Staring Into the Abyss

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:
( Choosing Between Word Count and Habit )

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 )
( Step Back on Word Counts )
( Keep Your Word Count Consistent )

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.