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What It Is Like Writing These Things

So yesterday I said I had "no friggin' clue what comes next." Today brings an answer: "Invalid Item" .

But back to that comment. I said it as though this is a new experience for me. Actually, that's been my experience all through this experiment. Because you guys are the ones making the choices, I have no idea what's going to happen until you vote. I can't lay in any long-range plans, because you guys might make a choice that sends it veering off in completely new direction. The best I can do is write something consistent with the choice you've voted for, and plant possibilities for later development.

"Invalid Item"  is a case in point. Will had a mask of a P. E. coach. He even had her clothes. He even went out once and pretended to be her, at the gym and with friends. But the voting more or less shut that line down—by voting for him to visit the graveyard and move his operations in the school basement, you guys were basically indicating that Will should concentrate on getting into the book rather than upon shenanigans. That left me at a bit of a loss. Any immediate further fun with Coach Schell's mask would have felt (to me, at least) like an ass pull.

So what could happen to him while waiting for that spell to finish cooking?

I improvised, desperately. I went back to the idea that Will is terrified of running into the coach, for fear of being recognized, and invented an excuse that would send him into the gym. And as I was writing that scene, almost as an afterthought, Katy Conlee smiled at him. Hmm, I thought, and then I had Yumi run up after Will and make a comment about how maybe she was interested in him.

I didn't intend for that to go anywhere in particular, any more than I intended anything from the dropped comment about Carson and James's prank on the jocks. It was just a thing thrown in, on the chance that it might lead somewhere. So was the device of putting a brain-band onto Yumi. That action has led to Will being interested in Katy, but it's still lurking in the background and might have a use later on.

So this is the way I'm having to compose this storyline: Not with any particular destination in view. Not even with any particular idea of what will happen in the next chapter. Only with a view of creating possibilities, some of which could be developed in the sequel chapter.

This, BTW, isn't a whole lot different from the way I write anyway. The chief difference is that I can usually see a little farther than past the end of a single chapter. It's like a rambling walk through the wilderness: Oh, there's a peak that looks interesting, let's see if I can reach it and have fun along the way.