You’ve probably heard of all the standard New Year’s Resolutions: Exercise, lose weight, save money, and read books. All can be good ideas. But you could also mark 2026 with a new resolution:
Writing… either a book, short story, poem, or even a column or memoir.
There’s some debate about who first came up with idea of New Year’s Resolutions. Some credit a Boston newspaper in 1813. Others say it dates back to the Babylonians sometime in the B.C. era, where they celebrated “Akitu” in the spring, where people would thank the gods and “resolve to return their neighbors’ farm equipment” according to Iowa Public Radio. You hear that, Homer Simpson? Give Ned Flanders back his stuff!
Mine came not on January 1, but during the pandemic. My wife’s school told me they were secretly dedicating the yearbook to her, and could I provide some photos? Also, they interviewed me, asking what everyone in our family was doing during COVID-19. I told them about Beth making masks, my oldest kid learning how to play the guitar, and my youngest discovering online chess and playing his buddies.
“And what are you doing different during the coronavirus?” they asked. “Nothing,” I admitted, having just lost a few column-writing gigs.
So I thought I’d try something new, in case anyone asked that question later. Writing a fictional novel came to mind. When my grandkids would ask what I did during the pandemic, I would have a better answer for them. I spent the summer plotting it all out, and didn’t write my first words until I was quarantined over the Labor Day Weekend, when I churned out ten chapters.
Tim Grahl with Story Grid says that instead of writing a novel as your first work of fiction, you should start with a short story. That’s pretty good advice. But I did the next best thing: I sent my first few chapters to a professor at LaGrange College’s English Department. Rather than nominate me for a Pulitzer Prize for fiction, or even pat me on the back, I found out I was making a mountain of mistakes. I shook off my bruised ego the next day, looked over the comments, and made all of the badly needed improvements. Thank you Michael Bishop (and Jack Slay for short story feedback). I plugged away until I finished it in the summer of 2021.
I can’t tell you how much fun it was to write it. As Abbie Emmons would say, I am more of a plotter than “pantser,” but was flexible enough to make changes along the way. In fact, I liked it enough to submit it for publication. That’s when I made my next mistake. After several years, I now know a lot more about the publishing industry. But I found a great publisher in Huntsville Independent Press. When they brought me my author copies at Pretty Good Books, they performed a near miracle: they made me speechless.
Alyssa Matesic would say “Don’t chase the market.” Even though thrillers had seen better days, I enjoyed writing one about a professor and his students uncovering a conspiracy about a firm which specializes in a killer version of product placement and media manipulation. This novel, Branded, seems to be doing better than I could have ever hoped for a debut author.
Take writing classes. Listen to the podcasters I recommended in this article. Have some solitary time to write, but join a writing club to make connections and learn more about the publishing industry. Form a critique group and make some friends, and get some valuable feedback as well as give some as well. Publishing is very much a long shot, and being successful is like the odds of winning the lottery. But you can write something you can be proud of, and enjoy the experience, even if you don’t make millions of dollars.
And it can all start, or continue, in 2026.