Why I'm Starting 2025 With Small Writing Goals Instead of Big Ones

At this time of year, big goals like writing a novel take centre stage, but here's why I'm creating bite-sized goals for my writing.

Make getting it done easy

At 38, I have started and re-started a writing habit many times.

From experience, I write around 1000 words for a blog before the urge to wrap up my thoughts strikes. Finding the time to do this is hard and often leads to unfinished work. It makes sense to intentionally shrink my target word count to make the task easier to complete.

I'm keeping it easy to get my small wins to build momentum in my writing habit.

Cut the fluff

Microblogs, or atomic essays, as the Ship 30 for 30 course calls them (which inspired me to write shorter pieces), can improve your writing.

Purposefully trimming down 'useless' words is a good writing exercise. Casual writing has its equivalent of ummm's, uhhh's, and 'so like.' With a low word count, I must be careful about sentence structure and wasted words while communicating one whole idea.

I'm hoping that this attention to brevity spills over into verbal conversation.

Experiment with a narrow scope

Short essays will force me to stick to a narrow scope.

I often take a few loosely related ideas and tie them together when writing. I get a lot of satisfaction from connecting the dots. Short essays are my way of diving deeper into a single idea.

Adding variety to my writing practice by producing shorter content is simply an experiment to play around with.

In 2025, I'm keeping writing goals bite-sized by:

• Making it easy
• Keeping it brief
• Experimenting a bit

I want to stack many small wins and see how it affects my writing.

What's a small goal you're working on this year? Let me know in the comments. I'd love to hear from you.