Dear Me, 2026

Here are some hopes, dreams, and ideas I have for myself in 2026.

Dear Me,

It has been quite a while since I wrote to you about the outlook of a new year. I know the variables in life can make it hard to do at times, but if we don't try to plan something, we may never accomplish anything of great importance.

Let's be specific. Some of these are academic, but we should list them anyway to keep us on track.

First, Dave recently gave us the reigns for

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~ The Poet's Place Cafe~  (E) A place for discussion on poetry, reviews, contests, etc. #1937709 by Jay O'Toole

. There are many excellent poets among the membership of Writing.Com. Let's find them, and build this amazing group. Knowledge of poetry and expertise in this skill requires practice. Me, we should commit to contributing to every discussion and form of poetry pinned every week. This will not be hard, if we dedicate one hour to every discussion posted. Two discussions a week equals to two hours a week. That is definitely doable. Dedicate the same amount of time to managing the group, and you will be amazing at how much good can be accomplished in this next calendar year.

Secondly, partner with as many poetry contests as possible. Make a list of regular contests, like

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Poetic Traditions Poetry Contest   (E) A Contest for Metrical Rhyming Poetry. #2055137 by Brenpoet24 years WDC

,

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SCRIPTURE POETRY CONTEST  (E) POIETES GROUP #2331717 by Quihadi

,

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Shadows and Light Poetry Contest  (E) Do you love the challenge and creativity of free verse poetry? This contest is for you. #1935693 by Choconut

, and

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The Humorous Poetry Contest  (18+) The contest where the rating doesn't matter! Next round February 1st #1875093 by Lornda

. Plus, we can list other contests in which poetry is one of the regular forms of writing, that are options, like

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Honoring Our Veterans - Challenge  (ASR) Celebrating Veterans Day every day #423698 by StephBee

. Let make one static item, that archives the links of each of these poetry-related links for sharing with the members of

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~ The Poet's Place Cafe~  (E) A place for discussion on poetry, reviews, contests, etc. #1937709 by Jay O'Toole

. Who knows? Some kind soul may share links we haven't thought of for this static item. Amazement of all amazements, someone may even direct us to a place, that has already been created as an archive of poetry-related items on Writing.Com.

Third, we must create static items for poetry forms, listed and organized by country, and by genre for the purpose of choosing one country or genre to focus on each month in the

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~ The Poet's Place Cafe~  (E) A place for discussion on poetry, reviews, contests, etc. #1937709 by Jay O'Toole

.

Fourth, novel writing is our literary "second language." As such we cannot expect to become proficient in this form of writing, if we only attempt it one time each year for two months, during NaNoPrep (October) and The Novel Writing Month (November). Something must be done in the area of novel-writing every month, such as to edit two chapters or more for grammar and spelling errors, to read a couple of chapters in a published novel to get a better feel for natural conversations, and to edit the same two chapters to tweak conversations and settings.

Finally, enter one new prose contest every month. Look for a contest, that you've never tried before. You know how to write letters, like this one. If you learn about prose forms, then one day you could be the kind of author a lot of people enjoy reading. They might even stand in line for the privilege of buying one of your books on its release day.

We should learn to be kind to ourselves. People aren't looking for perfection out of you. You don't need to look for perfection out of yourself. Write what you know. Improve where you can. Be yourself, and enjoy being yourself.

More people like you than you may realize. Apply the advice of your first high school band director. "When someone compliments your half-time performance, it is not necessary to point out everything you did wrong in the show. That insults their intelligence. Just say, 'Thank you.'"

Sincerely,
Me

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