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 A hub for the "Book of Masks" universe. |
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The Interactives "The Book of Masks"  : A high school student discovers a grimoire that can make magical disguises."The Wandering Stars" : Sequel to "The Book of Masks.""Student Bodies" : A high school student is turned into a blue goo that can possess people."Student Bodies: Transfer Students" : Reboot of "Student Bodies."For non-WdC Members "The Book of Masks: Archives" : Dodges the "Servers Busy" barrier!"The Book of Masks (Abridged)" : Introductory storylines for new readers.Community "BoM/TWS Message Forum" : Community for readers of the interactives."BoM/TWS/SB Wiki" : Notes and documentation for authors. Spoilers!Current Polls/Contests None The Latest 6/30: Interactive: "Golems Three-ish" 6/30: Public: "Golems Three-ish"
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| My current computer is bricked and the new one will not be here until Friday. With set up etc, I will not be able to write or post before Sunday at the earliest. I believe I have only lost one chapter in the crash and nothing else of any importance to anything else, so I am grumpy but not distraught. |
| I am having serious problems with my computer and don’t know when I will be back to posting chapters. (I am tapping this note in on my phone.) I do have a new machine coming this weekend so this isn’t a long term issue but until it is set up or the old one decides to play again I won’t be able to post. I do have a very recent back up so at worst I will only have lost today’s chapter as I have been writing one at a time this week rather than batches. |
| New SB chapter: "Totally Drama" Yes, I'm later on posting SB chapters than BoM chapters, because on SB days I'm waiting for the BoM poll to close. Speaking of which, the "Expand the cult" choice won yesterday's poll. It was the runaway leader for most of the day, but the other choice came from behind and almost tied at the very end. Some not-so-hefty GP votes might have tipped it the other way at the last minute. Plans: The link above is to the third in what is a six-chapter SB commission. I'm going to continue the current BoM branch, alternating with SB chapters, until I finish the SB commission. So Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday will bring BoM chapters and polls, and Wednesday, Friday and Sunday will bring SB chapters. New BoM branch—another commission—will start a week from today. |
| A new chapter in "Book of Masks," and a new poll: Interactive: "An Occult Tutorial" Public: "An Occult Tutorial" Poll: [Poll completed and deleted] Well, that's all I've got to say on the matter. |
| Never watch clips from a shitty straight-to-DVD movie before sitting down to write. It will nuke your self-confidence. EDIT: And while I wait for today's poll to close, here's today's chapter in "Student Bodies": "Field Goals" EDIT x2: ... And the poll is closed. "Keep Kelly as a cultist" wins. |
| Today's chapter picks up where BoM left off last time: Interactive: "A Conundrum Called Kelly" Public: "A Conundrum Called Kelly" It ends with a choice, and I'm leaving it to you guys to pick it: [Poll completed and deleted] Tomorrow there will be another chapter in "Student Bodies." |
| The poll was pretty close for most of the day, but "Just cruise as Kelly" finally broke out to win decisively. There were also a couple of GP votes for it, so the result wasn't even close. I'll get to work on the sequel after posting this note, so I can publish it tomorrow. Meantime, here's a new "Student Bodies" chapter: "A School Survey" . |
| Today's chapter is up: Interactive: "The Kid Sister" Public: "The Kid Sister" The sequel won't appear until Friday at the earliest, because readers get to vote on what the sequel will be: [Poll completed and deleted] A quick note on the "Start a plan" choice: Though the chapter ends with Will/Kelly thinking about guys he could get Kelly in trouble with, there will be opportunities for other plans. Earlier in the chapter, for instance, he briefly wonders what Blake would think (likely nothing good) if Kelly showed up at the Warehouse. So there are a number of plans that Will could come up with, not only those he's thinking about at the end of the chapter. If "Start a plan" gets chosen, readers will have a say in which plan gets adopted. Tomorrow, to keep the flow of new material coming, there will be a sequel in "Student Bodies," to "The Many Faces of You" |
| Today brings the conclusion of the most recent storyline. Tomorrow I resume the branch I anticipated last week: "Girls, In and Out of Character" But it's not going to proceed in a straight line this time, either. Tomorrow's chapter will end in a "Continued," but the chapter after that will end with a choice, and I've decided to run a poll there. In fact, I'm going to run a poll each time that we hit a choice in that branch. And that means that I won't be able to publish every day because I'll have to skip some days while waiting for the poll results. You'll still be getting new content, though. One of my commissions is to continue a branch in "Student Bodies," and the day after I post a poll I will publish a "Student Bodies" chapter instead. I figure that SB is different enough from BoM that it won't be disorienting for daily readers to flip between them. And it won't last long. I only plan on writing six more sequels to "Girls, In and Out of Character," and at most four of them will get polls. |
| I wrote the following in reply to something that a correspondent wrote in an email—that correspondent can out himself in the comments if he wants—and decided to post it in the blog, as it might be of mild interest to my readers by shedding light on where I like to work in BoM, and why. ... For me it's not a matter of having a "wheelhouse," or of having characters or groups that I feel more comfortable writing. (Though I am more comfortable with some than with others.) If I stick to certain branches and arenas (like those I'm currently working in) and avoid returning to old ones, it's more likely because I am creatively "done" with them. Preface to help clarify what follows: Robert Heinlein (I have read) wrote story drafts that resembled interactives. That is, he would improvise his stories, writing "what happened next" until he hit a cul-de-sac out of which he could not think his way. Then, instead of abandoning the story or starting over, he would back up to the point where (he felt) it had gone wrong, and strike out in a new direction. Again, from that divergent point, he would improvise until he hit a cul-de-sac. And again, he would back up to find another point for a divergence, and plunge onward again. And so forth and on, until he finally hit the words "The End." So (if I understand this right) if you laid out the complete set of drafts for one of his novels, you would get a structure like BoM, with a single long trunk extending from first chapter to last, and a lot of branches shooting off it (and shooting off each other) terminating with unresolved, alternate plots. Back on topic: BoM is not and never will be a novel. It is a playground (for me, at least), but I think my creative brain does its stuff by striving to create coherent, first-to-last storylines. Every once in a while it succeeds. The first time was with the branch where Will went to work for Blackwell, met Frank and Joe, had to fight an anima-possessed Frank, and ended up joining the Stellae. [Terminal chapter: "New Spells, and a New Complication" ] The second time was a sequel to that story, where Will trained in Los Angeles with Kali while having adventures in London, Saratoga Falls, and Cuthbert. [Terminal chapter: "Christmas Spirits" ] There are other places that also have something like a beginning-middle-end.I never return to these areas. I have no interest in returning to them. I'm not interested in finding out what alternate thing happens if Will apprentices himself to Blackwell, then meets Frank and Joe, because I've told a story where that happens, and I'm happy with the way it turns out. It feels finished. Well, that's one reason I don't return to an area. The other reason is that I just get frustrated with it and abandon it as unprofitable. That's much more common. If I'm playing around lots (at this time) with Will and Sydney, with Will and the sophomores, and with Will and the YouTube crew, it's because I'm not frustrated with them yet; but also because I've not stumbled onto a complete "story" yet either. Will I find one? I've no idea. But I'm having fun until I do—or until I'm not having fun anymore. Am I "more comfortable" with these characters, these groups, these areas? Rather the opposite, I think. I'm dissatisfied with them, because they haven't reached a state of completion, but I'm not so dissatisfied that I want to chuck the whole thing and go look for something else to do. |
| So, is this the day that I'm supposed to announce my plan for the year? Do I even have a plan for the year? Last year I broke my writing schedule up into monthly jobs: one month of writing BoM, and two months writing other kinds of fiction. It didn't work out as well as I would have liked, but I did manage to write one novel, and to fuss around with some other stuff. I'd like to do something similar this year—and I'd like to work some more on those half-finished projects—but I think I want to break the year up up into shorter increments. One of the problems last time, I think, was that the blocs of time were too big. I didn't even write as much BoM as I wanted to or could have, because I didn't have the enthusiasm to fill a whole month with it. For the other projects it was even worse. Some of those two-month blocs felt like an endless desert, empty of feature and enervating to the spirit. So this year I'm going to be more flexible, both in plan and in spirit. I am still going to plan things out in blocs, but I'm going to make the blocs smaller and I'm not going to designate them or their contents until I'm ready to turn to them. That way (I hope) I can stretch out writing cycles that are being productive, and can shut them off when I feel my attention or interest flagging badly. * * * And since today is the first of the year, I suppose I'd better get started. So I hereby declare the first fifteen days of January (at least) to be a BoM-writing period. I have one branch that I promised you guys I would write, and I also have two commissions to fulfill. That's about sixteen chapters I still have to write, which is easily doable in fifteen days. And there are two other people I've heard from who have said they are interested in commissioning stuff from me; if they set something up with me within the next two weeks, I might make all of January a BoM project. * * * In the meantime, two other pieces of business. First, the new chapter: Interactive: "Magic on the Loose?" Public: "Magic on the Loose?" Second, the polls results. "Kelly O'Brien" and "One of Bridget's girlfriends" were neck and neck all through the voting. But although "Bridget's girlfriends" won the Free Vote, a largish GP vote came in for "Kelly O'Brien" that tipped the victory the other way. So that's the chapter that I will write and publish. My thanks to everyone who voted and played. |
| Yesterday's poll is still running—[Poll completed and deleted]—and will run through tomorrow. As I write this, one of the choices has a slim lead in the "free" votes, but the race is close enough that GPs could tilt the outcome. In the meantime, on to the branch that I intended to start publishing yesterday: Interactive: "Some Suspect Behavior by Sophomores and Seniors" Public: "Some Suspect Behavior by Sophomores and Seniors" Background: Will and Caleb have moved down into the sophomore class, where they have been helping some geeky guys infiltrate the more popular precincts. But Will has an itch to move back up to the senior level, and he thinks he might be able to convince the sophomores to come with him. I suppose I should caution you that the first two chapters in this branch are going to closely resemble two others—"Blasts from the Past" and "Twenty-Five Places to Hide" —but it can't be helped. Something important has happened off-page, and Will and Caleb need to hear about it in this branch as well as in the other. |
| Well, it turns out I spoke too soon when I said that today would bring a sequel to "The Sophomore Scheme" . It'll come tomorrow. Instead, today I'm anticipating the branch that comes after that, the one you guys voted for in the "Plot Plinko" poll. You know, the sequel to "The Nuclear Option." Here it is: Interactive: "Girls, In and Out of Character" Public: "The Nuclear Option" -> "Girls, In and Out of Character" Why jump ahead like this, only to post a single chapter? Because I wrote that chapter yesterday, and when I got to the end of it I realized that I'm not quite sure what you guys were voting for when you picked the path "Let Sydney switch with her." Oh, the immediate question posed by the choice is clear. Who should assume the identity of Bridget Atwater: Will or Sydney? But what are his reasons for making that choice? It turns out that's pretty important, because (as you'll see if you read today's chapter) Will is going to have to immediately take on a new alias of his own. And which alias he takes will depend upon his reasons for letting Sydney take Bridget's mask. Specifically, does he let Sydney take the mask because he wanted her nearby as one of Kelly's friends? Or is it because he'd prefer to stay out of a female mask altogether? As "The Nuclear Option" is written, both are plausible motives. I'm not sure which motives the voters were thinking of when they voted for a continuation of "The Nuclear Option," so I'm putting it to you guys. Though Sydney winds up inside Bridget's mask, Will has a further choice about whose mask he puts on. The chapters "The Boyish Girl" and following will give you a sense of who the other candidates might be.To vote in the Free Poll, go here: [Poll completed and deleted] To vote using GPs, click on one of the links in the Free Poll and send GPs through the tip form at the bottom of the chapter it takes you to. * * * * * I'm going to let the poll run for two days, through Tuesday. In the meantime, don't worry about me keeping busy. I've been commissioned to work in a different branch in the saga of Will and Sydney, and I'll work there—keeping myself inside their heads—as I wait for the decision above. |
| Okay, today brings the current branch to a resting place: Interactive: "Unexpected Objects of Desire" Public: "Unexpected Objects of Desire" I know some people at least liked it because I got GPs. And I had fun writing it. I liked the twists that occurred along the way as various characters (plausibly, I hope, broke up and came together). I could have kept going for a little while longer, in fact, but decided to save the final turn of the screw—and would anyone like to guess on what that would that be?—for some other time. Tomorrow starts the thread that you guys voted on in the "Plot Plinko" polls, picking up with "The Sophomore Scheme" . Yesterday I finished writing the seventh (and concluding) chapter for it. That will carry us through January 5.I'll wait until the first of the year, though, before talking about future plans. I have to make some first. |
| A week ago I told you guys that the current branch would run through the 27th, which is today. But that was before I knew I was going to miss publishing on Christmas Day, so you might be thinking that it's going to run through tomorrow. Actually, it's going to run through Sunday, because I wound up revising today's chapter and tomorrow's, with the result that a new chapter of material got inserted between them. |
| So I hope everyone else had a good Christmas. Mine was good, though it did feel like I spent most of it hand-washing dishes. (Washing them while helping prepare a family Christmas meal, and washing them up afterward.) I'd tell you about what I got, but I doubt anyone (except maybe rugal) wants to hear about Peter Brown's The World of Late Antiquity or W. H. Lewis's The Splendid Century: Life in the France of Louis XIV. What, you thought a guy who writes Book of Masks would be normal? Anyway, there's a new chapter up: Interactive: "The Businessman" Public: "The Businessman" I didn't publish anything yesterday, maybe you noticed. I didn't know know that I wasn't going to, and it wasn't until after washing all those dishes late in the day that I had a moment when I could, and by then I was all just, like, the hell with it. It wouldn't have been much of a holiday chapter, and it's also not much of a non-holiday chapter. Frankly, except for the last sentence, there probably isn't much point in reading it. If I wanted to, I could have cut it entirely from the branch sequence. I don't even know why it's there. Okay, that's not true, I do know why it's there. It's there because it just has to be there. I am not an outliner, I think I have mentioned in this blog before. Typically I don't know what is going to happen until I write it, and that was certainly true in the case of this chapter. Even as I writing it I was asking myself, "What's the point of all this?" And the only answer that made sense was: "The point is that it has to be there. Taking it out would be worse." Maybe that's a good answer and maybe it isn't. Maybe it's the wrong answer. All I know is that it's the answer I'm stuck with. * * * My thanks also to Easy and That One Guy for some absurdly generous Christmas gifts. |
| So, yesterday's poll will be the last, as it points to a chapter that needs to be written. My thanks to everyone who participated. And here's the quick links to today's chapter: Interactive: "Doing It at the Donna" Public: "Doing It at the Donna" |
| So I was right that yesterday's poll was very close. It just wasn't close between the two options I thought it was going to be close between. I like surprises like that. Anyway, here is the new poll: [Poll completed and deleted] And here are some quick links to today's published chapter: Interactive: "Bullying the Bullies" Public: "Bullying the Bullies" |
| I don't know why I even bothered to run a poll yesterday. I knew it wasn't going to be close. I do expect the sequel poll—[Poll completed and deleted]—to be closer, though. Oh, and here's extra links to the chapter I published today: Interactive: "Protecting Your Interests" Public: "Protecting Your Interests" Meanwhile, I have now written enough chapters to carry us through January 1, which (after taking account of that day I missed a few weeks back) will guarantee readers 31 days of BoM content. And I still have 10 more days of writing, so you'll get more chapters stretching into January. |
| A second "Plot Plinko" poll is now up: [Poll completed and deleted] And I'll use the opportunity to put another set of links to the chapter I published today: Interactive: "It's Like Marking Your Territory" Public: "It's Like Marking Your Territory" In case you're wondering, this branch will run through December 27. |
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