit cold turkey. Just reduce it a teeny bit to start and go from there. Scaling back can help with that feeling of having too many tabs open in your brain and reboot your focus.

Use The Pretty Notebook

Writers are known to collect notebooks (especially if they gravitate towards handwritten drafts). They're also known for not writing in the pretty notebooks they've collected.

This can happen for several reasons. You might worry about damaging the covers if you take your notebook on the go. You might find yourself waiting for the story idea that fits the vibe of your notebook or worried about ruining the notebook with ideas or writing that aren't "good enough" to be worthy of the pretty notebook.

But a pretty notebook isn't going to waste when you're writing in it. It goes to waste when it's stashed in a drawer and collecting dust, never to be used.

Challenge yourself to use the pretty notebook. You'll be surprised by how freeing it can be to write when you're not fretting over whether or not your writing is good enough for those pages.

Small New Year's resolutions aren't meant to stand in the way of larger ones. They can actually work in tandem, with smaller goals making your larger ones, like writing the book of your dreams, easier to manage.

What goals will you be setting in the new year? Do any of these smaller resolutions inspire you? What would you add to the list? Share your thoughts in the comments of this post and stay tuned for my 2026 goals in just a few days.