January
January is about thresholds, fresh starts, and the quiet pressure to become someone new.
It’s a month of both excitement and hesitation - welcoming beginnings that feel hopeful as well as those that arrive reluctantly.
Explore new intentions, false starts, and gentle hope while honoring the complexity of starting over. Let your poems capture both the anticipation and the uncertainty that comes with new beginnings.
Craft Focus:
Tone-setting and intention
Origin stories
Subtle emotional shifts
Building cohesion across a chapbook
This month, you’ll create poems that reflect the start of something - whether chosen or imposed. Focus on the tension, hope, and courage inherent in beginnings. By the end of January, your chapbook will be filled with poems that explore transformation, emotional nuance, and reflective depth.
Here are sample prompts. The full 20-prompt list is included when you join the challenge:
Write about a beginning you didn’t ask for. Explore how this change entered your life and your emotional resistance.
Capture the moment before you decided to change. What were you afraid of losing? What were you hoping to gain?
Reflect on a habit you keep returning to. Why is it hard to let go?
Sample Writing Prompts
Why This Month Matters Now
January is not about fresh starts - it’s about the moment you realize something must change. These poems come from standing at the edge of a decision, aware that staying the same is no longer an option. If you feel restless, unresolved, or quietly ready, this theme is calling you to write before momentum fades.
This month matters because beginnings are fragile. If you don’t give them language early, they dissolve into intention instead of becoming action. These poems capture the exact moment of readiness - before doubt talks you out of it.
Participation Options
This month, would you like to simply participate in the challenge or would you like a full publication package?
Option 1: Challenge-Only Package
Who it’s for: Poets who want guided prompts and structure, but do not plan to create a chapbook or prefer to handle publication themselves.
Includes:
20 detailed January writing prompts
Craft guidance and inspiration for your poems
Support for producing at least 20 poems
Tips for compiling and arranging your chapbook
What You’ll Do:
Write, revise, and polish your poems using the prompts. At the end of January, you’ll have 20-30 completed poems ready to share with your readers or ready to put in a complete manuscript and publish on your own.
Price: $28
Option 2: Full Publication Package
Who it’s for: Poets who want to focus solely on writing while we handle the rest.
Includes everything in the Challenge-Only Package, plus:
Professional formatting for print publication
Custom cover design aligned with January’s theme
Publishing your chapbook on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
You receive 100% of rights and royalties
Guidance on distribution and marketing
What You’ll Do:
Focus on your writing - our team takes care of turning your poems into a professional chapbook that’s ready to share with the world.
Price: $124