no matter how hard you try not to...

...you will end up twisting your knee and/or ankle while trying to navigate this icy slush mess in gripless winter boots.

On novel writing

It's so frustrating...I've got like TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND words down (it sounds like more in caps I think) but it's all short story-ish. I'm aiming for a novel, not a ... compilation. Nothing is going together right.

Have any of you ever written an entire book? Did you plan it out before hand or just ... start? I have a bunch of good pieces, but it's useless without a theme or something.

Maybe I need to plan more and start again.

Advice? Consolation?