I started the yr pondering I knew the place I used to be headed and ended it realizing how my writing profession advanced into one thing I couldn’t have predicted—virtually as if one thing beneath the floor had been quietly rearranging itself all alongside. The yr unfolded as a threshold. It was a type of liminal areas the place the previous logic stops working and new patterns start to seem.

After an excellent and tumultuous earlier yr wherein I fulfilled a long-held dream of shopping for a good looking home, I entered 2025 with as many questions as solutions about what got here subsequent. I started the yr with deeply held questions on the place I wished to go along with my work and my writing. Because the yr progressed, I excitedly started to acknowledge how the foundations of my work had been already quietly altering the bottom beneath my toes. The work gave the impression to be asking for a bigger container—one constructed with deeper intention and a for much longer horizon. After 18 years of working this web site, instructing about writing, and publishing so many books, I may sense that sure issues felt full, however that if some issues felt like they had been ending, others had been about to start.

In This Publish:

How 2025 Reshaped My Writing Life—and How My Writing Profession Advanced

I look again on 2025, and, truthfully, it might have been the most effective yr of my life. It was a madcap swirl of stress and busyness as I accomplished my first yr as a first-time residence proprietor. I traveled as a lot as I may, visiting all three of my siblings a minimum of as soon as. I struggled mightily with recurring nervousness patterns. And I reveled within the glory and the gratitude of the sweetness and love that surrounded me. I turned 40 in November, an anniversary that lent a sure gravitas and urgency to the integrations and intentions I used to be constructing (accelerated by the truth that only some weeks earlier than my birthday, I walked away from a scary intersection collision that totaled three autos, together with mine).

Notably, I devoted time to wanting again on the 18 years I’ve spent constructing a writing life and a physique of labor as a author—first as a novelist after which, maybe much more potently, as a trainer. I’ve been blessed to stroll such a tremendous highway—one I by no means would have dreamed for myself twenty years in the past. It has been the best honor of my life up to now to create assets and write books which have helped so many writers inform their tales. Actually, I’m humbled. And I’m proud. I spotted this yr that if I by no means wrote one other ebook about writing, the physique of labor I’ve created these previous 20 years feels full. If that’s my legacy, then I’m so completely satisfied and happy.

However in that sense of completion, there have been additionally questions. Story teaches us there is no such thing as a starting with out an ending and no ending with out a starting. So if I felt, on this second, that what I had written was full—then… what subsequent?

And so it was a yr of realigning—of stepping again, listening deeper, and making house for reality to emerge round:

• What I really wish to construct as I proceed via center age with my Queen and King Arcs on my method to turning into a worthy Elder.
• What sort of work offers me life and makes me really feel excited and impressed.
• How I wish to serve the subsequent technology of writers to jot down tales which are deep and true and life-changing.
• How my inventive power desires to develop in my very own persevering with pursuits of fiction.

Discovering Higher Techniques for Writing as a Enterprise

After all of the stress and transformation of 2024, I entered 2025 feeling greater than slightly burnt out. Aside from the precise shopping for a home bit, I had pushed myself onerous with work within the first a part of the earlier yr to be able to liberate the house and time for transferring afterward. That effort had allowed me to kind of take off the second half of 2024, however as I rounded the nook into 2025 and the return to full-time running a blog, podcasting, and all the remainder, I needed to really feel into my resistance and exhaustion.

The long run felt like a wide-open horizon now. As I entered my fortieth yr, I may acknowledge that I had accomplished so lots of my intentions and desires for myself, not least with my work and my writing. Going ahead, it felt prefer it was time for one thing completely different. It felt (terrifyingly) prefer it was time to reexamine the infrastructure I had constructed for my creator enterprise 20 years in the past and acknowledge the place issues wanted to be torn down and rebuilt. The writing world (to not point out the world world) is just not the identical place it was once I hopped on my little Blogger weblog again in 2007 or used CreateSpace to publish first Behold the Daybreak, then Outlining Your Novel.

In the beginning of the yr, I appeared out on the brand new panorama in entrance of me with no small quantity of concern and overwhelm. Some days, it barely felt like I used to be maintaining with the previous methods of doing issues. How was I going to seek out time and power to determine the brand new methods? The digital world gave the impression to be shifting beneath my toes, and the rise of recent tech—together with the transition from conventional web optimization (search engine marketing) to this newer, less-understood world of GEO (generative engine optimization)—felt particularly daunting. I knew I wanted to adapt to be able to maintain my content material seen, however had no concept how.

As a solopreneur, the more and more crushing administrative load has typically relentlessly compelled the extra inventive, human components of my work to take an increasing number of of a backseat. Like many writers, I typically really feel an excessive amount of resistance towards the tempo of technological change. I had the disquieting sense that the bottom guidelines for visibility, discoverability, and inventive entrepreneurship had been evolving quicker than I may combine. However I knew I wished to know these modifications for myself and type my very own opinions, relatively than be swept up in both collective hysteria or blind gung-ho-ness.

So I buckled right down to do the work of articulating ache factors in my enterprise, recognizing the half-formed concepts I’d been carrying for a very long time, and imagining pathways into the sort of future that might really feel not simply manageable, however genuinely thrilling. For the primary time in a protracted whereas, I felt a spark of risk about how I would combine every part I had discovered from all of the trial and error of my authorpreneurship within the final 20 years to construct an excellent higher 2.0 basis going ahead. The place may I am going subsequent, and the way may the subsequent a long time of my work with writers evolve into even better concord with my deepest intentions?

Rediscovering My Instructing Voice: The Energy of Reside Work With Writers

Midsummer, I obtained an invite from writing coach Heather Davis to talk at her WorldShift On-line Summit for speculative writers. To be trustworthy, that is the sort of request I virtually all the time flip down. Talking gigs and interviews—something that requires exhibiting up dwell—is all the time a troublesome match for my power. However the way in which Heather framed the chance felt completely different. The subject aligned uncannily with concepts I’d already been contemplating for future initiatives, and since the construction allowed me to pre-record my presentation and take part dwell solely via chat, it felt like a uncommon probability to say sure with out committing to one thing traumatic. On the very least, I knew the category I created might be repurposed down the highway. So I agreed.

I anticipated little greater than a stable skilled expertise. As an alternative, the complete summit surprised me. Heather orchestrated one of the crucial seamless, considerate, and high-caliber occasions I’ve ever been part of. She made the method easy for the audio system, and the prime quality made it a pleasure to advertise to my viewers.

Recording the presentation jogged my memory how a lot I get pleasure from connecting like this once I’m capable of do it in a manner that helps my pure rhythms. When the presentation was printed, the dwell chat opened up an inspiring channel of connection. It was a blast to plug in to that dwell power and to attach with so many considerate, curious, receptive writers. That response lit one thing up in me.

The expertise ended up being pivotal. It felt like a affirmation of this shift that had been quietly constructing all year long. As I stepped into my fortieth yr, WorldShift felt like a signpost pointing straight towards the sort of work I wish to lean into subsequent: deeper instructing, extra intentional dwell experiences, and choices that permit me share the effectively I’ve been cultivating for the final 20 years. It was, in each sense, an affirmation that the subsequent period of my profession desires to unfold in a extra expansive, communal, and soul-aligned manner.

(And for those who missed WorldShift final yr, I’ll be taking part once more this August! When you’re on my mailing checklist, you’ll get all the main points.)

A Milestone 12 months: What Turning 40 Taught Me About My Inventive Path

Turning forty carried a magnitude I couldn’t ignore. Greater than something, this yr taught me that the deeper dimensions of story are inseparable from the deeper dimensions of life. I’ve already written a whole birthday submit about my private expertise of my forty years on this planet. Almost twenty of these years have been spent as knowledgeable author, because the steward of Serving to Writers Develop into Authors, and as somebody who’s regularly exploring the intersection of story, creativity, and the inside life.

Trying again, I can see my 4 a long time falling virtually completely into symbolic arcs. What strikes me most is the deep sense that my most essential work continues to be forward of me. All the pieces I’ve finished up to now and every part I’m constructing now looks like the inspiration for what I nonetheless wish to educate within the a long time to come back.

These early years, zero to twenty, had been all about play—pure immersion in story. I had no considered turning into a novelist, a lot much less somebody who would sooner or later educate others about story. It was simply that story has all the time been my language. I spent these years dreamzoning, imagining, studying, and residing inside that right-brained area of marvel that’s nonetheless the guts of every part I do.

Then got here years twenty to forty: the years of constructing. Studying how to jot down tales. Mastering the technicalities of plot construction and character arcs. Creating and rising a enterprise. Sharing what I discovered with the writing neighborhood.

But when my twenties had been about studying craft and building, my thirties had been one thing fully completely different. That decade took me on a profound private quest—of which story was an integral, ineffable half. On the one hand, story grew to become the construction for my inside journey; on the opposite, the journey reshaped the way in which I noticed story concept and story construction. The 2 grew to become mirrors for each other.

And now, waiting for the subsequent twenty years, I wish to proceed consolidating every part I’ve discovered—not nearly story as leisure or craft, however story as a robust initiatory power and a map to our deeper selves and to the mysteries of the universe. That is the work I really feel myself making ready for. That is the work that feels just like the true calling of my life. If these previous twenty years had been the apprenticeship, the subsequent twenty really feel like the purpose the place the inside and outer arcs will lastly converge and I get to step into the deeper instructing I’ve been circling all alongside.

Deepening My Research of Story: Construction as a Deeper Observe

This yr felt, in some ways, like a re-enchantment. It has been a return to the marvel on the coronary heart of why I fell in love with tales within the first place. As I proceed instructing the technical foundations of story—construction, character arcs, theme—I additionally really feel known as to go deeper into what I’ve come to think about as the cosmology of story: the concept story isn’t only a craft, however a map.

Plot, as I perceive it now, isn’t merely a sequence of beats. It’s a metaphysical precept, a sample that echoes all through fable, historical past, psychology, spirituality, consciousness research, and the hidden structure of the universe (even, I start to suspect, arithmetic). These patterns educate us that means. They provide us context for the place we’ve been and path for the place we’re going. They assist us perceive ourselves.

Due to that, I’m more and more drawn to exploring story not simply as one thing we create, however as one thing that creates us. I wish to educate in deeper methods—not simply “tips on how to write a narrative,” however how story itself generally is a transformative, initiatory power in an individual’s life. That is the self-discipline of exploring narrative patterns as mythic rules and interesting with story as a robust power deserving of each reverence and duty.

On the similar time, I’m equally dedicated to persevering with the legacy of Serving to Writers Develop into Authors by grounding this deeper exploration within the sensible, foundational materials I’ve spent practically 20 years refining.

Over the subsequent years, I plan to construct out two main libraries of content material (most likely principally video-based):

• The primary will probably be what I’m pondering of because the “Legacy Vault,” a grasp archive containing every part I’ve ever taught about tips on how to write a narrative that works. My long-term imaginative and prescient is to develop a certification program for editors, since that is one thing many writers have been asking me about for years.
• The second will probably be a form of “Story Thriller College,” the place we will discover the deeper frameworks, the cosmological patterns, and the mythic dimensions of the narratives that so profoundly form our lives.

Collectively, these two our bodies of labor really feel just like the pure convergence of every part I’ve discovered up to now and every part I’m being known as to show subsequent.

What Comes Subsequent? Mapping the Subsequent Decade of My Writing Profession

Within the yr forward, you possibly can sit up for seeing some modifications in how I present up and what I supply. I’m nonetheless working via a lot of it myself as I really feel into what these subsequent years wish to develop into.

• One shift will probably be a full redesign of my web site. I’m at present on the hunt for the fitting designer/developer to work with on this large mission (ideas welcome!). With a bit of luck, earlier than the top of the yr, you’ll see a good looking new residence for every part I’ve created over the past 20 years, together with the beginnings of the deeper work I’ve hinted at on this submit.
• I will probably be experimenting with transferring the weblog and podcast to a bi-weekly format for brand new content material, which can enable me to revisit, refresh, and spotlight essential subjects from the archives in alternating weeks.
• It’s also possible to count on new methods to study from me, join with me, and work with me—in codecs I’ve by no means supplied earlier than however that really feel aligned with the long-horizon imaginative and prescient that’s rising. When you’re on my mailing checklist, you’ll be the primary to listen to about all of it!
• I’m additionally persevering with to check the deeper query of why story issues to the writing life and our inside lives—not simply as writers, however as readers and viewers in each nook of our lives. A pair weeks in the past, I posted a survey for readers and writers exploring how individuals work together with tales, why sure narratives resonate, and the way storytelling shapes our inside worlds. When you’d be keen to spend about fifteen minutes taking part, it will be immensely useful to me as I develop the subsequent part of my instructing! (And to so lots of you who’ve already shared your voice, thanks a lot!)

For me, this previous yr has been a wealthy mix of progress and integration. It feels unmistakably like the top of a chapter. It looks like one final deep breath earlier than the web page turns right into a thick unwritten new quantity. I’m entering into this subsequent decade with profound pleasure, and I’m grateful to be strolling it with you. Might your personal New 12 months convey tales that problem you, arcs that stretch you, and inventive work that feels deeply true. I hope you’ll be part of me for every part that’s coming, and I want you a luminous begin to 2026 and readability to your personal inventive paths!

Wordplayers, inform me your opinions! As you look again on how your personal writing profession advanced this yr, what shifted for you? And what are you hoping to develop or deepen within the yr forward? Inform me within the feedback!

Need Extra?

When you’re already feeling known as to start out going deeper along with your tales, take a look at my Archetypal Character Guided Meditations. I designed these immersive classes that can assist you sink beneath the floor of your story, faucet the unconscious layers of your characters, and reconnect with the intuitive, dreamlike origins of your creativity. They’re a robust instrument for dreamzoning, thematic exploration, and accessing the deeper symbolic currents that form your tales from the within out. You’ll be able to discover the total assortment in my store (get 1 free for those who purchase all 6!).

Click on the “Play” button to Take heed to Audio Model (or subscribe to the Serving to Writers Develop into Authors podcast in Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, or Spotify).

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