%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |  A hub for the "Book of Masks" universe. |
|
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.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 None The Latest 5/2: Interactive: "The Light of the Planets" 5/2: Public: "The Light of the Planets"
|
| Yesterday's poll ran neck-and-neck throughout the day until "Spread it in each class" finally won it. But the sequel was going to be one of those chapters where a general kind of decision gets made, I could figure out what the decisions were going to be without writing the chapter itself. So I was able to anticipate today's poll regardless of which choice was going to win yesterday. Interactive: "Explaining Yourself" Public: "Explaining Yourself" Poll: [Poll completed and deleted.] |
| One choice ran away with it yesterday ("Persevere"), but even with that head start I wasn't sure I would be able to get a chapter and a poll written for today -- there was a lot of bookkeeping I had to do with student schedules and stuff as I updated entries for new characters. But I got it done! Interactive: "Follow the Bouncing Box" Public: "Follow the Bouncing Box" Poll: [Poll completed and deleted] |
| So if you haven't figured it out yet, today's Blind Plinko poll should make it clear where in the interactive I'm writing: [Poll completed and deleted.] Meanwhile, here is today's chapter: Interactive: "The Winding Trail" Public: "The Winding Trail" I had a couple of challenges while writing this storyline. One of them was figuring out where the mask was going to end up even as I didn't know where you guys were ultimately going to steer the story. I wanted at least several plausible chutes for the mask to fall down, so that there'd be a chance of Will taking a wrong turn while chasing it. At the same time, I didn't want to put it at the end of a path that the readers didn't choose -- that would be too frustrating -- or take him to it too quickly -- that would be too anticlimactic. So I had to keep playing shell games with it, moving it from place to place and opening paths to alternate developments, until you guys finally made a decisive move in one direction or another. So far there have been three ways for it to slip from Will's grasp. Today's chapter brings a fourth. After that, we'll come to grips with things. |
| Yesterday's poll choices were tied when I went to bed last night. But though "Celebrate privately" had the lead when I woke, there's no poll today. The morning was busy with other stuff so I didn't have time to anticipate the winning choice with a new chapter -- and I think the next chapter is going to have end with a "Continue" anyway. But a new chapter is up: Interactive: "Boxed and Outfoxed" Public: "Boxed and Outfoxed" |
| The vote in yesterday's poll ran close for most of the day and this morning too, so that I didn't feel comfortable writing a chapter before closing the poll. But when I saw "Hot" maintaining a tenuous lead through the final hours, I brainstormed the likely content of the sequel chapter far enough to come up with the likely choices at the end. So there's a new Plinko poll up: [Poll completed and deleted] Oh, and the chapter for today: Interactive: "When Charity Begins at Home" Public: "When Charity Begins at Home" |
| There's really only so many titles you can give a blog entry when it's the same kind of content day after day. Interactive: "So It Turns Out You Can Be Too Careful" Public: "So It Turns Out You Can Be Too Careful" Poll: [Poll completed and deleted] If you can't guess where I am polling in the interactive, you can probably reasonably guess the kind of junction it is at. |
| Okay, last-minute change of plans. I intended to publish one more chapter in the Will-and-Joey storyline, then switch to a new branch. But when I went to revise that chapter this morning, I wound up hacking it up so badly that I wanted to just start over. So I'm skipping it and switching to the next storyline now instead of tomorrow. So today's chapters launch the storyline that goes with the polls I've been running over the past two weeks—the storyline you guys have been crafting in the Blind Plinko polls. Now you get to see what you did! It begins with two chapters, a short one that sets up another choice, then a longer one that gets the story started properly: * Interactive: "And Then There Were Two" --> "Panic in F Wing" * Public: "And Then There Were Two" --> "Panic in F Wing" The background? Will has crafted a mask and has been searching the school for someone to test it on. Among the people he has spotted is a girl in the school's tutorial offices. She's the victim you chose in a poll that I ran a month and a half ago. And as for the poll I promised you today? Well, I'm tossing that out too. Instead, you get the first in a new round of Blind Plinko polls—[Poll completed and deleted]—for another storyline. And what's the background to this one? I'm not going to tell you. That way you will be completely in the dark, MadLibs style, about what's going on or who's involved. Although, as the story develops, the choices will probably give you enough clues to figure most of the background out. |
| So, for whatever motive, you guys managed to really show me a thing or three! Well played! But one of the upshots is that I woke up this morning to find the poll in a tie. So even though "Put on the Rachel mask" ultimately won, I couldn't write a sequel chapter and have a new poll ready for you. So you're going to have to wait until tomorrow for the next poll. Meantime, here's the latest chapter: * Interactive: "The Sudden Crush of Events" * Public: "The Sudden Crush of Events" |
| I don't even know why I'm posting a poll. I know what you guys are going to vote for! [Poll completed and deleted.] I'd only be surprised if it didn't wind up a 100% - 0% decision. [*] [*Edit: And seven minutes after I post this, some smartass decides to vote for the option that isn't going to get any votes!] * Interactive: "Schooled" * Public: "Schooled" |
| Yesterday's poll went lopsided in one direction. So of course you get a poll today: [Poll completed and deleted.] I feel like the storyline up to now has been predictable, both in terms of its genre contours—most BoM storylines have a similar shape and progression when they start out—and because of the implications of the choices. I suspect some of you could write the storyline yourselves, using just the chapter choices as a prompt! But with today's chapter I think the storyline is finally becoming its own thing, and the implications of the choices (even the very bland and business-like first choice) are becoming inscrutable. Meanwhile, here's today's BoM chapter. There will be three more after this, and then it will pause. * Interactive: "A Mix-Up at the McDonalds" * Public: "A Mix-Up at the McDonalds" |
| Yesterday's poll choices ran neck-and-neck most of the day, before "Partner with the guy" took a decisive lead overnight. So here's the follow-up poll: [Poll completed and deleted] Today's chapter: * Interactive: "Do You Mind?" * Public: "Do You Mind?" |
| Yesterday's poll was very tight, but by this morning "Do something about this disaster" had opened up a big enough lead that I could write the sequel. So here's the new poll: [Poll completed and deleted] Here is today's chapter, too: Interactive: "Real People" Public: "Real People" |
| The current storyline continues with Interactive: "The Shopping Spree" Public: "The Shopping Spree" And the polling continues with [Poll completed and deleted] |
| Road trip successfully executed. Afterward, I was able to write a chapter for the Blind Plinko Challenge, so I've got a poll for you: [Poll completed and deleted] I can't help feeling that the storyline is pretty obvious (except for the names, of course) based on the poll prompts. But I'm hopeful that the next chapter will be more twisty, whichever choice gets voted on. Meanwhile, here's the chapter where the Joey Tartaglione storyline resumes: Interactive: "When Carly Met Joey" Public: "When Carly Met Joey" |
| I haven't got a poll for you today, even though "Try to get the box back" ran away with yesterday's results. I do have a new chapter, though: Interactive: "The Girls at the Dairy Queen" Public: "The Girls at the Dairy Queen" It concludes that storyline. Tomorrow I'll pick up the storyline where Will was working with Joey Tartaglione, a homeschooled girl with even worse social skills than Will's. It will pick up off of "The Cheerleader Proxy" . Will and Joey have made two masks and swapped faces, briefly, but now Will is on his way over to her house disguised as Cindy Vredenburg. This will start an 8-chapter run of chapters as they get deeper into the book. |
| I mentioned below that I've been helping out an elderly neighbor. Tomorrow I have to take him on a road trip -- a short one, but it will consume most of the day. That means that tomorrow's BoM chapter will either go up very early or very late. It also means there probably won't be a poll because I probably won't have time to write a new chapter, even if today's poll results are lopsided. Speaking of which, the choice "Get your dad to force him to give it back" in yesterday's poll was far enough ahead when I woke up that I gambled that it would win (which it did), and wrote a sequel chapter for that choice. So here's today's poll: [Poll completed and deleted.] And here is today's chapter: * Interactive: "The Counterfeit Asshole" * Public: "The Counterfeit Asshole" |
| The last Blind Plinko Poll almost ended in a tie at very end. But the choice "Ask your mom what happened to the stuff" was ahead when I woke up this morning, so I took a chance and worked on the sequel to that. It did win at the end, so you get another poll today: "Invalid Item" |
| This Mad Libs poll thing isn't going to be as fun as it could be if the hidden story is obvious, and the story implied by yesterday's choices was probably pretty easy to guess. So I'm setting myself a challenge: Try twisting the story so that the events are not so easy to guess based on the choices in the poll. The choices in today's poll hint pretty broadly at what's happened, but I don't think they're as obvious as yesterday's poll choices, and I think I've made a start at setting up some corkscrew twists. We'll see what you make of it, and we'll what you vote for me to make of it. Last note: Yesterday's poll results skewed early and strongly toward "Seal the mask", so I got a head-start on writing the sequel chapter, and that's why I have a poll for you today. I expect that on some days I won't be able to anticipate the poll results so early, so there will likely be times when the poll shows up every other day instead. Anyway, today's poll: [Poll completed and deleted] Also, today's chapters, climaxing in choices which (Hmm!) parallel those in yesterday's poll. Well, this kind of thing typically happens early in a BoM storyline. Interactive: "Jamming with Javits" Public: "Jamming with Javits" |
| Well, this is something I guess I get to brag about. While I was gone last month, "Book of Masks" took a prize in a site-wide awards competition. It's called "The Quills" , and I guess it's WdC's equivalent of the Oscars. Lots of categories that you'd expect: Best Short Poem, Best Flash Fiction, Best Short Story, Best Novel, etc. There are also odder categories, like "Best Contest" and "Best Raffle/Auction."I don't know how it works—in particular, how the nominations or voting goes—but "Book of Masks" was nominated in two categories this year: Best Fantasy or Science Fiction, and Best Campfire, In & Out, or Interactive. I'm immensely flattered just to have been nominated. But I was absolutely floored to return and find that it actually took the prize in the Interactive category. It has been nominated before in that category, a couple of years ago. But I sure as heck never thought it would ever win. So, I want to give my thanks to whoever it was that nominated "Book of Masks," and to those who voted to give it the award. I'll dedicate this win to the readers, who have supported and encouraged its madness. A full list of nominees, and a transcript of the ceremony, is here: "Invalid Item" . |
| As I mentioned yesterday, I did some writing during my hiatus, though it's nothing I'm really excited about. There's no reason not to share it, though, and good reasons why I should. It should help me get back into the saddle. So here's one of the storylines I tried working on. It was to be for a commission, but the commissioner had to cancel on account of troubles. This is the five-chapter set-up that I wrote, leading up to the commission itself. It starts with "Five Final Chances" (interactive) / "Five Final Chances" (public). It's an early chapter. Will has made a mask and has gone up to the school looking for a possible victim. Not much happens in today's chapter. When the commissioner mentioned the idea, he threw out a lot of possible victims but left the ultimate choice up to me. Instead lurching directly into my choice, I used this intro chapter to set up all the choices he had suggested.* * * As for the Plot Plinko contest I ran the last time I was around here. I am trying to work on that, but the line you guys chose is one of those big, wide-open spaces where almost anything could develop, which makes it hard to focus on. So that's been slow to develop. The situation is similar to the set-up above: Will has made a mask, and he's hung back after school to find someone to test it on. You guys voted that he should try it on a random girl who he spotted inside the tutorial offices. Since I'm having trouble finding a direction, I'm going to try something a little different. I could write a chapter, post it, and ask you guys to pick a path to pursue—that would be a way of forcing myself to write, while also giving you a voice in how it develops. But I think it might be more interesting if we did it Mad Libs style, though. So instead of posting the chapters, I'm going to post the choices, devoid of context, and ask you to vote for them. First poll is up now. It's a boring choice—a familiar situation and you can easily guess the events that lead up to it—but it's one that has to be got through before things can get interesting: [Poll completed and deleted.] |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
