We asked our authors the question, "What is the most important or memorable goal or resolution you've made?"   Below are three of their replies...

Barbara Lindsay offers this story:

I was 48, living in Los Angeles, working full time at a real estate office, having given up my dream of an acting career.  I had discovered playwriting and had had some success, but after an 8-10 hour day of work, I didn't feel very creative nor energetic when I came home, and the writing was progressing very, very slowly.  I was always waiting and hoping for a big chunk of time to open up so that I could concentrate on playwriting, but that just wasn't happening.  And then one day, literally in one moment, I realized that I was going to have to create that writing time for myself.  That very day, I gave notice at my job and my apartment and began paring down my possessions so that I could travel light, since I had no idea where this new path was going to take me.


Lucy Wang tells us:

When I used to audition for high school plays, I was often told there were no Asian-Americans in this play.  Knowing how it feels to be excluded, one resolution I made was to write plays for ALL peoples whenever ethnicity or race didn't really matter.  That's why some of my characters do not have last names, so that the reader might envision anyone in that role.  After all, we live in each other's world.


And Nancy Brewka-Clark shares with us:

The best resolution I ever made as a writer was simply not to quit.  Million-dollar authors usually preface their autobiographies by saying they could wallpaper their house with rejections.  Well, over the decades I could have probably done the entire city of Boston with enough left over to do at least the Upper East Side of Manhattan.  For that matter, I might have gone on to decorate all of Los Angeles if e-mails hadn't replaced snail mail.  Although the millions have been elusive, I've spent my entire life loving the excitement of pursuing a thought, developing a dialogue, and most of all, trying to give others the same pleasure that I've experienced in the simple joy of creation.


Thank you to Barbara, Lucy, and Nancy for sharing these resolutions with us, and our best to everyone in 2014. Please also read additional entries in the YouthPLAYS blog to learn more about even more YouthPLAYS authors.