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. 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 43, there are 7 days' worth of diary entries. The first entry starts on 2024-August-26.
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-August-26
📓 The TGD post is almost ready, I just have to add backlinks and make the cover image. If I don't publish this post tonight, I'll publish it tomorrow.
📓 As we get closer to the next stage of David Guardia's Epic Ride, escorting The Kids to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Sanjay Rampersad and Lionel Odunsi, will take on a more prominent role. The Kids will have greater interaction with both The Newlyweds and The Twins. This stage of David's Epic Ride will span about 7 days in GHAWG time. While the digital maps have one route mapped for driving directions, I won't want Felix Legion to backtrack their ride before going forward, so I need to find an alternate route so that the crew can pass through places new to them. One reason for routing Felix Legion in this manner is to increase the opportunities for the zapfic serial "to write itself" as I move the characters closer to UNC and later various destinations in Iowa. This was what I did for the start of David's ride from Bayonne, New Jersey, US to STURGIS, and I think that worked out well for me. Let's see how it works this time.
Tuesday, 2024-August-27
📓 The last time I worked on the GHAWG timeline was 2024-April-15, so additonal work on this timeline is overdue. Even though I have GHAWG calendar dates going through the overnight stay at McLean, Texas, US, I can't certify these dates at this time as being accurate. I'll need to return to the day Our Heroes-- the yet-to-be Felix Legion led by David Guardia together with The Mongols led by Harry Hoqualogue-- left STURGIS for San Diego, California, US via Seattle, Washington, US and Portland, Oregon, US. Now that I have the zapfic queue going to 2024-October-05, I can devote time to updating the GHAWG timeline in the spreadsheet I use to track zapfic entries. While this spreadsheet will need other updates and maintenance, this one takes precedence.
Wednesday, 2024-August-28
📓 Numbers and dates were hurting my eyeballs when I resumed working on the GHAWG timeline, so I set that task aside to look at digital maps to see how Felix Legion would ride from Chicago, Illinois, US to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, US to various points in Iowa.
Now that David Guardia (refugee from New Jersey) is married to Rhonda Bella (native of Iowa), he will live with her in Davenport. The Brothers Marchenko, Hank & Frank, live and work in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
However-- until today-- I didn't have a place in mind which could be called Lindsay Etxeberria's home. After going back through my spreadsheet, I rediscovered one detail:
Midway is a few miles east and south of Iowa City. Both places are along the Iowa-6 road. When David and Rhonda found Lindsay as a bloodied pulp on the side of the road, it was as they approached Midway. So it made sense to me (today) to have her home be a short drive east of Midway. After considering a couple of locatons, I decided that the Etxeberria family would hail from Atalissa, Iowa, US.
One advantage of using this location is that Felix Legion would go there first, then Lindsay can continue her ride with The Twins and The Newlyweds to Cedar Rapids, then David and Rhonda Bella Guardia ride alone as a married couple to Davenport. It's a round-about trip, with no bouncing between destinations. Esentially, Felix Legion is always going from Point A to Point B without passing through Point C. For the way the number of people in Felix Legion drops until it's just 2 (The Newlyweds), this path makes the most sense.
Thursday, 2024-August-29
📓 What will happen when Felix Legion reaches the eastern terminus of Old Route 66 in Chicago, Illinois, US? It's beginning to look to me as if it will be a combination of what happened in Seattle, Washington, US and Venice Beach in Los Angeles, California, US. This means that Chicagoans will engage with and interact with Felix Legion. It also means that David Guardia will go biblical and formally act as a prophet. Part of his prophesying will include text from Psalm 23:4, the iconic verse about walking through the valley of the shadow of death. While he had fear of being near Chicago as he and the uncanny Manny Rey rode quickly through Illinois, this time David has no fear and people will see that he has no fear. I see Felix Legion being led to the Obama Presidential Library rather than just showing up as a crew. If anything, Felix Legion will act as escort to a group of people fed up with their local government and are appealing to Chicago's Favorite Son (Barack Obama) to do a solid for his hometown. Obama himself has nothing to do with what David will be saying, but the visual of David prophesying at the Obama Presidential Library will be powerful within The GHAWG Universe.
Friday, 2024-August-30
📓 More thoughts regarding David Guardia in Chicago:
- Initially Felix Legion will escort a couple of people. As the ride progresses, more people join the ride.
- Most of these Chicagoans will be aggrieved families who had suffered loss of loved ones due to crime.
- A few miscreants will glom on to the group, just because.
- By the time everyone approaches the Obama Presidential Library, Felix Legion will be escorted by a police motorcycle detail. That will be an indication of what the police think of their city's political leadership.
There won't be anything dramatic (like gunshots or stabbings) happening, but it will be a signature moment in The GHAWG Universe. How significant will this moment be? It will mark the first time David and Aníbal Rivera are together since the interview after David awake from his life-changing 10-day coma at the hospital in Le Claire, Iowa, US.
Saturday, 2024-August-31
📓 My reason for doing GHAWG via zapfic is to get ideas out of my mind as I create and develop the story. GHAWG in zapfic format is a first draft; I just want to get it all out there. The second draft will be done in traditional long form. As a long form work, GHAWG will be different in content from the zapfic serial.
One change will be in how I introduce characters. Some characters, like Harry Hoqualogue, had their names immediately. Most characters (even main character David Guardia) didn't get their names until much later. In the case of The Kids, they entered GHAWG as David and Rhonda Bella were riding through Iowa, but I didn't give them their names until after they pick up Lindsay Etxeberia in Oregon. Now that I know their names, I can give them proper introductions in the long form format.
Another change is shifting or deleting certain scenes. Originally I had considered shifting the creation of Felix Legion from their time in New Mexico to their reunion in San Diego after the week The Newlyweds had for their honeymoon activities. However, I realized it would affect a couple of scenes in New Mexico: the literal airdrop for the "fashion upgrade" and Lindsay acquiring the moniker "Fonzie".
As for deletions, the most likely candidates are travel entries, but there could be a scene or two deleted as well; I haven't thought it through, but I know I'll need to make those deletions as I port Rat Bike from zapfic to long form.
Sunday, 2024-September-01
📓 Between 2023-March-05 (when I started GHAWG) and now, the spreadsheet I use has undergone many changes. Most of those changes were intentional because I added functionality. However, a few of those changes occurred as a result ot tech woes: locked up computer; runaway process; Blue Screen of Death; etc. Along the way, the file containing the spreadsheet became corrupted. It's not bad enough to require total recreation, but it's bad enough to get me scratching my head at some things. One area of the spreadsheet concerns me most: conditional formatting. One set of conditional formatting rules highlights a zapfic entry when it matches the value I select from a drop-down list (created via data validation and a named range). If I select an entry made since 2024-August-24, the conditional formatting doesn't work as I had expected. I have other ways to highlight a row I want, but it's not as attention-grabbing. So not only do I need to update the GHAWG timeline, I also need to debug the conditional formatting rules. I can get it done; it just won't be a five-minute fix.
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!
[!!] -- Graphic signature was designed by @ahmadmanga
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