Have you thought about writing a book in the new year? Your 2025 experiences can be the basis of your new book. You’ve already lived it. Now you can write it.
You can create a book from the lessons learned in a single year. What you learned or discovered this year can be a rewarding path for your readers to follow in the new year.
Start by making a list of major lessons learned, turning points, challenges you overcame, wisdom you want to remember and share. Just make a simple bullet-point list of your top 10-20 items. Don’t worry about the order yet. That list can become chapters of your book.
2025 can become your book in 2026. Photo by Ubeyonroad at Unsplash
While it’s still in list form, write a description next to each item, just to capture the basic idea. What was the lesson or victory? How has it made a difference for you? What would you like to remember going forward? How would it help other folks? Those answers are the seeds that will grow into your book.
You don’t need to write the book now. Holidays are a busy time with lots to enjoy. But with that list and those detailed seed descriptions, you will have a head start when you sit down to work on your book in the new year.
When things settle down after the holidays, set aside a short, realistic amount of time each week to write. Choose the lesson that speaks to you most that day and develop your seed paragraph.
Give examples and descriptions. Talk about how that lesson has affected you. Encourage your readers as to how they can apply it. Talk about why you’re thankful for that lesson. It’s a rough draft at that point, so you’ll just capture your thoughts.
Proceed through each lesson that way, in whatever order you’re drawn to. When all lessons are developed, you can sort the topics into a sequence you think your readers would benefit from. Then you can edit and smooth out your chapters.
The book doesn’t need to flow from one lesson to the next. These are standalone essays, and the connective tissue is they are insights you want to share with your readers. Nuggets of wisdom that will help them.
If you work steadily, a little at a time, you’ll get your book done in the new year. The key is to start that list right now: your lessons learned in 2025. Complete that list with its brief descriptions, and you’ll be on your way to a book in 2026.
Cheers for lessons learned. Blessings for your new year. Happy writing.
Janet Eriksson 