A 2025 Challenge
- anushkaumap
- Sep 4, 2025
- 2 min read
Reading to become a better writer
While it would have been ideal to have started this challenge at the beginning of 2025 as a New Year’s resolution, the motivation to bring about this change has struck me now. As I shift into the next chapter of my life, I want to ensure that I dedicate some time towards developing my passion for writing.
Writing is fun, but having the dedication and discipline it takes to become a good writer is a skill I'm yet to develop. I truly want to live up to my dream of being a best-selling published author with multiple book series that readers all around the world adore. However, becoming a good author starts with expanding my reading. While I do say that I love reading, it stems from a love for romance, the idea of being swept off one’s feet. But to be a good writer, I know that I need to understand literature beyond that. I need to take the time to expand my genres and understand what makes great writing… well, great. What made some authors and books stand the test of time? What are the marks of good writing? What writing mistakes do I need to unlearn so that I may become the writer I aspire to be?
So, while I love my romance and fantasy, the remainder of this year is for stepping outside of my comfort zone and exploring the vast array of stories that books have to offer.
Thus, over the next 12 months, I have set these 12 books for myself to read and reflect on:
📖 How Not to Write a Novel: 200 Classic Mistakes and How to Avoid Them—A Misstep-by-Misstep Guide by Howard Mittelmark & Sandra Newman
📖 The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
📖 Fixing Hanover by Jeff VanderMeer
📖 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
📖 A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
📖 The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
📖 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
📖 Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
📖 Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
📖 Stephen King: On Writing
📖 A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
📖 Normal People by Sally Rooney
While this list is just the beginning, I'd love to know more book recommendations to explore next. If you have any, drop them in the comments!
On a complete side note and ramble (feel free to ignore),
The reason I’ve written out my dream in such a lengthy manner is simple: if my goal is much higher, its failure would still be above some lesser goals' success. What that means is, if I set my goal to be a published author, a failure means I never published. However, with the current goal I’m setting, failure is more likely to be me being a published author.
You know the saying, if you aim for the moon and miss, you’ll still land among the stars… well, it’s completely wrong, technically speaking, so while I love the saying, I always tweak it when I refer to it.
If you aim for the stars and miss, you’ll still land on the moon (before trying again). The same goes for the dreams and goals you set.
Resources (where I developed my list of books from)
Comments