2026 Get Started Right Writing Challenge: Day 1

Happy Monday! And welcome to the first day of the 12-day 2026 Get Started Right Writing Challenge! After prudently taking the first few days of the month off, I'm excited to get this year started off on the right foot and will be participating as well.

For the first day, make a list of at least 3-5 writing goals for 2026. These can be straight up writing goals, like write a page of fiction each day, and/or publishing goals, like submit a query each week. Or maybe promotion goals, reading goals, socializing goals. They're your goals; so you get to decide.

It's OK if you get a little overly ambitious with some of these goals, but I suggest you make most of them achievable (even if they're tough goals). For instance, it's probably a bit out of your control to expect a Pulitzer or Nobel this year. Share your list in the comments below.

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Here's my list of writing goals for 2026:

Write 1,500 words per week.
Write at least one poem per week.
Read a new book each month.
Finish the first draft of a novel. (My kids keep pressuring me on this one.)
Put together a collection of poems.
Make at least one poetry submission each month.
Attend at least four in-person literary events during the year.
Check in on my progress on the first day of each month.

This is nearly the same list I always make, but this year I added an eighth goal that I hope helps me keep on the straight and narrow (by checking in on myself at the beginning of each month). We'll see if that small tweak can help me along, because my kids are really getting impatient with me on goal number four.

What are your goals?

2026 Get Started Right Writing Challenge goals goals for writing Reading Goals writing goals

Robert Lee BrewerAuthor

Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of Solving the World's Problems, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.