In 2025, I learned a lot about stress and how I handle it (the good and the bad). There were plenty of rises and falls as I lost writing gigs, gained lots of stress-inducing clients, and battled a woe-is-me perspective throughout it all.
With 2026 on the rise, I was wary of taking on any official resolutions (as Sue said recently in her blog post, I'm not a big fan of them either). They end up feeling like false attempts at starting something that just doesn't work out. Yet, as January rolled around and the year's momentum began, I decided: why not try again?
Instead of taking on fresh and new goals, I grabbed a page from my naively hopeful self of 2025. I had started the year by doing one act of creative writing a day. My energy for that wavered a bit as the year went on, but it gave me a strong start. I look back feeling good about those efforts.
This year, I took on the same challenge. While we're only 7 days into 2026, I've done a bit of writing for each day this year. It's not been much, but putting myself back into the creative process has been energizing.
As you look ahead to your writing goals this year, don't be afraid to take a chapter out of your own page book. Consider it like a cheat method in a video game. What has worked for you in the past? Can you mimic or recreate those processes to give yourself a strong start again?
We don't always have to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes, we just need to go back to what worked for us before.
Nicole Pyles is a writer living in Portland, Oregon. Her writing has appeared in Sky Island Journal, Arlington Literary Journal, The Voices Project, The Ocotillo Review, and Gold Man Review. A poem of hers was also featured in the anthology DEAR LEADERS TALES. Her short story, “The Mannequin of Lot 18,” was nominated for Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy for 2024. Since she’s not active on social media very much, stay in touch by following her writing blog at World of My Imagination.
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