Admin Post: Choosing Your GYWO 2026 Pledge

[gywomod]

With GYWO 2026 Pledges opening next week, which pledge to choose is hopefully on your mind. Instead of letting everyone stew in their personal hells, we’re running down a few of the common things the mods tell panicked participants, and then offering up a pledge calculator to help you make this somewhat difficult decision.

If you have any questions about GYWO or what it's like to aim for a specific pledge, the comments are open for all your concerns. Sometimes talking to a writer currently working on a pledge can help you come to a pledging decision!


If you're new to GYWO and have a question related to our membership requirements, general guidelines, monthly check-ins, or what words or activities count, please visit our website. More information about pledging for 2026 will be released around Dec 12.


Word Count Pledge Vs Habit Pledge
Deciding between a Word Count Pledge or Habit Pledge can be a difficult decision. Here are some things to consider as you make your choice:

• If you want to emphasize the habit of your writing life—encouraging you to sit down to write more often—a Habit Pledge is built to support that. With a Word Count Pledge, it’s easier to write in sustained sprints to reach your goal, but a Habit Pledge encourages you to write more days than you might with a Word Count Pledge.
• If tracking your word count is stressful or confusing, try one of the Habit Pledges. You’ll only need to keep track of the number of days you write, instead of all those fiddly words.
• If you are planning to have a year that focuses on revising or on planning stories, a Habit Pledge might be right for you. The Habit Pledges allow you to count days you work on recorded creative writing activities beyond drafting or revising. Our website has more details about the Habit Pledges and further explains what writing activities count toward this pledge.
• You could, potentially, miss a Habit Pledge by running out of days in the year. The most challenging Habit Pledge allows missing up to 15 days, which doesn’t give much wiggle room for accomplishing the pledge later in the year. The Word Count Pledges offer more flexibility since you can catch up at (nearly) any time.
• If you’re already consistent (and happy) with your writing habit, choose a Word Count Pledge to continue to challenge yourself and grow your writing life.
• If you've completed a Word Count Pledge multiple times, but don't think you can hit the next highest Word Count Pledge, consider working on your writing habit this year with a Habit Pledge.
• While you must pick one pledge for GYWO, you can unofficially keep track of a secondary pledge. Your secondary pledge may give you information about choosing a pledge for a future year!

Habit Pledges
Choosing between Habit Pledges comes down to deciding how much you plan to write each month:

• If you plan to write mostly on weekends, choose the 120 Day Pledge. That’s weekends + 16 days.
• If you plan to write mostly on weekdays, choose the 240 Day Pledge. That’s weekdays – 20 days, giving you a few days off.
• If you want to write every day, choose the 350 Day Pledge!
• If you've participated previously and 120 Days was too easy, but 240 Days was too hard, try the 180 Day Pledge to land right in between!
• If you've participated previously and 240 Days was too easy, but 350 Days was too hard, try the 300 Day Pledge to land in between!
• If you haven’t tried writing daily before but want to, we recommend the 180 Day Pledge as a way to ease into a semi-daily writing habit before tackling a more challenging pledge.

Word Count Pledges
First Time with a Word Count Pledge?
If you’ve never tracked your word count for the year, take a moment to assess how many words you think you’ve written in the past year. Consider things like whether or not you participate in word-count based writing challenges, how much you’ve published in the last year (self or traditionally published, fanfic, blog, etc), and how much you tend to revise your work (writing it entirely over or just editing lines).

• If meeting your goal is more motivating, choose a goal that matches a conservative estimate of how much you wrote in 2025.
• If you think you’ll lose interest if you meet your goal early, choose a goal that matches a liberal estimate of how much you wrote in 2025.
• There are no penalties for not meeting your pledge, so don’t be afraid to choose a pledge you may not be able to meet!

Pledge Calculator
Thinking about what projects you'll work on next year is another common way writers make decisions about their GYWO pledge. To aid that, we've created the Pledge Calculator. Click the link and download or make a copy to use the spreadsheet.

To save it to your Google Drive, you can go to File > Make a Copy from the web. If you are on mobile from a phone or tablet, tap the 3 dots at the top right, and go to Share & export > Make a Copy

To download in another format, go to File > Download from the web. On mobile, tap the 3 dots at the top right, and go to Share & export > Save as….

Fill in the title of your projects, estimated word counts, or estimated number of days you'll work on the project. The calculator will recommend a Word Count Pledge and a Habit Pledge based on the information you provide.


download or save the Pledge Calculator


Whether you've done GYWO before or used the calculator, you might have narrowed your choice to two goals. Here’s our advice for choosing between two word count goals…

Go Big on Word Counts

• If you wrote 50,000 words or more above your 2025 GYWO pledge level, choose the next pledge level up.* You've already "beaten" it once, so do it again officially.
• If having a big goal motivates you, choose the bigger goal you're between. There's no penalty for not meeting your goal, so if having the big carrot will push you to write, set yourself up with the most motivating goal.
• If you look ahead and see a lot of free time, a more relaxed year, or fewer obstacles between you and your writing time, choose the bigger goal you're between. Just keep an eye out for unexpected things that might take away that time!

*This advice is somewhat dubious if you are currently pledging 75K, 350K, 500K, or 1M

Step Back on Word Counts

• If you wrote 50,000 words below your 2025 GYWO pledge level, consider the next pledge level down if knowing that you will meet your pledge is more motivating to you.*
• If having a big goal intimidates you, choose the lesser goal you're between. It's great if you write above your pledge level, so if hitting your pledge early will keep you in a happy writing mood, set yourself up for success.
• If you look ahead and see a lot of non-writing projects, a major life change (moving house, changing jobs, getting married, having a child, etc), or another serious obstacle between you and your writing time, choose the lesser goal you're between. While life can be unpredictable (which we all know, thanks), there are some things we can predict, so there's no reason to stress out about your word count on top of your real life.

*This advice is somewhat dubious if you are currently pledging 75K, 150K, 500K, or 1M.

Keep Your Word Count Consistent

• If you're going to hit your 2025 GYWO pledge level within the month of December and it was a comfortable pace, keep it the same! The community goal is to keep you writing, so if your 2025 pledge level works for you, let it work for you in 2026.
• If you came close to hitting your 2025 pledge level or it was a reasonable challenge to make it, this might be the right pledge level to try again in 2026.

The best advice we have is to look at your schedule and figure out where writing fits into it. Use the pledge calculator (or pen and paper) to list the projects, ficathons, and stories you might write next year and consider the word tallies or time involved. Really think about what's motivating for you—knowing you'll hit a goal or chasing down the finish line.

And if all else fails, you can do what some of our current GYWO members have suggested and pick your pledge based on the associated pledge color. 😉

Habit Pledges—120 Days (Backpacker), 180 Days (Excursionist), 240 Days (Explorer), 300 Days (Adventurer), and 350 Days (Globetrotter)
Word Count Pledges—75K (Light), 150K (Modest), 200K (Basic), 250K (Moderate), 300K (Difficult), 350K (Herculean), 500K (Outrageous), and 1M (Ludicrous)

As a reminder, your GYWO pledge is locked in for the full year.
You cannot change pledges mid-year.
If you hit your goal early, you're still part of the same pledge group.
So choose a goal to sustain you ALL year.


In the comments, let us know your pledging woes! Wonder how difficult another pledge is? Still need clarity on the pledge types? This is your opportunity to ask. After some discussion, hopefully you'll come away with a confident decision.

Note: Commenting to this post does not constitute pledging for 2026. Come back next week and follow the instructions in the Pledges & Requirements post to make a pledge for 2026.

Comments

[green]

I'm caught between pledging 150k again or going back up to 200k. The habit pledge is right out, I can't live like that! I didn't make it to 200k this time (yet?) but I had months earlier this year when I only wrote 1 or 4 days. I think I can make 200k if I keep at the pace I've gone for the past few months. More consistency is what I need, and you'd think Habit would fix that problem, but Habit scares the crap out of me. lol

Thank you for letting me use you as a rubber duck. I've decided to do 200k. Basic, here I come!

[gywomod]

I'm personally also bouncing between 150K and 200K. I won't hit the 150K this year, but writing has been more consistent the last couple months (even with absolute chaos in my life), and I anticipate a wordier project in the new year.

Good luck at the 200K pledge, I'll see you there!

--Em

[misslucyjane]

I'm torn between going easy on myself or being absolutely unhinged. Goodness knows all of my ideas could be a million words altogether.

It's been a rough couple of years. Being unhinged sounds kind of freeing.

[gywomod]

As long as you don't think it would be overwhelming, I support being unhinged.

[annofowlshire]

As much as I want them to, word count goals just don't work well for my medium. So I think I'm going to go for the 300 day habit pledge next year. 350 is more than I want to be responsible for, 300 is a bit less, but if I get somewhere in between then that's golden.

[mythicmistress]

Um, hi. Newbie to gywo here. I'd like to try to build a writing habit, but am unsure which habit pledge would be best. I have a nasty habit of procrastination- just look at my Fannish 50 attempt for the year- so any advice would be appreciated.

[theemdash]

I am a serial abandoner of long-series prompt fills. Bingos, 100 prompts, whatever, I don't follow through on them.

But GYWO is very different for me, mostly because there's a community of people with the same set of goals, and support through DW and Discord that reminds me to write and do-the-thing. (Also any writing counts, so I don't have to work on a specific project if I'm not feeling it.)

That said, if you're concerned you'll procrastinate and forget about your goal, 120 days is very reasonable. You just need to write an average of 10 days a month. And that means if you're feeling really motivated in January and knock through 30 days, you're ahead by two months.

There's no "punishment" for achieving your goal early, either. You're not only welcome in the community, but are encouraged to keep going to see how far you'll go.

So, if you're nervous, I recommend starting with the lowest tier and see how the year goes.

[kalira]

I knew I'd have to lower my pledge level (this year has been . . . mmm interesting we'll say) and my wordcount has gotten more and more . . . oof, spiralling downwards, as the year goes on - though for this year I chose a pledge for a wordcount I made last year and have definitely done in a year many times before. (Life, man.)

. . .unfortunately the ~oof~ has been bad enough I was debating if I needed to drop not only one level lower than I did last year, but lower than that . . . I think I'll do that, but there's even still a niggling do I need to go even lower? *sighs*

(Being unable to meet my goals/pledge is super demotivating for me, so I try to choose one that I know I can hit and if/when I beat it I'll be jazzed to keep going. Kind of ._. to be considering dropping to a pledge level that is a wordcount I've hit in under 2 months before, and even debating if it's too high . . . but then, my wordcount for November is less than I've written in one day before. So. . .)

I . . . think I've made my choice and I'm going to pledge today even while I continue to dither and overthink (I know technically I can adjust my pledge for a little while longer, but I almost certainly won't X'D).

(Then again, I thiiink I've just started on steps that will resolve/improve one (1) of the perhaps-major issues undercutting my wordcount - and there's the demotivation of falling way short of my pledge that will hopefully be left behind with 2025's pledge; maybe I'll pledge lower and wind up ratcheting back into gear at my 'usual' over the next few months! That would be nice. >.>)

[theemdash]

I've been in a similar situation in which I won't meet my pledge goal this year, but I think I've figured out some things that will keep it from getting too dire in 2026. (And that's even with the majority of things stealing my writing time/energy being out of my control.)

I think the most important thing is to choose a pledge you can live with. I think next year I'll be able to make the goal I selected for this year. But I also think I'll be able to exceed it, so I went one pledge higher. (200K, for the record.) But if I don't make 200K, I'll be fine because I know I'll be able to get close and will be very happy with that success.

As long as you have a goal that will make you happy in the end—either by meeting it or making a solid effort to meet you—I think you're totally winning.

[kalira]

Very true! And I very much enjoy being part of GYWO in general even with the *sighs* of my pledge wobbles this year, I'm just hoping to recalibrate to a pledge that will make me happier (as much as I can with things out of my control affecting it) overall for the upcoming year. And some of the things that may have affected my writing are not all bad - I spent a lot of time crocheting, which is a new hobby this year, for example, and I love that, having to rebalance how much time I spend on writing vs crochet or whatnots is not a 'bad' thing just an adjustment.

I feel pretty solid about my choice (300k for the record; last year I did 350k and actually wrote 550k, and I know I've written up to 950k+ (possibly 1m, actually; I never tracked thoroughly before GYWO) in a year, so I went with 500k for this year, buuut this year's looking like I won't even hit 350k so. . . Yeah. Some emotional hangups no doubt affecting my view of things, but all I can do is try to focus on the positive and what I've accomplished and let go of the rest!

Good luck with your goal too~