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.
1. Seek God First: Know Your Reader Through His Eyes
Before you write a single word, ask God: Who are You sending me to?
This isn't just a nice spiritual exercise. This is strategy. God knows your reader better than you do—their struggles, their longings, the questions keeping them up at 3:00 a.m. He knows what they need to hear and how they need to hear it.
Your writing becomes exponentially more powerful when you know you're not just throwing words into the void. You're writing to specific people with specific needs, and God is orchestrating the connection.
Ask yourself:
Who am I writing to?
What do they need that my writing can address?
What problems are they facing?
What questions can I answer based on Scripture and my life experiences?
Jesus knew His audience. He recognized and spoke to the diverse histories of His listeners. His Word took into account people's personal struggles and authentic needs.
You can do the same. But first, you have to ask. And then you have to listen.
2. Build Your Audience While You Write
One of the biggest mistakes I see writers make is this: they write in isolation for months or years, and then suddenly, when the book is done, they try to build an audience.
It doesn't work that way.
Your future readers want to journey with you. They want to know you before they know your book. They want to watch you wrestle with ideas, hear your voice develop, feel connected to you as a person.
Start now:
Show up consistently on social media (even if it's just once a week)
Start an email list and send something valuable regularly
Share what you're learning as you're learning it
Let people into your process
You don't need a massive following before you publish. But you do need some following—people who already trust you, who are already invested in your work, who will show up on launch day because they've been with you all along.
Platform building isn't self-promotion. It's relationship building. And relationships take time.
3. Schedule It: Commit to a Writing Practice
Here's the truth: You mustn’t only write when you "feel inspired." You must also write when you've decided to write, regardless of how you feel.
William Faulkner said, "I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately, it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp."
He was being facetious, but he was also telling the truth. Inspiration shows up for those who show up.
Create a writing ritual:
Set a time. Same time, as many days as you can. Your brain will start anticipating it.
Set a place. A physical space that signals "this is where I write."
Set a goal. Not "write when I feel like it" but "500 words a day" or "3,500 words a week."
I use a combination of time blocking and the Pomodoro Technique. Twenty-five minutes of focused writing, five-minute break. Repeat. It keeps me fresh and prevents burnout.
You might prefer Morning Pages—three handwritten pages first thing in the morning, stream of consciousness. Many writers find this loosens the writing muscles and clears mental clutter.
Find what works for you. Then do it consistently.
4. Decide What You're Saying (And How You'll Say It)
You can't write a book if you don't know what the book is about.
I know that sounds obvious, but I work with writers all the time who start writing without clarity on their message. They have a vague sense of what they want to say, but they haven't distilled it down to its essence.
Before you write 50,000 words, answer these questions in one or two sentences:
What is my book about?
What do I want my reader to know, feel, or do by the end?
Why does this message matter right now?
Then decide how you'll say it. Genre matters:
Nonfiction/self-help?
Memoir?
Fiction?
Children's book?
Each genre has its own conventions, its own expectations. Choose wisely. And don't try to merge genres (like writing both a memoir and a self-help book at the same time). Pick one. Master it.
5. Organize It: Choose Your Structure
Once you know what you're saying and how you'll say it, organize it.
For nonfiction, consider these structures:
The How-To: Step-by-step instructional
The Essay Book: Problem-solution, thought leadership
The List Book: Curated collection around a theme
The Parable/Memoir: Story-driven teaching
Your structure should serve your message and your reader. Don't force a structure that doesn't fit just because someone told you "all books need to be structured this way."
Let your message dictate the form.
6. Decide How You'll Get It to Them
Will you pursue traditional publishing? Independent publishing? Hybrid?
You don't have to decide this in January, but you should be thinking about it. Because each path requires different preparation:
Traditional: You'll need a polished proposal, platform, and agent
Independent: You'll need budget, team (editor, designer, marketer), and distribution plan
Hybrid: You'll need to understand what services you're paying for and why
Start researching now. Understand what each path requires so you can plan accordingly.
7. Research It: Gather Your Materials
Great writing is built on great research.
Before you draft, collect:
Interviews with people who've lived your topic
Stories and anecdotes that illustrate your points
Statistics and data that support your claims
Biblical or scholarly research that deepens your authority
Keep a research file. Every time you read something relevant, clip it. Every time you hear a great story, write it down. When you sit down to write, you'll have material to draw from.
8. Stay Filled and Inspired
Writing depletes you. You're pouring out ideas, emotion, energy. If you don't refill the well, you'll run dry.
How do you stay inspired?
Read widely. Not just books in your genre, but poetry, fiction, memoir, theology, history. Let other voices sharpen yours.
Worship. Spend time in God's presence. Let Him remind you why you're doing this.
Rest. Take walks. Take naps. Take Sabbaths. Your brain needs space to process and create.
Create a ritual. Light a candle when you sit down to write. Play a specific playlist. Whatever signals to your brain: It's time to create.
You can't write from an empty tank. Fill yourself first.
9. Fast and Pray: Consecrate Your Writing
I'll be honest: this is the strategy most writers skip. But it's the one that changes everything.
Fasting humbles us and gives us access to the supernatural grace of God. In Psalm 35:13 and again in Psalm 69:10, David says he humbled himself through fasting. And James 4:6 tells us that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
Grace is the supernatural ability to do amazing things for God. And as hard as writing is, we need His grace to do it well.
Consider a Daniel fast during intense writing seasons—cutting out rich foods and distractions, focusing your body and spirit on God and the work He's called you to.
Prayer allows you access to what God knows. Jeremiah 33:3 says, "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know."
When you combine fasting and prayer with your writing, you're not just writing from your own knowledge and experience. You're tapping into divine wisdom.
The Invitation
The world needs what you have to say. But you won't say it by accident. You'll say it because you've set up practices that sustain you, structures that support you, and spiritual disciplines that empower you.
Start well. Not just strong but well.
2026 is waiting for your words.
Which of these nine strategies do you most need to implement? Tell me in the comments—I'd love to cheer you on.
Want help implementing these 9 strategies with other writers? My Write Your Book cohort starts January 27—and we'll build these practices together over 12 weeks. Registration ends January 26.