Near the dunes where we have a what-we-called-when-I-grew-up-in-Wisconsin a cottage, there is about a mile walk along the sandy beach to reach Succession Trail.  Turn left and trek slowly through the thick sand.  The reward is a 300-stair climb to a captain’s peak overlooking the lake and the dunes, as far as the eye can see.  It’s breath-taking.  You can’t help but think about how nature has been preserved along the dunes and how, when the land was truly free, the Indians took those same trails thousands of years ago.

Some days when I reach the stairs, I leap up and run them until I get winded and have to walk.   Other days, I don’t want to do the stairs but I schlep along, trudging one foot sluggishly after another until I reach the captain’s peak.  Some days inertia wins and I don’t make the trek.

Writing the story of Anne on Fire is just like the 300 stairs.  My mind runs up the stairs with ease, a mental work-out that moves quickly and effortlessly.  But when push comes to shove, the ideas don’t always make it to the paper.  I trudge sluggishly along, wondering why I can’t make it up a few more stairs.  

My goal in the first few months of 2012 is to complete the revision of the Anne on Fire manuscript.  When I started this project a couple of years ago, I thought writing this story would be simple and straightforward.  It is not.  I met with a literary consultant last month and she told me, “What you are writing is between you and God.  Stop showing it to people .”  Maybe I have been doing that, looking for confirmation at the expense of completing the re-write of the manuscript.

Egads.  If writing your own story isn’t easy, what is? 

Welcome 2012.  It’s time to complete what I’ve started.

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