The GHAWG Diaries, Part 36

What's happening behind the scenes to bring new GHAWG content? The GHAWG Diaries is my recap of what I've been doing.

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^{Cover image designed by @magnacarta using emojis and Excel 2007 for text. Minor edits made using MS Paint.}

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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 36, there are 7 days' worth of diary entries. The first entry starts on 2024-July-1.

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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-July-01

📓 It took longer than I expected, but I published TGD35 today. I wasn't able to sleep Sunday night due to (what could be) a cold, so I slept during the day and early evening. I'm not 100%, but I'm feeling better now than I was on Sunday. Regardging GHAWG, Felix Legion is a day or two from crossing into Kansas from Oklahoma. When Route 66 was active, it spanned 8 states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Due to location, Kansas has the fewest miles of any state where Route 66 was found. It covers just 13 miles in Kansas. For reference, 13 miles is the length of Manhattan Island in New York City. I'll find something to write about during that 13-mile stretch of Old Route 66. What that will be-- travel entry, slice of life, or drama-- I don't know.

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Tuesday, 2024-July-02

📓 Route 66 originated in Chicago. As the crow flies, Felix Legion is about 567 miles southwest of Chicago, Illinois, US. The path believed to have been used for Route 66 will have even more distance to cover. In one sense, I'm running out of road since I'm getting closer to the end of Route 66. In another sense, I have plenty of time since David Guardia's Epic Ride has 2 segments remaining: escorting The Kids safely to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, US so they can resume their final year of college at UNC in person; then a straight path to Iowa when Felix Legion separates into 2 groups. Not including 2 very vague scenes, I have no idea what should happen going forward.

Maybe what I've done so far with Rat Bike is enough for several complete stories rather than the one large story I've believed Rat Bike to be. Structurally speaking, Rat Bike up to and including the time at STURGIS is like The Matrix (1999), between STURGIS and picking up Lindsay Etxeberria in Portland, Oregon, US is like The Matrix Reloaded (2003E), and between Portland and San Diego, California, US is like The Matrix Revolutions (2003K). Although I expect things to work themselves out by the time Felix Legion reaches Chicago, it's feeling to me as if the Old Route 66 segment (between San Diego and Chicago) is going to end up like The Matrix Resurrections (2023). Now that Felix Legion is riding through more populated regions along Old Route 66, I'm expecting-- actually, hoping-- that the writing muse returns to me and gets me firing on all cylinders.

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Wednesday, 2024-July-03

📓 As I reveiewed the spreadsheet I use to track published zapfic entries, I noticed 3 zapfic entries which needed to be superseded due to change in character name. Rather than update or delete the entries from Hive blockchain, I decided to add entries to blockchain and update my spreadsheet to reflect those additions. With the "renovations" I've made to GHAWG since April, I'll need to redo this speadsheet, then I'll need to update the Weekly Summary posts accordingly. Additionally, I'll need to supersede "GHAWG, Uninterrupted" posts with "GHAWG, Remastered" posts; if you've seen the original Star Wars trilogy redone as "Special Edition" movies, you'll understand what I mean here.

📓 I added a few more entries to the zapfic queue. Latest entry is queued for 2024-July-22; at that point, Felix Legion reaches Commerce Oklahoma, US. Commerce is 4.5 miles due south of Oklahoma-Kansas state lines and less than 10 miles from Kansas via paved road.

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Thursday, 2024-July-04

📓 When GHAWG began (before it transformed into The GHAWG Universe and turned into the first zapfic serial code-named Rat Bike), David Guardia began his ride to STURGIS in the middle of July 2028. He was still some schmoe from Bayonne, New Jersey, US when the 4th of July came and went that year. It would also be 32 years since the theatrical release of iconic summer blockbuster movie Independence Day. One point made about ID4 is that it was no longer just a day on a calendar and simply an American holiday. ID4 was the day humanity united to save itself from conquest and possible annihilation from extraterrestrial invaders. Since I saw ID4 that first weekend in 1996, this is what the 4th of July means to me-- both the 1776 meaning and the ID4 meanings are true for me. The original intent of the holiday still matters to me, but I want to know that when the day comes we can unite and prove to the ETs-- friend and foe-- that we are worthy of the name humanity. Will I write a zapfic entry about this point? If I write it, I won't wait until ID4 arrives for these characters.

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Friday, 2024-July-05

📓 Unless I encounter a situation where it's a no-brainer as to what I should write, I will alternate between a series of travel entries and character-based entries for down time. With less than 600 miles to go before reaching the end of Old Route 66 in Chicago, that translates to between 4 and 8 days of motorcycle riding. This gives me around one month to close out the Old Route 66 storyline.

📓 Last night, before ID4 yielded to the 5th of July, I added a few entries to the zapfic queue. Besides the travel entry, there are entries showing The Kids catching up on their college work load, The Twins and Lindsay Etxeberria questioning the existence of billionaires, and The Newlyweds talking about Life after the Epic Ride. 2024-July-27 is the date for the final entry.

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Saturday, 2024-July-06

📓 At the time I decided to have Our Heroes-- the downsized crew now known as Felix Legion-- ride along what is believed to be Route 66 (because it was decommisioned and superseded by the Insterstate Highway System), the idea in my mind was that the story would write itself.

What I hadn't considered was how the characters would relate to it. Would their stories be Route 66 stories? Would Route 66 take a back seat to what the members of Felix Legion would be doing? Would Route 66 be incidental to Rat Bike in the way that Die Hard is considered a "Christmas Movie" only because it takes place during the holiday season? While character development is an important part of storytelling-- even in zapfic format-- it works best either when the story is defined ahead of time or when it's improvided and the writer works with whatever is available.

Thanks to trying to force a couple of subplots where they couldn't be developed more fully, I wrote myself into a ditch. Whatever groove I was in when David and Rhonda Bella Guardia rejoined The Twins and The Kids in San Diego, California, US was gone after they found that "Bitcoin ATM" in Lupton, Arizona, US.

The natural stories to develop were the Brothers Marchenko guiding Lindsay Etxeberria on her new path as a libertarian and The Kids keeping up with their college studies while still on the road. Both of these stories were available immediately after the characters debuted at various times in The GHAWG Universe. Conflict to derail a romance between Lindsay Etxeberria and Sanjay Rampersad? Poor execution on my part ruined this story, which looked good in my mind at the time.

Sunday I'll continue on this theme.

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Sunday, 2024-July-07

📓 Although it's not perfect, I feel good about character development for both David Guardia and Rhonda Bella (now Rhonda Bella Guardia). For a breakout character, Lindsay Etxeberria has had her share of character development. Under construction, as those Millenial whippersnappers used to say during the early days of the World Wide Web, is character development for The Twins and The Kids.

Although the Brothers Marchenko and the foreign exchange students from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have had their moments, it wasn't enough to develop their characters, to show them coming into their own as integral characters in the daily zapfic serial Rat Bike.

While we know a few things about twin brothers Hank and Frank Marchenko, we don't know enough to distinguish one from the other. I decided that Hank is the more free-wheeling and creative of The Twins, and I decided that Frank would be the more intellectual and analytical of The Twins. I should have written more along these lines earlier in Rat Bike. Since thew zapfic serial serves as a first draft for the story, I will rectify that oversight after I transform the zapfic serial into a novel.

Easier to identify and distinguish are The Kids, Sanjay Rampersad and Lionel Odunsi. However, not much has been written about their backgrounds and their roles in Rat Bike. Even then, more has been written about Sanjay from the Indian subcontinent than about Lionel from Nigeria.

While most people know The Beatles for lead singers John Lennon and Paul McCartney, people also remember George Harrison and Ringo Starr for their contributions to the band. I need to do something similar for The Twins and The Kids going forward. This is still David's story, and Rhonda had become an important part of his story. However, much of what happens to them relies on the other characters, and readers should know more about these characters.

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 ^[!!]
Thanks for your time. Give the post an upvote or a reblog if you liked it. Feedback is welcome. Until next time!

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[!!] -- Graphic signature was designed by @ahmadmanga

Posted Using InLeo Alpha

Posted Using InLeo Alpha