BoM/TWS Message Forum

I'd kind of meant to post this after it first reached its stopping point but it'd slipped my mind. That said, the recent story with Will swapping with Chelsea and getting her booted to Oregon was a nice little branch to work on and I have to thank Seuzz for it. Behind the scenes, I'd mentioned to him that I was wanting to do something in that area based on Will swapping with Chelsea to partner with Chen though admitted that I did find Chen and his operation a bit intimidating. Graciously he suggested writing it switching off every chapters (or every few chapters depending on circumstances) a bit like the Round Robin. There was a base idea but for the most part it was played -- again like the Round Robin -- largely by ear and riffing off of what the other would write.

Truth be told I really enjoy writing like that. While having your own branch to play around in and develop on your own is always enjoyable I feel like I'm more energized and enthusiastic as a writer if I'm reading a branch that I'm really enjoying (shout out to Masktrix and his return to the Alex Day and Crew branch, that trio is some of my favorite characters) or having someone else to play off of. It makes me excited to see what's done with the situation I leave for a writer whose work I enjoy and I tend to feel hyped up a little more.

That and I wanted a branch where Will just really goes in on being Chelsea. Some times she's his partner and confidant, some times an antagonist and often times a means to an end but I really liked the idea of Will going from this desperate situation to the queen of the school, how that affects him and how, perhaps, he starts to get a little too into the role from enjoying the feeling of superiority to falling prey to her own scheming nature.

I do want to follow up at a different point in that area eventually but I also like the set up I put at the end of "Cheerleaders and Charity" . Yumi's a character who's been impersonated plenty of times but rarely has she herself ever played a central role in a branch so that's something I'd like to do as well. Naomi Batson and Kennedy Palmer (the juniors in general really) are also some of those characters I always want to find something to do with (Seuzz knows all about this...) so what would someone like her and/or Kennedy (or even others) do if they stumbled on the book? What would Will do if he had a disguise of one of them?

Generally, I enjoy using barely used characters because being relatively blank slates there's a little more freedom to develop them. Yumi or Naomi are certainly far less defined characters than Chelsea for instance though Chelsea herself is, of course, a very fun and very popular character.