What's happening behind the scenes to bring new GHAWG content? The GHAWG Diaries is my recap of what I've been doing.
Base image came in another form from PublicDomainPictures.Net. 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. With posts in the GHAWG, Uninterrupted series on hold at Interlude 3 while Act 7 remains in progress, I decided to share these diary entries with everyone on Hive blockchain.
On Mondays which don't feature a GHAWG, Uninterrupted post-- GHAWG-U-- I'll post diary entries from the previous 7 days or between GHAWG-U posts if the time between them is short. For Part 26, there are 7 days' worth of diary entries. The first entry starts on 2024-April-22.
Before anyone scratches their heads at a few terms, here are 3 I began using many posts ago:
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
Rat 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-April-22
📓 Earlier today I scraped some links I use frequently to include them in one place for easier access to them. It's links to the characters and a few locations. For any other links I need, I can get them from the spreadsheet I use to track zapfic entries. This should help save me more time in preparing the TGD posts each Monday.
📓 Now that I'm adding many zapfic entries to fill in gaps from earlier, it's getting more difficult for me to keep track of which gaps have been filled and which gaps remain. Until now, I've been documenting where the gaps are and appending these entries to the end of the spreadsheet. For that reason, I made a copy of the spreadsheet so that I can place these gap-fillers where they need to be before I resequence the spreadshet. Dates for these entries will remain the same for historical purposes, but in all other ways this will be a new spreadsheet. After the gaps are filled and the story resumes, a new series of posts will need to be published.What had been "GHAWG, Uninterrupted" will be redone as "GHAWG, Remastered" to reflect their updated nature.
📓 One of the Excel formulas I use to determine which URL prefix to use is broken, and at the moment I can't trace where it goes wrong. It's not a difficult fix, but I need to clear my head for a bit before I fix this formula. Until then, I make manual edits as I prepare the post for publishing.
UPDATE -- I figured out where the formula broke, and I figured out where I need to make the fix. How I did this would require a post in and of itself, and that would take a while to prepare. Actually, it would take several posts to explain what I did (screen captures, explanations of functions, the Name Manager, etc.). Although this would be great in the long run for evergreen content, it's also a time-consuming task to get done.
Tuesday, 2024-April-23
📓 Most of my time online today was devoted to working on a GHAWG Behind the Scenes post explaining how I solved a problem I encountered with the spreadsheet I use to track my entries for the zapfic serial. After I moves a few things around, I discovered that I broke a formula I use for building URLs to be used in Markdown templates I use for various posts. Once I figured out where I broke the formula and how to fix it, I decided to document what I did in a more generic fashion.
Wednesday, 2024-April-24
📓 It's not that we see often David Guardia interacting directly with the Brothers Marchenko, but it happens. I began writing a couple of zapfic entries where he does exactly this. They take place near the paused location of the zapfic serial, in Act 7 near scene 423. These entries take the zapfic queue to 2024-May-13. Besides this rarely seen interaction, I also want to foreshadow events which will take place later in the serial. It may not take place immediately, but I'm preparing for when it happens. If I end up violating the principle of Chekhov's Gun, then I remove the offending item from a later form of the story (such as long form).
Thursday, 2024-April-25
📓 More work is being done on that GBTS post featuring the formula I modidied after I broke it the other day. I can't be the only person to whom something like this has happenned, and it's surprising how complicated it can get to deal with a simple piece of text. We just have to remember why we're doing all of this: to satisfy the conditions of an IF() function. So I need to retrace the steps in order to show what can work to solve the problem.
Friday, 2024-April-26
📓 Weekly Summary post is due tomorrow, so I should start working on it today. Although actual mechanics of preparing the post will be simple, there is the additional wrinkle of accounting for the gap being filled by the zapfic entries. At least getting the cover image made has been reduced to moneky work thanks to linking a formula to an object such as an image or a text box. Before I did that, the image world have taken me 10-30 minutes at least.
Saturday, 2024-April-27
📓 I thought I would have the Weekly Summary post done quickly this time. It turns out that I updated the wrong area of my spreadsheet. Once I figured out where I went wrong I fixed the spreadsheet and copied the corrected formulad down the columns I use to produce the detail lines for the post I use.
Since I had been working on a GHAWG Behind the Scenes post focused on that same spreadsheet, I'll need tme to backtrack to correct it to reflect my work on those formulas.
Sunday, 2024-April-28/mark>
📓 As of now, I extended the zapfic entry queue to 2024-May-13. Latest gap-fillers show David Guardia having direct interactions with the Brothers Marchenko. I also made use of the Frequently Used Links list I included in the text file I use to prepare this post. Once I add these backlinks into the post, the remaining links are for other events and people which need to be backlinked as needed.
Tuesday I introduce a new character into The GHAWG Universe. This character helps me fill 2 gaps, and he will have a greater role in later zapfic serials Blue Lion and The Bronze. Hint: there will be an influence from the John Wick franchise, even though he would be out of place in those movies.
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