December always make me think about the year that's passed and the year that's about to begin.
It's been a wonderful year in my personal life. My kids are healthy and well. My day job as a mental health counselor continues to be rewarding and challenging. And my beloved and I celebrated our twenty-fourth wedding anniversary.
My writing life has been more difficult. I have had less time to write, and when I do have the opportunity, nothing has come easily. I like it when the words flow onto the page, not when they have to be wrestled free from the pen. And it's been a year of wrestling, of slow progress and discouragement.
To put my writing life in plotting terms, I've reached the end of Act II.
It's a point where the story could end. Westley could come to the gate guarded by sixty men and give up on his search for Princess Buttercup. (I mean the guy has been mostly dead all day.) Mulan could fail at climbing that stupid pole for the hundredth time and decide to just go home. (She wasn't even supposed to join the army in the first place.) And Frodo could realize that the idea of two hobbits making it all the way through Mordor and destroying the most powerful magical object in the world is just ridiculous. (What was Gandalf smoking when he came up with this plan?)
But if they give up, Middle Earth would fall, the emperor of China would be taken by the Huns, and Westley would not only not get the girl, he would never get to confront the horribly named Prince Humperdink with the words, 'Drop . . . your . . . sword' and watch him crumble.
If they give up, they would never get to see their victories--victories made all the sweeter because they grew out of struggles.
Maybe I'm being overly optimistic or am just too much of a story lover at heart, but I am choosing to believe that my perseverance will pay off. That I will finish another book I love, and it will find readers who enjoy it half as much as I do.
So I will keep writing, and maybe watch The Princess Bride, and hope that 2024 sees a victory or two.
Let me tell you the secret that has led to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity. -Louis Pasteur