What's happening behind the scenes to bring new GHAWG content? The GHAWG Diaries is my recap of what I've been doing.
Cover image designed by @magnacarta using emojis and Excel 2007 for text. Minor edits made using MS Paint.
Introduction
There's more to #GHAWG than just daily zapfic entries and the spreadsheet I use to track them. There's research. There's review. There's also thought and inspiration. Then there are the tools involved in doing any of those tasks.
Just to keep things from getting scrambled in my head, and also to document for myself what I've been considering, I began keeping a diary of my activities as they concern #GHAWG. For that reason, I decided to share these diary entries with everyone on Hive blockchain (including the LeoFinance community at InLeo).
On Mondays which don't feature a GHAWG, Uninterrupted post (GHAWG-U)-- eventually replaced by GHAWG, Remastered (GHAWG-R)-- I'll post diary entries from the previous 7 days or between GHAWG-U/R posts if the time between them is short. For TGD56, there are 7 days' worth of diary entries. The first entry starts on 2024-December-16.
Before anyone scratches their heads at a few terms, here are 3 I began using many posts ago:
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
Rate Bike | Code name for #GHAWG (the first and current zapfic serial) |
Blue Lion | Code name for the middle zapfic serial in the GHAWG Universe |
The Bronze | Code name for the final zapfic serial in the GHAWG Universe |
Monday, 2024-December-16
📓 Last week I mentioned that I will develop a fictional town for a scene so as not to reflect badly on any real towns en route to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, US. For a long time I was thinking of naming it after some person or two who deserves to be recognized in this way. Needless to say, I failed to find any people who deserve to have their names used for this fictional town.
While walking through my neighborhood, the light bulb went off hi my head: For this made up town, give it a made up name. The first made up name to come to mind is Bolivion. It's a made up word which has been around since the 2002 when he was interviewed after one of his fights with Britis boxer Lennox Lewis; anyone who has been following professional boxing will recognize this word and the quote in which he used it. Credit for this made up word goes to Mike Tyson, one of the most important world heavyweight champions in the history of pro boxing. While meaning to use the word "oblivion" in order to describe his life after boxing, he ended up using the word "bolivion" (which many sites spell as "Bolivian," a native of Bolivia).
After reviewing digital maps of areas between Illinois and North Carolina, I decided to place Bolivion in the western part of the commonwealth of Virgina (not to be confused with the state of West Virginia). This means that the scene I had in mind will take place 1 or 2 GHAWG days away from Felix Legion's arrival at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While I'm at it, Sanjay Rampersad will get his mobile devices damaged. That detail will loom large after Sanjay and fellow foreign exchange student Lionel Odunsi return to campus at UNC.
Tuesday, 2024-December-17
📓 Today I added commentary to the zapfic entries to be published this week at LeoThreads. Normally I come up with commentary when I work on the Weekly Summary posts. This time I wanted to try something different so that when I work on that post I all I have to do is piece it together. I'll see how it works out this weekend. If it works out well, I will include the commentary in the spreadsheet I use to track published zapfic entries for GHAWG.
Wednesday, 2024-December-18
📓 Who is Miranda Bermudo? Although she has yet to make her debut in The GHAWG Universe-- I'm saving that moment for the second half of Blue Lion-- it's not the first time I've mentioned her in The GHAWG Diaries. While walking through a couple of neighborhoods today I was thinking about how to develop her character. So far, this is what I will write about her after I introduce her:
- When David Guardia meets her, she will be about the same age as Lindsay Etxeberria;
- She will already be a mother of three sons;
- She will be married to Jardani "Don" Roma.
These details about her are important because David will have an odd connection to her, and I'm not referring to her being wife to Jardani Roma. Instead, details will be revealed when David has another meeting with the uncanny Manny Rey and The Lord. However, even after he learns about his connection to her, he will keep his lips sealed and not mention any of it to her; not keeping his lips sealed about it will make things awkward for him as a character and for me as a writer.
Introducing Miranda Bermudo also allows me to bring back Don Roma into The GHAWG Universe for more than the cameo appearance he had as "father of the bride" to Rhonda Bella before she marries David in an impromptu wedding in Riverside, California, US after Lindsay decides to continue her faith rebirth with David instead of at the Harvest Christian Fellowship as originally planned. By then, I'll have his own story developed to show how far he had come since we first meet him as one of the Venice Beach homeless who witnessed David speak in tongues.
Thursday, 2024-December-19
📓 Tonight I determined that the Indiana cities of Gary (just a few miles from Chicago) and Indianapolis are about 150 miles apart. Between their stay in Gary, Indiana, US and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Felix Legion should ride at least 150 miles a day. Ideally they travel through at least 1 state a day, but some segments as defined by state lines are shorter than others. There isn't anything I can use for Rate Bike between Gary and Indianapolis because of the fact that the tourist phase of David Guardia's Epic Ride-- between STURGIS and Chicago via the legendary Route 66-- is over. From now until the end when David and Rhonda Bella Guardia reach her home in Davenport, Iowa, US, all configurations of Felix Legion will stop for meals, relief breaks, refueling, and rest. Next stop, potentially, after Indianapolis, Indiana, US is Dayton, Ohio, US.
Friday, 2024-December-20
📓 Between this day in GHAWG and the conclusion of Rat Bike, I will publish periodic zapfic entries showing the aftermath of the big day at the Obama Presidential Library. About one week takes place with Felix Legion en route to UNC to drop off the Kids. After that, there should be between 14 and 21 days of riding to Iowa. What happens en route to UNC, and from UNC to Iowa is a mystery to me. At UNC, I have an idea. Within various points in Iowa, I have a few ideas. All I can say for sure is that within the zapfic serial format I will experiment with different writing styles. Even then, I'll do my best to follow the model set by Ernest Hemmingway: ecomomy of language with wealth of content.
Saturday, 2024-December-21
📓 I'm experimenting with new ways of using my zapfic spreadsheet. It's been a time-saver in many ways for me, but it still takes me a good chunk of time to get my Weekly Summary posts ready for publication. While it takes me time to come up with commentary for each zapfic entry, that's OK; I should be thinking about why I wrote some entry or included some detail or other.
What drives me crazy is spending time on things which have a repeating format but have different data. It's one thing to store data in a spreadsheet to use it as some sort of content management system. It's another to combine the data to present it for viewing or reading to anyone who accesses the content. Next for me is to create text-oriented formulas which generate Markdown (or HTML) which presents the content of the Weekly Summary post to readers.
It will take me a while to reach this point since I need to do lots of trial-and-error testing of the formulas. Ultimately it's just piecing together data like links in a chain. The pieces to use will be determined by a combination of basic IF() functions and some lookup technique or other. Once I understand all the pieces involved, then I can piece together the formula I need to generate the text string which will give me the formatted content I need for the Weekly Summary post. At least for now, I do it the regular way.
Sunday, 2024-December-22
📓 After Gary, Indiana, US, the next stop where I expect to write about Felix Legion is Dayton, Ohio, US. What I'm not sure of is whether I write about Felix Legion already there, or if I should write an entry which takes place en route to Dayton. A third option is to write about an event taking place far from wherever Felix Legion happens to be. I have this option because Felix Legion is less than a week's ride from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The event taking place is one which will affect Sanjay Rampersad directly, and everyone else indirectly. It also ties in to the period of gap-filling zapfic entries I was publishing earlier this year when I was struggling to develop a subplot involving him and Lindsay Etxeberria. It's also the connective tissue I need in order to bring Lindsay and Sanjay (along with Lionel Odunsi) into the sequel zapfic serial Blue Lion.
When (and Where) To Catch #GHAWG
When
This is the normal schedule for the posting of content for #GHAWG:
● Daily -- Each zapfic entry is posted shortly after midnight, from New York
● Weekends -- Weekly Summaries (with modified screen capture from LeoThreads as cover image) are usually on Saturday, sometimes Sunday
● Monday -- Either GHAWG, Uninterrupted if present, or The GHAWG Diaries
● Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday -- GHAWG Behind the Scenes -- The goal is to publish these posts on all days not dedicated to the Weekly Sumamry, GHAWH-U, or The GHAWG Diaries (TGD). There may be days with no post, so I'll minimize those occasions as best as I can.
Where
● Daily zapfic entries drop at LeoThreads, usually posted shortly after midnight from New York (sometimes around noon)
● All long form posts-- Weekly Summaries, GHAWG-U, and TGD-- can be accessed using the #GHAWGnav sticky post or from my InLeo profile page
That's it for this edition of The GHAWG Diaries. I'm 
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Thanks for your time. Give the post an upvote or a reblog if you liked it. Feedback is welcome. Until next time!
[!!] -- Graphic signature was designed by @ahmadmanga