Somehow unable to cope with actually having free time of an evening, I have taken on yet another project which will doubtless push me deeper into the dark, untamed wilds of the internet, the land stalked only by the mysterious beast known as the “web developer”.

Eric has come up with the idea for a fiction-writing community known as “A Thousand Words”. The concept is simple:

• Users submit photos or other images that they find interesting
• Every week (or other suitable period of time), one of these is chosen by the site staff
• Users then write short stories, of around 1000 words, inspired by the picture
• Users rate, comment etc. on each other’s stories

I’ll be coding up this site in my spare time over the next few weeks, and you can check out my current progress on the live site at a thousand words.  Currently, the database design is done and I’m partway through the UI of what will be the main page.  My todo list is roughly:

1. Finish the main page and story page UIs.
2. Add bare-bones pages for all the GET/POST functions, e.g. registering accounts, submitting stories, submitting pictures.
3. Test all the functions.
4. Work on their UIs.
5. Start closed beta testing for anyone interested.
6. Liberally apply jQuery to improve user experience.
7. Add commenting, possibly via DISQUS.
8. Add proper user profiles, gravatar support etc.
9. Get everyone I can find to try and break it.
10. Release!  Open the flood-gates, and despair at the dribble I receive.

As I go I’ll be posting updates and hopefully-interesting insights here, and you can always check the site at athousandwords.org.uk to see how I’m getting on.