I found the name for the town. It came to me last night before I drifted off to bed. It works on many levels and is short and simple. I'm saving the name until I'm closer to starting the actual story. For now I'll use the cliche "X" as a reference.

This morning I set up a template blog, similiar to the scribe test 1, but with different colors. That version was set as x-tales, because I couldn't think of anything else when X was taken. Tonight I changed it to life-in-x.

A tangent: I'm pagan. I believe in things like numerology (and not the rotate through digits as you go down the alphabet numerology, I use a very old system based on ancient alphabets). Numerologically X, all by itself, was wonderful. Unfortunately "x-tales" sucked. I tried variations using word association. "x-life" wasn't much better, but then I added the magick "in" and the number was almost as good as X by itself (there's an inside joke there as the resulting compound number is known as "the magician" --and yes, that's related to the Tarot card). By using X as the title and "life-in-x" as the url, I get two good number combinations for the price of one. And those that know me, know I'm greedy.

Having a name, a setting, a blog-home, this should help the story lines come together. The city, now that it has a name, will be showing me her secrets and her people. It's only a matter of time...and fewer overtime hours & stress at my day job!

It's starting to bother me that I don't have a name for this project yet. The characters are starting to manifest, but I don't have a framework for them.

Is it a city/town or other geographical connection?

Is there a place or workplace that a number of them share?

Is there a tradition or history they share?

I have thought sin my mind that Hannah, her friend, and a few others are going to evolve into something that questions the previous order of things. Since I don't know what the current order is, I can't start them on their journey.

*sighs*

time to do some crosswords and other word games that will get my mind rolling.

The First Character:

Hannah is the first character to have a name, though she may not keep that name. She is in her mid-to-late thirties, I think. Divorced. Relocating to whatever town this is from Boston. May have kids in ex's custody. Haven't decided on that yet. The reason why she relocated is also a mystery at the moment. Maybe just starting over after the divorce.

She has a friend in NN (no name town). They met online and spent lots of time talking on the phone helping each other through problems. Friend is submissive, not sure if Hannah is switch or domme. When Hannah decided she wanted a fresh start, the friend suggested she move out to NN and offered her the spare room for as long as it takes Hannah to get a job and a place of her own. Friend is early forties, unhappily married. She is bisexual-leaning-toward lesbian, walking a tight-rope with vanilla husband. He lets her go to the dungeon and play with people as long as she doesn't neglect their business or his sex drive. She's recovering from a long-distance relationship with a bi-domme she met online and spent a lot of time visiting. Looking for a local domme, or just kinky girlfriend, and the courage to leave her husband.

The friend visited Hannah a few times in Boston. They played together, but only as friends. They want different things in a relationship, but love each other as friends and will do anything to help the other. That's why the friend offered the room. They have few secrets from each other and Hannah puts a lot of trust in the friend not telling too much to her husband or the people in NN.

Well, it's a start. There's more in my head, but given that we're talking about a soap opera, some things can't be revealed in advance. They have to unfold in the story lines and create twists and turns. It wouldn't be a soap without secrets.

I'll try to write some about the collaring couple tomorrow. I haven't given them a lot of thought, but I feel something forming. I'm hoping once I sleep on it, it will manifest into words.