Introduction to the 2026 Novel Writing Challenge

Good morning, everyone and welcome to a brand new year.  I know a lot of us are still recovering from the ending of the last one. I suggest water, lots and lots of water. Followed by an early night tonight to make up for lost sleep.

I have to say I am eager to start the new year.  I know there is a lot of baggage we carry with us from the previous year, but something about seeing the date roll over to the start of a new year feels like we have all turned to a fresh page. For a few days at least it will feel like anything is possible. 

Not a bad way to start a new year.  Hopeful, if not always entirely accurate.

Last year at this time I added morning writing exercises.  They were a mix designed for a host of different writing topics.  Description and world building were the big ones with vocabulary, emotions and even random scenarios thrown in for practice with story shaping.  While I loved that, and now have a fat file full of writing bits I can pull from when I need it because I did them even if I didn’t post, this year I am doing something different with my writing exercises. 

This year, instead of individual writing exercises, each day will be a single small task on the same project designed to take you from the idea of a novel all the way through into the writing and editing process. (Once we get into the actual writing phase instead of the planning, I’ll add daily writing exercises if you aren’t working on the main project – or want to incorporate into your main one).

There are fifty daily tasks before we get to the actual writing part with one each week day (excepting holidays which means we will be planning into the beginning of March).  By then you should have your set up done and be ready to write.  Some of you may just want to follow along, while others might want to pick an idea and get to work on a novel you keep meaning to get around to writing.   

Each Task will be small and at first, they may seem too slow for some of you.  The point is to go slow, not only so that no one gets overwhelmed, but so that your story idea stays in your mind and has a longer time to marinate in your thoughts.  The slow and steady tasks keep it circling gives you time to think about it, and often lets the initial story idea pick up extra details to help it along. Sort of like a piece of duct tape picks up lint in a dryer.

It is actually amazing how many details and ideas will be attracted to the idea once it is routinely circling. Keep a notebook (or a note section on your phone) handy so you don’t forget them. 

The tasks will be part of my regular posts (and of course free to all).  I will set up examples in the posts and if something is unclear you can always send a message my way and I’ll do my best to eliminate confusion. 

I will also be taking one of my story ideas and breaking it out fully.  I will be doing this in the Members Section if anyone wants to read along.  It is $2 per month.  (Mostly because that was the lowest the system would let me do, and it will also get you access to the Weekly Chapters posted every Friday.) If you are interested, you can join as a member by clicking here, if not, no worries, you will still be able to follow the examples along the way and get each daily task.

I chose an idea I really wanted to work with and think that this could be a whole lot of fun.  Hopefully, a lot of you will join me and turn the idea circling in your brain into a full-blown story.

Some of you may be typing your story and tasks in, some may be writing by hand.  Whichever way you work is up to you, but I would suggest that you have a notebook and pen handy. (Even if you really like electronic note taking, go with an analog notebook for this).

Character and place names may pop into your brain.  Thoughts about your final dramatic ending may circle when you are still trying to figure out if your romantic lead can pull off the name Aloysius Jones.  It really helps to have that notebook handy so all your thoughts about this story are contained in one place. 

And don’t go thinking this has to be a fancy, expensive writerly looking one either.  While I love the allure of a good notebook and have purchased my share of pretty, pretty notebooks and journals, for this sort of thing I love the cheap single subject spiral bound notebook.

I like it not only because it is inexpensive, but because it isn’t precious.  When I have a nice notebook, it is something I want to keep nice.  As I work on the idea of my story it will change and grow. I will add things, scratch them out and generally make a mess of the page as I sort my thoughts.  I may sketch out a map that I think is perfect only to realize there is no way this map would work because I’ve messed up distance or location. 

With a cheap notebook if that happens, I can tear the map out and start again and not have the ‘bad map’ still lingering and possibly confusing me when I go to write.  Later if it becomes a series, I can copy the bits I’ll need to keep long term into a nicer to-be-kept notebook. 

But not at the beginning.

So for your initial thoughts notebook, go cheap and make sure to keep it handy. Task One will be up momentarily and My task will be posted shortly thereafter.  Happy writing/and or reading.