Goodbye, 2025.

What will you do in 2026?

Friends,

We made it! Barely! Wildly! But we made it! Out of 2025 and into the 2026 proverbial frying pan…

So, real talk: how is your creative life during this ending and beginning? Do you feel pleased with what you’ve made this year? Did you feel a sense of play in your work? Did you finish what you were working on this year? Is there an unfinished project you are carrying into the next year? What will you walk through the door with and what will you leave behind?

I have one major project that I was hoping to hit send on at the end of 2025, but it probably won’t happen until Feb 2026, so that’s the thorn in my side. Other than that, I surprised myself by making smaller projects and feeling very boosted in playing with these miniatures. My short play, SCRATCH MY BACK, was selected for the Climate Action New Play Collective at DePaul University. My monologue, IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SCREAM SOMETHING, was published in Fresh Words, An International Literary Magazine. Another short play, GREEN THUMB, was read at Naked Angels and will be published next year with Clockhouse Literary Magazine, in partnership with Goddard College. I’m currently dramaturging Jarrett King’s new play, currently titled THE CAPTIVE. I was a reader for the Bay Area Playwriting Foundation festival. I read an original poem at the iconic Greystone Mansion - many of you shared advice about reading it beforehand, thank you! - and started reading at Open Mics once a month. I had two poems published in the French Window Zine. I took online writing classes with Jacob Krueger Studio and American Short Fiction. I joined writer Sara Zarr’s writing platform, Writers Circle. I posted and sent y’all 23 newsletters. I played in the snow 5 days ago - and yes, I consider this a creative win.

There are so many more things I want to do - I constantly having ideas for titles, stories, and ideas I want to explore. Are you like this? It drives me nuts, these never-ending ideas, how much I want to do and how little I do, while trying to take care of myself and our family, while absorbing the daily distractions and witnessing one of the shittiest news cycles ever. I envy my friends who have laser focus, and try not to hate myself for my wandering brain. It can work efficiently sometimes and I have to remember that.

All this to say, that these beginnings and endings, whether constructs or not, can be green lights or red lights, and poet Richard Hoffman gets it. His poem addresses this vibe head on, not hitting the breaks. Whether you’re having creative celebrations or hangovers, I hope this one hits for you.

December 31st
BY RICHARD HOFFMAN

All my undone actions wander
naked across the calendar,
 
a band of skinny hunter-gatherers,
blown snow scattered here and there,
 
stumbling toward a future
folded in the New Year I secure
 
with a pushpin: January’s picture
a painting from the 17th century,
 
a still life: Skull and mirror,
spilled coin purse and a flower.

Copyright Credit: Richard Hoffman, “December 31st” from Emblem. Copyright © 2011 by Richard Hoffman. Barrow Street Press.

So, what do you think? How do you see your next year of creativity going? Let’s check in on each other in 6 months, what do you say? You in?

Until then, read good books, train your brain, write with playfulness and discipline, see art and know nothing made is perfect. Create with non-compliance and defiance. Let’s go, LFG, let’s keep going.

May we all hit only green lights in 2026,

Kayla

PS - Two training alerts!

Friend of The Comma and UK bestie, Vanessa Napolitano, is teaching an online poetry workshop on Saturday, 1/10/25, with WordUp North. Here’s a brief description:

Your daily commute to work. The bus into town. A train out of the city. These journeys might feel unremarkable, but there’s a spark of a poem within each of them.

In this poetry workshop led by New Northern Poet Vanessa Napolitano, you’ll explore examples of poetry on the move – poems written from the commute, poems about train journeys and changing scenery. Napolitano will show you how to find inspiration from transitional spaces and the everyday landscapes you pass through in order to turn that motion into poetry.

Check it out here:

Poetry in Motion with Vanessa Napolitano

Looks so great, doesn’t it?

And on the same day, 1/10/25, I’m teaching a 90 minute online workshop focusing on dialogue.

Feel free to tell a friend—membership is not required to participate! Members can register through the Writers Circle. Non-members can go here to sign up.

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Discovering Dialogue: How to write for characters on the stage or the page
Virtual Workshop

Does everyone in your WIP sound the same? Do you need help finding the nuance and structure in a character’s voice, pacing, or in the ways they express themselves? In this workshop, we’ll help you nail exactly what your characters need to say, how they say it, and most importantly, why they communicate the way they do. The more specific we get, the more the inhabitants of your story will pop! Let’s develop their voices together.

This workshop content applies whether you’re writing prose fiction or a play. All levels welcome.

Ticketed Writers Circle members will have access to the recording for 15 days following the event. This workshop is capped at 12 participants.

See y’all there!

KC