9 Strategies for Starting Your Writing Year Well (Not Just Strong)
Every January, writers everywhere make the same promise: This is the year. This is the year I finish the book. This is the year I finally start.
By February, many of those promises have quietly gone unkept.
It's not because they lack talent or calling, or even time. Most often, it's because they approach their writing practice the same way they approach New Year's resolutions—with enthusiasm but no sustainable plan.
I don't want you to start 2026 strong only to fizzle out by March.
I want you to start well—with intention, with wisdom, with practices that will carry you through the whole year. Not just productive weeks, but a writing life that honors the whole person God created you to be: mind, body, and spirit.
Here are nine strategies to help you do exactly that.
History-Maker Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: Writer of Justice, Truth, and Liberation
Before there was Toni Morrison and Zora Neale Hurston, there was Frances Ellen Watkins Harper—a poet, abolitionist, suffragist—who in 1892 made literary history with the publication of Iola Leroy, one of the first novels published by an African American woman. But this was more than just a novel—it was a powerful refutation of the lies that had long been used to justify slavery.
Writing While Black: Baldwin, Wright, and the Weight of Place
James Baldwin once said that leaving America for Paris in 1948 was an act of survival: "The years I lived in Paris did one thing for me—they released me from that particular social terror which is not the paranoia of my own mind but a real social danger visible in the face of every cop, every boss, everybody."
Invisible Man and the Irony of Erasure
To be seen is not the same as being recognized. Invisible Man exposes how visibility can be conditional, transactional—even manipulated. As DEI rollbacks and book bans rise, Ellison’s novel feels eerily relevant.
"Mother to Son": The Gift of Black Literature and the Teachers Who Handed It to Me
When I stood before Mrs. Ogburn’s third-grade class to recite “Mother to Son,” I could feel my “childness” trying to hold something too large for my small hands—its mass and weight slipping through my fingers.
Welcoming Black History Month: Drawing on the Legacy of Black Literary Giants to Shape Our Present and Future
This Black History Month, let’s accept the invitation to immerse ourselves in the brilliance of our literary ancestors and receive their words as catalysts that spark our own.
The Pen, The Power, The Change: Honoring Dr. King Through the Act of Writing
Dr. King’s legacy teaches us that writing, when wielded with purpose and compassion, can shape movements, change minds, and transform entire societies.
10 Ways to Rethink Book Marketing in 2025
Marketing doesn’t have to feel like drudgery. If you’re an author who dreads promoting your book, it’s time for a mindset makeover.
Your Book Is Bigger Than Launch Week
If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that you never know what conditions in our world will impact a book’s sales and engagement.
WRITING WELL: 8 Ways to Infuse Emotion into Your Writing
Writing in a way that creates an effective and safe exchange between what's on the pages of your book and the reader's heart, mind, and actions is important. It's what helps bring the change, outcome, or transformation they seek. It's what keeps them reading.