I am really psyched for this year's NaNoWriMo. It doesn't even bother me that my wonderful idea for this year's novel just decided to morph itself from a Fantasy/Romance to a Science Fiction that may or may not have a romance in it.

I usually don't plan more about a novel than its beginning and its end. In other words, I know who the characters are and where they start and I usually know what the end goal is but I don't plan the middle. I think that is where I have been having such a hard time.

So far I have written two Fantasy novels and one Science Fiction novel. My two failures were both Fantasy too. My three completed novels are mostly in the same shape they were when I finished them. I never went back to edit them and make them complete. Somehow I couldn't bring myself to look at them again. The Science Fiction novel was the best of the three. It is also the most complete. Its only flaw is that when I couldn't figure out what else to do, I killed off another character. I very nearly killed off one of the main characters.

I've been making lists of the scenes I have to write so that when I'm stuck, I can pick one and write it whether it is in order or not. I figure if they can shoot a movie out of order, I can write a story out of order too. It might keep me from getting frustrated when the words stop flowing.

So... does anyone else have some ideas for keeping those words flowing?

I'm sure that you're all just dieing to know if I made it through the 5k walk yesterday. I won't call it a race because I certainly wasn't even walking fast. However, I did make it to the end. I crossed the finish line an embarrassing one hour and twenty minutes after I started. I suppose it could have been worse; I could have been walking one mile an hour instead of two.

The only thing I can say in my defense is that it was amazingly hot and humid yesterday and since I thought it was going to be cold and rainy, I wore jeans instead of shorts. Not a great idea. Plus, I didn't really consider how much time I was going to spend on my feet in addition to the walk itself. Let's see...

I took the train to Hoboken, walked to the PATH (not far, maybe about the equivalent of two city blocks. The PATH was crowded so I stood up for the ride from Hoboken to 14th Street. I got off the PATH and climbed four flights of stairs to the street, walked two more blocks to the subway and then walked down two or three flights to the platform where I stood for twenty minutes waiting for the subway car and then stood for the ride to the 72nd street stop.

At 72nd street, I got off the subway, climbed another three flights of stairs (where I discovered that the exit itself was at 70th Street) and walked eight blocks to meet the rest of the team. So if you count ten city blocks to the mile I have already walked a bit over a mile and that is one third of the distance that I will be walking in the race itself.

Now we walk about five blocks back to the start of the race and stand around for half an hour or so waiting for the walking start time. By now the heat and humidity have caused enough perspiration so that the back of my shirt is soaked and perspiration is running down my back and my legs. I haven't even really started yet and I'm exhausted.

Finally it's time to start. We start walking and I'm immediately left in the dust by the walkers who are all taller than I and in much better shape. People are passing me on all sides. I feel as though I am walking backwards. At that point it occurred to me that my only job was to make it to the end. I focused on the toes of my shoes and thought about nothing but putting one foot in front of the other.

Of course, by this point I was sliding into dehydration. Flash back to 4 am when I was getting ready to go. The weather channel's web site said it was going to rain hard. I start looking for a hooded wind breaker to keep me dry and suddenly it's 4:46 and the train leaves at 4:50 a.m. We run for the train and I leave without my wind breaker or an elastic to tie up my hair. I figure I'll buy a bottle of water when I get to the Starbucks where the team is meeting.

Of course the line at Starbucks stretched about four times around the store because everybody decided to meet at that Starbucks. No water fo me. Let's continue...

I did make it to the first water table. I got two cups of water and suddenly I felt much better. For a while the walk was almost pleasant. There was a bit of a breeze and the scenery was beautiful. I've never been in Central Park before so that part of it was an adventure. Listening to the conversations around me was also interesting.

I made it to the second water table. More water, feeling even better, and so I was doing pretty well at the second mile marker. Now I'm thinking, "I can do this. It's not so bad."

That last mile seemed to go on forever. Of course, if you've read this whole entry I've actually walked over 3 miles already, not 2. Either way, I'm beginning to think I'm not going to make it. I stopped about three times in that last mile to catch my breath. Mind you, I only stopped for about a minute each time, but I did stop. I considered giving up. Then I realized that whatever I did, I was going to have to walk somewhere to get on the subway to get the PATH to get to Hoboken to get home. I kept going.

Finally, the people on either side of the path were telling us, "You're almost there," and, "It's just around the corner."

I kept going, kept putting one foot in front of the other, and finished the "race" for the cure. Was I done walking? Nope. I had to walk out of the part (about 3 or 4 blocks) to the subway, another 7 blocks and down the stairs to the subway. I had to stand on the subway from 68th street to 33rd street, then walk up several flights of stairs. Then I had to walk anther five blocks to the PATH and stand on the PATH from 33rd to Christopher Street.

At this point, I was thinking, "Oh well, another 7 minutes and I'll be in Hoboken. I can get on my train and sleep for two hours." WRONG! All people going to Hoboken are told to get off the PATH because this particular PATH train is NOT going to Hoboken it is going to Journal Square. We get off and another announcement informs us that the PATH to Journal Square through Hoboken is not on a 30-minute schedule.

About 45 minutes later, a train comes through and deposits us at Pavonia/Exchange Place. We get out, we wait. Finally a shuttle train arrives and takes me to Hoboken 35 minutes too late to catch my train. The next train is not until 4:00 p.m.

They say that no good deed goes unpunished.