Argh, I overslept and also forgot to put the trash out at the curb. On the list today: keep working on novel planning, go with sanguinity to pick up the lumber for the porch steps, and run seven miles.

Running's going okay, no injuries, but I don't feel like I've crossed the threshhold into real marathon training distances yet. It's all fours and sevens and nines. Maybe when I go over twelve it will seem real.

Sunday was the Run Hit Wonder 5k (and 10k) downtown. It was a scene! Everyone in orange shirts (your shirt is your race number in that race), and about 10,000 people crammed into a few blocks waiting for the start. I clocked in at 30:28, which of course makes me want to find another race and break 30 minutes.

As for writing, I've given myself til July 31 to plan and outline. Yesterday I finished my first version of the synopsis and got the same feeling of relief that comes with finishing a first draft of a piece. It may suck, but it exists. Relief, paired with "please don't let me get hit by a bus and die without fixing it before anyone sees how much it sucks!"

My favorite novel-planning book is Robert Ray's The Weekend Novelist. It walks readers through the three-act structure, with six key scenes, and isn't as bossy and rigid as The Marshall Plan. It also doesn't hurt that Ray uses Ann Tyler's The Accidental Tourist as his main example, and I know that book inside out and love it.

Besides the three-act structure, brainstorming the story line in the form of "problem, solution...problem, solution...problem, solution" has helped fill in the rough bits and make the small-scale plotting more logical. Today and for the rest of the week I'll experiment with other methods and lists of questions, just to see what comes up.

Last night we went to the little lumber store on 52nd Avenue to get boards for porch steps. I love that place so much! We can walk in there and just explain what the project is, and the nice man will show us five or six options, calculate prices, give advice, all without ever being overbearing. We'll be going back to pick up the boards today (it was too close to closing time for them to start cutting them yesterday), and coating them with primer when we get them home.

My dad wrote me an e-mail in the form of a dialogue, with my part all blanks. Nice hint, Dad. I have been incommunicado too long.