On Plotting and Coding

This morning I started plotting out a new short story.

The idea’s been turning over in the back of my mind for a few weeks. I I wasn’t sure what was going to tumble out, and I also wasn’t going to force it before it was ready.

I wrote two pages of plot on the train this morning, including a few likes I wrote hastily at the end of the commute that pointed to the conclusion. I fleshed those lines out on the trip home, and had the final page of plot written well before I had to switch from the light rail to the subway.

It’s not perfect, not by any means. For one thing, there’s not a single name attached to any character, just the roles they play. For another thing, there’s not even a vague hint of what the title might be. And even as I was fleshing out the scribbles on the climax, I had a better idea — and I wrote that down, too. (Which means, in a way, this outline has three endings — scribble, fleshed-out scribble, alternate. That’s weird, even for me.)

I’m also not sure when I’m going to start writing this story. More importantly, I’m not sure what this story is for.

I should write it anyway. Need to remember that.

On another project, I mentioned some coding issues the other day that I wanted to tackle for a WordPress site.

Over the weekend, I managed to cross two of those items off entirely.

The custom taxonomy? Coded. Tested. It worked.

The custom menu? Coded. Tested. Bugs squashed. It worked.

The mobile themes? I started working on a child theme for Minileven. It functions, but it needs a lot more work. As for the child theme for Twenty Twelve, I need to sit down with Twenty Twelve’s code and figure out how and why it works.

The sticky post? Still in the brainstorming stage. I know roughly what I want to do, I have a vague idea of how it will work, but I haven’t looked at code.

The drabbles? Still in the “thinking about” stage.

On the other hand, I did recode the iTunes RSS feed code. The upshot? It’s more universal, so the page template can be used for multiple podcast feeds. The downside? It has a serious bug that needs quashing.

It’s getting close.

And yes, I’ve been listening to Christmas music today. Why not? 🙂

Published by Allyn

A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.

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