Desiderius Price

What?  That’s limiting…   
More seriously, I learned by doing it wrong in my first original story (now deleted).  I crammed it with so much backstory/flashback that I confused my readers and myself.  On reflection, I realized I basically had multiple stories in one.  So, I spun one backstory off as a regular chaptered story (complete), and the other off as an episodic serial (still WIP).  And working on a second episodic to explain where the main protagonist’s swimming instructor came from, so yeah, gotta cut backstory off at a point or it’ll explode with plot bunnies and you’ll never get back around to writing the story you intended to write in the first place.

Magic does have consequences I suppose.

Did someone invoke gremlins? Did someone feed them after midnight? Or get them wet?

Guessing that’s what caused the issues in the first place! 

44054 … I generally only “notice” it being down when others comment on it, lol.

And, St. Elsewhere has been down for the past two days.

Guessing that’s what caused the issues in the first place! 

Don’t we have a whole bunch of writers who are obsessed with gremlins and other magical creatures that cause chaos? Maybe they have some kind of magic spell?

That’s certainly a possibility, although I don’t think my story is going to be funny enough to go there.
 

“Mommy, mommy, why are they asking her to take her clothes off?” the boy asked as the volume on the downstairs PA was set a little too loud. 
Could have other things, like police response to the upstairs restaurant being a bit too fast… (because they were hanging out downstairs).  Still, lots of ways to have fun with your premise.

Actually, your “upstairs/downstairs bookstore” option is a pretty good example. Basically, the family friendly to Hooters style restaurant is above ground and it has a more adult oriented space underground from a bygone era. They’re treated as separate businesses, but part of the story is that they are brought under a single owner.

“Welcome to Deadman’s Wings, enjoy some breasts with your chicken!” 
Employees (especially new hires) might get confused if they’re working both sides.  Do the two places share bathrooms—you’d have mixup opportunities there?  All sorts of options for sub-plots/issues

hahahaha oops sorry about that @Desiderius Price!
 
44031

Well I hadn’t necessarily considered it from that perspective, like having kids involved. I was thinking more in the sense of imagine if the owner of a more adult oriented bar acquired a family friendly restaurant and decided to turn it more into a Hooters. Not to mention have the employees of one working at the other. Keeping up the appearance of the family oriented place but not really catering to the family vibe.

It’s not that the fandom itself is family friendly, but it’s just where the story is going in my head. Both locations are canon. Yes, technically you can bring your family to a Hooters, but that’s not why most people go to the place. Especially given the scenario I’m setting up.

So my initial story revolved around the adult oriented bar. But there is fun to be had in the idea of the Hooters style restaurant. Possibly with some crossover in terms of “things on the menu”.
 

Aw, well, more opportunities to get the wares/inventory mixed up   Maybe it starts with a kid finding something they shouldn’t have found?
“Mommy!  Mommy!  What’s this?” followed by shrieks?
If I were writing, I’d more likely start on the kid friendly side TBH.  Unless it’s horror, and start with an employee getting an anonymous threatening letter “I know where you work, you defiler.”
If you’re still undecided -- create two files, write one from the kid-friendly side to start, the other from the adult-orientated side to start.  See which one you like better as an opener.  (And you’ll have some seed material for the second chapter too.)

It’s more from the perspective of the employees. The initial idea was about the “downstairs book store” concept from the perspective of the employees. The employees are the main characters of the fandom. But as I was working through the “downstairs” story, I thought it might be fun to show the “upstairs” story. Both businesses are going to be staffed by the same characters.
 

I’ve heard of “bookstores” where the upstairs is a bland selection of books, but you go downstairs for the “adult” material.
Guess the question is how is the owner (or owners) want to be perceived?  Do you even start at the stores?  Or, is it from the perspective of a customer?  Which side do you want to emphasize?   Kinda a bunch of questions for how you want the story to go.

I’ve been playing with a story idea again, someone has to find a way to stop me, but I was doing it.

Anyway, the part of the story that I’ve been thinking about has partly a more naughty part but I have a thought about a more teasing aspect.

Basically, there are two businesses side by side. One is very adult oriented where kids can’t go. The other is more family friendly. However it’s owned by the same person and they are creating the appearance of a family friendly atmosphere. Underneath though, it’s more naughty.

The initial idea was to focus on the more adult oriented story. But I have looked at starting with the more “family friendly” part. At the moment it’s more of either the adult oriented business is chapter 1 and the “family friendly” business will be chapter 2. Or I could do the reverse.

What do you think?
 

44018
I’ve broken 20k words this month, so that’s “thawing” IMO.  Not quite the 100k+ I was managing in the fall, but yeah, good to get words pumping again.

44016
After a couple of months of nothing, I’ve finally had some luck this past week, a bit of wind again in my story.

it’s a sense of entitlement that gets to me.  My free time, not going to submit to schedule/demands (which is why I thought I hated writing for many years before I got into Harry Potter fanfiction, there’s a big difference between assigned writing & free writing). 
My current potter story’s now of drinking age, and I stumbled over a plot point I was having trouble deciding on how to show it… that stalled me, I delved into originals, and came back.  And when I restarted, I re-read and realized it needed an overhaul.  A happy little accident in the rewrite, and it’s a lot richer of a tale now than it was then.

Eww… yeah, that’s not the right name for those parents!  IIRC, it was “Linda” and “Charles” in mine, the origin eludes me ATM.  Though, I did make use of Radcliffe, Watson, & Grint names in a scene where Harry, Ron, & Hermione were getting piles upon piles of hate mail, so some of that was misaddressed to the actors too

Thank you for speaking up for the story while I was taking a break. It’s weird to think I started this fic in 2016 and it’s been 8 years. I must admit it fell off the back burner sometime in late 2021 yet here we are, three years later, and I’m fighting with the 19th chapter while the 20th is already planned. 
Speaking as a reader, writers returning to their fics after years of hiatus makes my day, and there are several fics last updated before 2018 that I still hope will have a new chapter someday. Life happens. 

That’s presumptuous.  It’s a six year project so far, the muse will ebb and flow, not to mention real life will intrude.  Sure, a few months since the last chapter post, but she’s (fairly) recently commented.  If it had been years...maybe then consider that label.  However, even then, projects have a way of coming back to life.  Even my potter fanfic had … trying to remember if it was six or ten YEARS to that hiatus before I returned to it.  Know of another that’s resurfaced too after a decade.

Eww… yeah, that’s not the right name for those parents!  IIRC, it was “Linda” and “Charles” in mine, the origin eludes me ATM.  Though, I did make use of Radcliffe, Watson, & Grint names in a scene where Harry, Ron, & Hermione were getting piles upon piles of hate mail, so some of that was misaddressed to the actors too