A Year of No Accomplishment

The year’s winding down and many of us (especially Virgos, comme moi) are analyzing our 2025 goals and seeing if we met our unrealistic goals and made all our dreams come true. Cue the waaah waaah waaah waaaaaaaah because I can officially say I did not. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Even still, I had fun in 2025, which was a surprise to me amid everything going on around us *laughs nervously*. I’ve been outrageously honored by how much people have responded to my posts about the not-so-glamorous realities of author/artist life, so I thought I’d give y’all a look into my year-long lack of accomplishment so folks know that life still goes on when you don’t have a book out, you don’t sell a book, and nobody cares who you are (respectfully). I’m not saying this in a Woe is me way. I’m saying this in an uplifting You can be irrelevant for a while and still have purpose! sort of way because, let’s face it: The vast majority of us are going to be irrelevant in the larger culture conversation for the majority of our careers. Some might say that means we are gluttons for punishment (which we kind of are), but I also think it puts into perspective how creating art is about something more than wide recognition. Is it amazing to get recognition? I imagine it is but I wouldn’t know yet. The real reason we do what we do is up to each of us, and I’ll give you a look into what I consider the wins behind each of my professional failures. Let’s go!

This is with a project I wrote a couple years ago that my agent and I thought deserved another go-around. We got two rejections rather quickly and eight crickets. Nary a peep. Maybe we should call this spiriting. It sounds more polite and proper than ghosting, and I think editors deserve that kind of respect. They’re not ghosting on purpose. They’re working their asses off, get hundreds if not thousands of submissions every year, and that’s on top of editing books they’ve actually acquired. So if they don’t have the time to look at my submission, or they don’t want to take what little time they do have to tell me it’s a no and would rather spend those minutes on the good news, I totally get it 👻

After about nine-ish months through 2024 where I wasn’t feeling inspired at all, I finally had the lightning strike for what will hopefully become my adult debut. It took me all year to write. I got the first draft done in June, the second draft in August, and I’m working on finishing up the third draft now. I’d hoped to have a full book ready for sub by October, but that just didn’t work out. In all honesty, the state of the world got to me in September, and working on my books seemed futile, ha! Who knew existential dread could be a bigger obstacle than writer’s block? But I love this story (this is the Santa Krampus spicy cozy murder love story I’ve mentioned in the past), and I really hope someone snatches it up when it 🤞🏻hopefully🤞🏻 goes out on sub in January. But I came to the solid conclusion that if the spiriting trend continues and I hear back from no one, I’m going to self-publish this for next year’s holiday season. And if that happens, I’ll for sure keep y’all updated on how that works, because as of right now, I have literally no idea where to get started 💃🏼

But god I loved each and every audition I got to film. I’m having so much fun! It’s so creatively fulfilling getting to know the characters that a casting director thinks I could be a good fit for. I filmed an audition that I was so proud of I couldn’t stand it (it was for a serial killer!). I surprised myself, and it was such an Aha to realize how in the actor side of my creative life, I underestimate what I can do. I think in the long run it will make me braver and more apt to try roles I wouldn’t have initially considered myself a good fit for.

Throughout the year, I auditioned for projects that let me be a village idiot, a bitchy house manager, a stoned wedding guest, an udder-obsessed robber. I auditioned for indie films, studio films, TV projects. Just having this opportunity is a dream come true. Do I want to book something? Obvi. But I’m having such a blast auditioning that booking would just be a cherry on top of a gift that I’m getting thanks to my agent and manager working their batooties off to get me these opportunities 🎬

I do think I leveled-up in my screenwriting though! For the first time, I got not one, but two finalist placements in a screenplay competition, as well as three semi-finalist placements, where in years past I never made it further than a quarterfinalist spot. So this feels like I’m headed in the right direction and I’m really hopeful I can snag a screenwriting agent/manager in 2026.

In some respects, it’s nice that publishing houses are looking to me to write books. That at least, in some way, means I’ve made enough of a mark in that realm that they expect more from me (which I hope to give them!). But I also cannot overstate HOW MUCH I FUCKING LOVE TO NARRATE AUDIOBOOKS. I had three narration gigs come out this year that I’m so proud of and incredibly honored the authors and publishers let me be a part of (Steven Salvatore’s When Love Gives You Lemons, Navessa Allen’s Caught Up, and Zachary Sergi’s Love and Video Games). When I bring up my narration work to folks in publishing circles, I either get an Oh yeah, I forgot you do that! or an I didn’t know you narrate! I’m trying to change both of those responses in 2026. In the meantime, that feedback spurred me on to build a recording studio in my house, which I hope manifests more jobs and makes it easier for audio teams to work with me since they won’t have to rent out studio space 🎧

I take this as a win despite hearing regularly that we *must* be online or we’ll drown in professional obscurity. I don’t think that’s the case. My accounts are still active, but I stepped back majorly from all platforms, and somehow I have more followers on Instagram now than I started the year with. That’s with having posted no more than 15 posts this year. I also went into my profile and deleted the vast majority of my posts as I figure out where I’m going creatively and artistically (wow that sounds so obnoxious) from here. Folks didn’t leave in droves the minute I stopped feeding the algorithm. This was a great way to realize the people who have followed me because they’re interested in my books are truly there for updates about my books, so I should have been focusing on those all along instead of worrying about whatever song and dance I was going to put online. Sure, when I have something to promote or updates I eventually put on there if 2026 picks up, those posts won’t be fed out to the masses as insistently by the Meta Overlord, but I’m confident the people that are meant to find what I post will find it. They’re still following me, they’ll check in, and as Dr. Ian Malcolm says, Life finds a way. 🦕

And that’s that for the ways in which 2025 didn’t really add many notches to my career belt that the world-at-large can see. But personally, I feel like I’m on the right track. I’m loving what I’m writing, I’m loving where acting is heading, I’m loving every time I get to sit in front of a microphone and record a book. In 2026, I hope that I get to show y’all more of my art in a variety of formats. Honestly, I will be disappointed if I don’t sell a book, don’t book a gig, don’t etc. etc. etc. But now I’m a little more settled in knowing that even if nothing happens that others can see, the year can still shape up to be fulfilling.

What about y’all? What accomplishments, big or small, did you make in 2025, whether or not the world saw them?

See you next year!

JJ ❤️

If you’d like to anonymously vent about anything author/writing related, write to me at heyjasonjune@gmail.com with the subject: VENTORSHIP. I’ll give you my take in a post, and we’ll crowdsource author opinions in the comments. You’ll remain anonymous, and any haters will be thrown overboard. Ultimately, I think you’re going to be buoyed up by author love and support as we realize we really are all in the same boat 🛳️

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