Just finished the restructuring, hackin’ and slashin’, and adding new scenes to get the second draft of Secret of the Wood in order.  I’m going to let it sit and simmer for a couple of days again, give it a final tweak pass, and then get this draft out for an impression.

In the meantime, back to SOTM and Amber. 😀

Also, I set the blog up to close comments on entries older than 90 days.  Doubt anybody would have reason to do so, and almost all of the spam comments were coming in on old entries — one in particular that’s years old, actually.

Should cut down on having to empty the spam queue as often.

I flipped through my remaining focus stories in progress, and Mindblind is what’s singing to me.  As soon as I opened it up and read through the brief introduction of the current chapter, a way to resolve the plot block in my head popped up.  I wrote that out and finished the scene, so it’s ready to keep on rollin’.

Heard back from the editor who gave me such a good impression read on Forever of the Wood, and she’s on board for Secret as well.  More good news for me and my readers.  Her insight into Forever made it a much stronger story than it started out.

Now, back to Mindblind 🙂

A little later…  Actually, I ended up fiddling with some coding stuff until the young one finished winding down.  Finally got around to inserting a new table into my database, though I went with the one for cover images instead of new releases.  Easier data set to deal with.

I’ll see about creating a test page to read that data next.  I need to dig into both my old code and the forum code to hammer out what’s necessary to pull this off.

Odds are that the first version will be quick and dirty.  All I’ll do is see if I can suck the data out of the table and display it in simple text format.

The next task will be to actually show the cover image pop-up as it will appear in the final version.  I’ll probably put it up as a preview at that point, using the new cover for Secret as the example.

This page will be the one that pops up when you click on the cover image link from umpteen places on the website.  There will also be a cover browser that will let you navigate through all my story covers, probably showing the story information for what’s inside that cover.  It might even be an alternative to browsing the story listing, depending upon how much room I have within the template once I start playing with that.

Okay, now back to Mindblind.

Boy is wound up and a half, so I’m betting that I won’t get any writing done tonight.

Decided to do some tweaking on the story listing pages.  I’m adding some borders to the headers and the story descriptions, which should help focus the eyes.  It just seems too loose the way it is right now.  That part appears to be fine, and also looks fine on the latest releases page, which uses some of the same elements to display.

I’m also going to remove the individual chapter listings from this for Lit, and instead link to whatever the first chapter of the story is there.  Trying to get all the individual chapters to display properly is just a pain in the ass.  Reducing it to a single link will allow me to create a much cleaner page.  It’s not as if Lit is that difficult to navigate from chapter to chapter.

It’s not as good as SOL, but I think that nearly everyone can figure it out.

I might finish it tonight.  If so, I’ll edit this post to note that, and upload the new version to the server.

I should probably be working on the latest releases code instead, but that’s just too involved to deal with while the child is running around and hollaring.

I did at least accomplish something with my writing while I was at work today.  I figured out how to make that transition that I was missing in Secret.  If I can get my frayed nerves together, I should be able to get it down on “paper” in short order.

Once I finish the core storyline on this one, I’ll need to go back and dress it up in places.  It just doesn’t have as much scenery as the previous entries.  Part of the reason for that is that so much of it takes place in somewhat dry locations.  I’ll figure it out *laugh*

I also need to make sure that the Earth Day connection is as strong as the other elements.  At the moment, I’m feeling as though it’s almost a peripheral thing, and that just won’t do for a themed contest.  I made that mistake with “Daughter”, but I was lucky to figure out a way to continue this series in the first place, so I guess I can forgive myself for that *laugh*  I’ll probably need to go back and add some scenes dealing with the theme to flesh that part out.  Already have several ideas, so I’m sure I can find the right ones and the right places to put them without grinding the story down.

Did some thinking about the new VR:DQ as well.  I think I have the overall story locked in my head.  It’s more or less the details that I need to work on.  I need to figure out what equipment and spells we’re going to have, where in the DQ6 world everything is going to happen, etc.  Once I lock in those details, the story should pretty much write itself.

Anybody who’s hoping for a wild romp with Barbara and Mireyu will probably be dissapointed, although they are going to appear naked, and there will be sexual tension with them.  There’s also going to be some nice hot and sticky sex, but it just won’t be with them.  The way the overall story goes just doesn’t allow it.

This second storyline will actually follow the worlds that I’m going to visit in order — 6, 7, then 8.  That of course means that the storyline will culminate with Jessica 😉

Something about what I’ve been writing on SOTM is striking me as off.  It just doesn’t feel organic for some reason.  I’m letting it simmer for a while, and then I’m going to come back and cold read it.  I may just be missing a scene that needs to be in there, or need to cut one out.  Could be that I need to advance to a plot point faster, or perhaps I need to slow it down.  Just too difficult to tell, as of now.

I’m thinking about completely changing the way I started Ch. 05 of Lowborn.  I was going to introduce an important new character, but that just isn’t feeling organic either.  I hate to lose the surprise transition from the cliffhanger at the end of 4, but if that just flows better, that will be the way it goes.  I’m starting to believe that introducing that new character a little later is the easiest way to hit a certain plot point, as well.  I think it will allow me to cut down the length of the story without losing anything, too.  The route I was going was looking as if it would add a whole extra chapter to however many it ends up.

I’m always fiddling around with other ideas, but nothing other than those four stories is getting any real serious attention.  I’m just letting the other ideas bounce around and filing away tidbits when they hit me.  I’m actively thinking about these four on a daily basis.