From Edie: Learn how to set achievable writing goals for 2026 with practical strategies for planning your writing life, breaking big projects into manageable steps, creating deadlines, and finally finishing your book. A clear, encouraging guide to help writers build consistency and confidence in the new year.
How Writers Can Set Achievable Goals for 2026: A Practical Guide to Planning, Deadlines, and Finishing Your Book
by Larry J. Leech, II @LarryJLeechII
“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.”—Pablo Picasso
I first learned about goals when I married Wendy more than two decades ago. This time of the year, like many others, she starts thinking about goals for the following year. I thought it was silly. Probably because in my journalism career I spent most of the time living in the day-to-day. But I watched Wendy succeed in her personal life by setting goals.
Now, after weeks of thinking and jotting down notes, we spend a day at a coffee shop writing our goals for the coming year in various categories. For me, that includes spiritual, health, husband, father, now grandfather, to name a few, and, of course, my professional path.
