A look back at 2025

In January, it'll be two years since I went full-time into writing. And it still feels too good to be true.

Not that it's all fun and games. Writing is hard. Really hard.

Sometimes, when I'm struggling to come up with a new idea for a play or to fill a gaping plot hole I've dug for myself or to breathe life into a dull, cliched character, I'm tempted to chuck it all and deliver pizzas for a living.

But then there are those times when the ideas flow, when all the pieces fall into place, when the characters take on a life of their own, and I'm reminded once again that I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing with my life.

So I've got to keep reminding myself that the goals I set at the start of the year don't really matter. Only the writing matters.

Which is especially important this year because I fell short on almost every goal.

Here are those goals:

1) Finish six plays.

Nope. I knew this was an aggressive goal when I made it on New Year's Day. The most plays I'd ever written in one year was five. But that had been the previous year, and I figured I could ride the momentum train and crank out one additional play this year.

As a matter of fact, I only finished four: Mall Madness, Thirty Minutes Till Boarding, A Fine-Feathered Murder, and Mouse in the House.

It wasn't due to a lack of trying. Except for holidays and the few vacation days I took, I wrote for four hours every weekday of the year. If I happened to miss the mark one day, I made up for it on the weekend. So I wrote a lot.

And I didn't waste a lot of time brainstorming. After finishing a play, I almost always locked in on another play within a week or so.

The fact is it's taking me longer to write plays. Thirty Minutes Till Boarding was a monster. With forty characters, a ninety-minute run time, and a ton of interactive vignettes to juggle, it took me almost four months to get the play just right.

My current play too is taking a while (and no, I'm going to tell you what it's about just yet). Although it's a comedy, it goes a little deeper than most of my plays, with complex relationships and an intricate plot that I'm sure audiences are really going to dig.

So yeah, I'm not quite as productive as I'd hoped. But I feel like my plays are richer and more mature than ever, and if failing to meet an arbitrary goal is the price I've got to pay, I'll do it. Gladly.

2) Publish six plays

Close but no cigar. I only published five, the same number as last year, which was a record-breaking year. Those plays were: Route 66, Too Many Ghosts, The Worst Fairy Tale Ever, Mall Madness, and A Fine-Feathered Murder.

If Pioneer had accepted Survival Island!, I would have made it. But that's okay. Five plays in one year is still pretty amazing--and enough to keep my career moving forward. I'll take the (almost) win.

3) Get a picture book accepted for publication

Swing and a miss. This goal is a perfect example of how much priorities can change in twelve months. 

When I started writing this post and looked back at the goals I'd set for myself, I was shocked that this one had even made the list.

I mean, it feels like it's been years since I've seriously pursued picture book writing. But looking back in my email folder, I see that I submitted Okie and Firecracker to my agent in September 2024. And since the book publishing industry is so slow (much slower than the play publishing market), I figured at that time that I still had several more months to wait.

Well, those months have come and gone and guess what the response has been. Crickets. Not only haven't I heard from the publishers that my manuscript was submitted to, I haven't heard from my agent.

I suppose I might submit another manuscript to him some time, but I've had exactly zero success with the three I've sent him so far. So getting a picture book published just isn't a priority for me anymore. Not when my playwriting career is on fire.

4) Foster gratefulness

Meh. This was my touchy-feel goal for the year. And of course that means it's impossible to quantify.

How do I feel I did? Okay, I suppose. When I got frustrated with major setbacks or the little annoyances that plague everyone in their day-to-day life, I did try to remind myself of all the blessings I enjoy: good health, a loving family, enough money to pay the bills (almost). But it wasn't always at the forefront of my mind.

I still think gratitude is immensely important. It's just not something I want to focus on going forward. There are too many other areas in my life that need improvement (as my loving wife would be happy to tell you).

5) Spend more time with Honey

Success. If I had to choose only one goal to meet this year, this was the one. As I explained last year, Honey the Wondermutt is getting up there in years (she'll be twelve in January), and I want to make the most of the years we have left.

However, she's not a playing dog. She never really understood Fetch (when I'd throw something to her, she's usually try to bury it so that I couldn't take it away ago). And she really doesn't like toys.

But she loves her daily walks (we call them her daily sniffs, because she spends more time sniffing around bushes and trees than actually walking). And she really, really loves it when I give her belly rubs.

So that's what I did. Could I do more? Sure, and I will. But I'm happy with the times we shared this year, and I look forward to at least a few more years before she passes over that fabled rainbow bridge.