Did you write words with a dream of sharing your words with the world? If so, congratulations. You were a writer this year.
Today, I invite you to celebrate your writing year with me. For many, celebration seems frivolous. Why make a big deal out of what we are supposed to do, many ask. Yet, I subscribe to the philosophy attributed to Tom Peters: “Celebrate what you want to see more of.”
Often, we wait to celebrate until the big moments happen, like finishing a manuscript, getting a contract, or releasing a book. Those are cool moments for sure. However, what if paying more attention to celebration makes you more productive as a writer? Intrigued? I hope so. Let’s break this down, starting with clarifying a misunderstanding about what celebration means.
To celebrate means “to acknowledge something significant with a special or meaningful moment.” Celebration isn’t about scale, only celebrating the big things and ignoring everything else. Celebration is about seeing. It means you see what you have done and mark the moment to say, “I did that!”
Why is this important?
When you celebrate, something shifts inside you whenever you acknowledge milestone moments. When you acknowledge that you hit your weekly word count or when you congratulate yourself for staying consistent with your newsletter all year, your brain drops a happy, feel-good GPS pin into your memory. During challenging times or when you are feeling uncertain, your brain pings those positive memories as evidence of what you have accomplished before. Your mind sends you the signal, “Hey, see how we did that once? We can do it again!” Without celebration, your accomplishments go into a pile of experiences, but without marking the moments to solidify positive memories.
What should you celebrate?
Let’s look at four areas to celebrate in your writing journey of 2025.
1. Words Written and Shared
Look back over your writing projects. Re-read your articles, books, or blog posts. Which ones are you proudest of? Where did you feel like you did your best writing? Take time to smile over your work. Feel free to print or frame any special pieces to keep them on display for tough days.
2. Doing Hard Things
Acknowledge steps or leaps of courage this year. Did you overcome fear to attend a writer’s conference or pitch a literary agent? Did you pick up writing again after a setback that almost made you quit? What took guts for you to write or show up for? Write these moments down, give thanks to God for courage, and consider sharing them with a friend.
3. Perseverance
How did you stick with your craft this year? Writing feels like a war of attrition at times. You are just trying not to beat yourself. Distraction calls to us, beckoning us to leave our chairs and vacuum instead of finishing the chapter. I invite you to celebrate the times, even if it was just one, that you stayed in your seat and kept typing while your hands itched to reach for your phone and check Instagram for the hundredth time. Good for you for staying on task.
4. Learning and Growing
Where did you commit to improvement? Did you learn from other writers, attend workshops, read writing books, or participate in a critique group? In my humble opinion, devoting energy to learning and growing should be celebrated most of all. Congratulate yourself for investing in you. I pray the seeds planted flourish for years to come.
How is that for a list to celebrate? I would love to know which ones you need to celebrate this year.
What if you feel like there is nothing to celebrate? For some of you, this writing year fell short of your expectations.
The book contract did not come, or you attended a conference and did not accomplish the goals you had set for yourself. In this moment, we see you. We hold space for your disappointment and sadness. Friend, I encourage you to celebrate the fact that you did not give up. If you put yourself out there, we commend you. While it did not go as planned, you did what so many only talk about. Celebrate your courage to continue, even though it has not come together yet.
May I leave you with a line from one of my favorite speeches? This is dedicated to all the writers in our Books & Such community who write and sometimes wonder if it is worth it. This is also dedicated to longtime writers who keep showing up, article after article, proposal after proposal, and book after book. We celebrate you.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION: Share your celebrations! Tell us about them in the comments so we can cheer for you. Bonus points if you tell us how you celebrated your writing accomplishments.
** SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!** Books & Such Writer Intensive – February 10-12, 2026 – Online
NOTE: EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION ENDS DECEMBER 31, 2025
This isn’t a pre-recorded course or a giant conference where you get lost in the crowd. It’s three days of direct, hands-on feedback from our literary agents the expertise and insight you need.
This will be a safe, encouraging space where you will be seen as an author up close and personal:
- Your book ideas and dreams will be heard;
- Your questions about whether your book idea works will be answered;
- You’ll leave with a unique-to-you agent-guided plan to propel you forward.
If you’re a Christian writer with a message burning in your chest but no clear path forward—we see you. Let us help you unlock your potential!
This is so important, Barb! I write a goals list every year then go back and highlight the things I actually got done. Looking back, God provided in so many unexpected ways and it is so easy to forget His power and care in our lives if we don’t pause to remember. At one point, I had been hoping to get two Phooey Tales done a year, but the nudge to finish a children’s devotional based on my grandparents’ crazy stories (sooo scary to put my thoughts on God’s word in print, eeek!) kept getting stronger until I was sure it was the Lord. Then my musings about sharing the salvation message in story form for children based on the travails of a poor kitty found in the woods near our house tugged stronger and stronger as well. Finally, after much hemming and hawing (was this God, my own sense of self-punishment…) I set aside my dreams for Phooey Tales #3 and really poured my heart into The Rough and Rowdy Devotional and A Whisper of Hope. It was just so crazy. My church showed up out of nowhere, wanting to help with the children’s tract and a relative gave me a gift out of the blue that I put into getting a book cover and God was there with me in my all out panic over addressing His word in print and that one phrase that wasn’t right in A Whisper of Hope and somehow I finished the year with Phooey Tales #2 and #3 done and published as well as the children’s devo and A Whisper of Hope. Yikes! It really was impossible . . . but as Bob Hostetler said in a Sunday service once, “Perhaps the Lord . . .”