You’ve made this resolution before.
Maybe not out loud. Maybe not on paper. But sometime in the last week, while the year wound down and you had a moment to think, the thought crossed your mind:
This year I’m finally going to write my book.
You thought it last January too. The January before that. Probably three or four Januarys before that one.
By February you were too busy. By March you’d stopped thinking about it. By summer it was a joke you told yourself. By December you were making the same resolution again, pretending next year would be different.
It won’t be different. I don’t like saying that, because I want your book to exist, but I want you to hear the hard version from me in January, before you work it out yourself next December with the same story still stuck in your head and another year gone.
Not because you lack discipline. Not because you’re lazy. Not because you don’t have a story worth telling.
Nothing about your life has changed, so the book needs a different way of getting done.
The Numbers Problem
2026 won’t be different, and not because you lack discipline or a story worth telling.Share on X
You have the same job you had last year. The same commute. The same family obligations. The same 6am alarm and the same 11pm exhaustion.
You didn’t get more hours. The calendar looks exactly like last year’s calendar.
So when were you planning to write?
Mornings? You’ll hit snooze.
Evenings? You’ll be fried from the day.
Weekends? You’ll be recovering from the week or dreading the next one.
Vacation? You’ll tell yourself you deserve a break.
Motivation has nothing to do with it. You’re up against arithmetic, and I’ve yet to meet the pep talk that changes arithmetic.
You have 168 hours in a week. Work takes 50. Sleep takes 49. Commuting, eating, showering, existing as a human takes another 30. You have maybe 39 hours of “free” time, and that’s being generous.
Those 39 hours are when you’re supposed to see friends, exercise, maintain your home, spend time with family, pursue hobbies, and write a book.
The math doesn’t work.
You’re up against arithmetic, and I’ve yet to meet the pep talk that changes arithmetic.
Everyone who’s tried to write a book while holding down a demanding career knows this. The hours don’t exist. Something has to give, and it’s always the book. The book doesn’t have a deadline. It doesn’t send angry emails when you miss it, and it doesn’t fire you.
The book just waits. Quietly. While everything louder gets your attention.
The Lie You Tell Yourself
The lie you tell yourself is “I just need to find the time,” and I wish people would stop saying it, because every January it buys another year of doing nothing about the book.
Time isn’t hiding. You’re not going to find it behind the couch cushions. The hours you need don’t exist in your current life, and they’re not going to appear because the calendar flipped to January.
People who write books don’t find time. They make brutal choices.
They wake up at 4am. They skip social events. They ignore their health. They damage relationships. They sacrifice things they care about to create space that doesn’t naturally exist.
Some of them burn out. Some of them finish the book but lose other things along the way. A few pull it off without visible damage, but they’re the exception.
Is that what you want? To white-knuckle your way through a year of 4am writing sessions while your life falls apart around the edges?
Maybe. Some books are worth that.
But most people who make the “write a book” resolution aren’t signing up for that level of sacrifice. They’re imagining a gentler version. A few hours on Saturday mornings. Some progress on lunch breaks. Steady, sustainable effort that doesn’t require blowing up their life.
That version doesn’t work. I’ve watched it fail for 45 years.
Why Do Writing Resolutions Fail?
Resolutions are made in a vacuum.
You make them during the holidays, when work is slow and obligations are light. You have space to think. You feel hopeful. The new year stretches out ahead of you, empty and full of possibility.
Then January 2nd hits.
The emails have piled up. The meetings are back on the calendar. Your boss wants that report. Your kids need things. The house needs things. Reality reasserts itself with a vengeance.
That book you were so excited about three days ago? Already slipping down the priority list. By the end of the first week, it’s below “clean out the garage.” By the end of the month, you’ve stopped thinking about it entirely.
None of that is a character flaw, and I get annoyed at the motivational-poster industry that sells people more willpower and then lets them blame themselves when January falls apart. Resolutions work this way for almost everybody.
They’re made without structure. Without accountability. Without any change to the underlying conditions that prevented you from writing the book last year.
You can’t solve a structural problem with willpower. Willpower is a finite resource that depletes throughout the day. By the time you get home from work, you’ve spent it on a hundred small decisions. You have nothing left for the book.
The book needs more than willpower. It needs a system.
What Is the Dirty Secret About Published Authors?
Most nonfiction books aren’t written by the person whose name is on the cover.
CEOs, executives, entrepreneurs, thought leaders. The people with the most interesting stories and the least available time. They don’t sit down and type 60,000 words. They hire someone to do it for them.
Ghostwriting is one of the publishing industry’s worst-kept secrets. It’s everywhere. That business book you loved? Probably ghostwritten. That memoir from the famous CEO? Almost certainly ghostwritten. That thought leadership book that launched someone’s speaking career? Ghostwritten.
These people are being smart about resource allocation.
They have expertise, stories, and ideas worth sharing. What they don’t have is 500 hours to learn the craft of writing, structure a narrative, draft and revise and polish a manuscript.
So they hire someone who already has those skills.
The book still contains their ideas, their stories, their voice. They’re involved in the process. But they’re not spending a year hunched over a keyboard at 4am, sacrificing their health and relationships for something that could be done more efficiently.
The Bigger Question
The question isn’t “should I write my book this year?”
The question is “what’s the best way to get my book into the world?”
If you have unlimited time and enjoy the writing process, write it yourself.
Some people love it. The act of putting words on paper is fulfilling for them. The struggle is part of the point. If that’s you and you’re working on a memoir, I built a course to help: thewritingking.com/writing-course/memoir-bundle/. Everything I know about writing your own story, at a fraction of the cost of hiring me to do it for you.
But if you’re making the same resolution for the fifth year in a row, maybe it’s time to admit that approach isn’t working.
You don’t mow your own lawn because it’s more virtuous. You don’t do your own taxes because outsourcing would be cheating. You hire people whose skills complement yours so you can focus on what you do best.
Writing can work the same way.
Your job isn’t to type the words. Your job is to have something. The stories, the insights, the hard-won lessons from your career. That’s the raw material. That’s what makes the book valuable.
The typing is just manufacturing.
The Cost of Waiting
Every year you wait, something is lost.
Memories fade. Details get fuzzy. The story that felt urgent five years ago now feels distant. The market that was hungry for your expertise moves on to the next thing.
And you get older.
That’s not morbid. That’s true. I’ve watched it happen. I’ve had clients come to me at 70, wishing they’d started at 60. I’ve had clients start projects and not live to see them finished.
The book in your head is getting dustier with age.
Your grandchildren won’t know your stories unless someone writes them down. Your expertise won’t outlive you unless it’s captured somewhere. The lessons you learned the hard way will die with you unless you pass them on.
What New Year’s writing resolutions work?
| Approach | What it involves | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Write it yourself | Putting the words on paper; the struggle is part of the point | People with unlimited time who enjoy writing |
| Writing retreat | Two weeks away with no phone, email or obligations | People who can draft in focused isolation |
| Accountability partner | A coach or writing group expecting pages every week | People who need deadlines motivation won’t create |
| Ghostwriter | Someone turns your stories into a book | Busy people unwilling to sacrifice the rest of their life |
| Same resolution again | Doing nothing different and landing in the same place next December | Nobody; the only shameful option |
If you want 2026 to be different, you need to change something structural.
Leave your motivation and your alarm clock alone. They had their shot last year, and I don’t want you spending another January blaming yourself for a problem the calendar caused. Change the thing that stopped you last year:
The structure.
That might mean blocking off a writing retreat. Disappearing for two weeks with no phone, no email, no obligations. Some people can draft a book in that kind of focused isolation.
It might mean hiring an accountability partner. Someone who expects pages from you every week. A coach. A writing group. Something external that creates deadlines your internal motivation won’t.
Or it might mean hiring a ghostwriter. Someone who can take your stories and turn them into a book without requiring you to sacrifice the other parts of your life.
There’s no shame in any of these options. They’re all different solutions to the same math problem.
The only shameful option is making the same resolution again, doing nothing different, and ending up in the same place next December.
What I Do
I’ve been writing for 45 years. I’ve got 113+ published books with my name on them and dozens more with other people’s names.
My clients are busy people. Executives, entrepreneurs, experts. They have stories worth telling and no time to tell them. We work together to get those stories out of their heads and into books that exist in the world.
Some of those books have helped clients raise over $30 million in venture capital. Some have launched speaking careers. Some have been handed down to children and grandchildren as family legacy.
Nobody wrote any of them by making a New Year’s resolution and hoping for the best.
If you’re tired of making the same promise to yourself every January, let’s talk.
I offer free 30-minute consultations to figure out if ghostwriting makes sense for your book. No pitch. No pressure. Just an honest conversation about what it would take.
Book a call at thewritingking.com/booking-form or reply to this newsletter.
My take
Resolutions fail because nothing about your calendar changed. Willpower won’t fix math. If the hours weren’t there last year, they won’t be there this year. Change the method. Block the hours and defend them, or get the stories out of your head through interviews with someone who writes for a living. I’ve been writing for 45 years, and none of those books came from a resolution and a hope.
People Also Ask
Resolutions fail because the conditions never change. The Ghostwriting Advantage is my guide to getting your book written for you, so this year ends with a manuscript instead of a fresh promise.
