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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.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 5/14: Interactive: "The Family of Heather Dow" 5/14: Public: "The Family of Heather Dow"
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| New commission/storyline starts: Interactive: "A Kind of Professional Consultation" Public: "A Kind of Professional Consultation" This was a really hard chapter to write, and frankly I'm surprised I got it done in time to be published today. (But maybe, on reading it, you'll think it should have cooked longer.) Everything in it kind of surprised me. Not until I sat down to actually write it did I realize the impersonation that was going to occur inside it. But given where the story has been commissioned to go, it was just obvious what had to be done first. Then as soon as Will put that mask on, I had to find out for myself everything that would be inside it. So I spent a massive amount of time setting up a kind of thing that I've been tiptoeing around up until this point. Even the revelation at the end of the chapter—which may seem too pat and coincidental—was a revelation to me. I already have a map of Saratoga Falls all made up, and many, many months ago, when Sydney first appeared, I started sketching in ley lines using suggestive-seeming landmarks around the city that could be used as anchor points. And today, when I extended out those ley lines to see where else they would intersect, I discovered that one of the intersections was just north of— But that would be a spoiler. Read the chapter to find out. |
| Today's chapter— Interactive: "Arsenic from a New Face" Public: "Arsenic From a New Face" —finishes up a commission. There was a last-minute change in plans connected to that one, and I did some last-minute revisions which caused me to miss publishing yesterday. But it's up now. Tomorrow I start a new commission, one that will run for 10 to 14 chapters, in all probability. It takes off from here: "Mental Kudzu" . Those of you with WdC accounts may recognize that chapter and its two sequels already. For those who read the public pages, they might be new because they haven't been published in the Archives before. Background:It's a story with Will and Sydney. Sydney has discovered that her stepfather murdered her father, and wants to get revenge on him. Will is willing to go along with this. But Sydney has also proposed forming a "Brotherhood of Baphomet" using golems, and in this branch Will thinks this would take things too fast and too far. |
| Yeah, so I forgot to publish a chapter yesterday. Here it is now: Interactive: "A Rapidly Developing Situation" Public: "A Rapidly Developing Situation" I was working on a project in Minecraft, and I completely forgot about BoM. Meanwhile, in the sadly under-used "BoM/TWS Message Forum" , you can give Masktrix feedback on the chapters he published. |
| G'yuh! I wonder how today's chapter— Interactive: "A Dana's-Eye View" Public: "A Dana's-Eye View" —will read to people. I had to rewrite that stupid thing over and over again, including a last-minute rewrite that deleted a huge chunk and added a new section just before I published it. That's one reason I'm late today in getting it posted. Disclaimer: I'm not actually looking for feedback or validation. Asking "how will people react" is just the hook for the post. So these chapters are part of a commission, and I've got some targets I've been asked to hit while fulfilling it. But I also (for my own peace of mind) have to hit a couple of bases before I turn my attention to the targets. Like, if you're a long-time reader of BoM, you know what has happened to Will, and that it's a pretty big change. And I feel like I have to work through some of the consequences of that change—like what he's going to do about it, given that he thinks he's someone else—before an actual plan starts to form. Otherwise, it's going to feel rushed. Today's chapter was one where the gears started to grind as I began the transition to the commission proper. It has nothing to do with the commission itself (I should add); but I had to set up the last of the possible reaction-choices while also setting up the choice that is going to lead into the commission. And I found that very challenging. What was going to happen to Will on that first day back at school that would point in one very particular direction while still setting up some other, very different directions the story could go? Motive and reaction: Those are the atomic elements in story telling. What is the character going to do, and what are his or her reasons for doing it? Get one of them wrong, or don't connect them in the right way, and the story loses focus and plausibility. Today's chapter was a real challenge at getting it right. |
| Masktrix has picked up and is galloping off with the set-up chapters that I published yesterday and the day before, so I'm back to the commission: Interactive: "Of Two Minds About Almost Everything" Public: "Of Two Minds About Almost Everything" I'm not sure I've got much to say about it, except one observation: There's a character-count limit at WdC: 10K characters, which works out to about 1750 words. That's a good length for chapters in genre fiction. But every once in a while it does make things awkward. I would have preferred to combine today's chapter and tomorrow's into one, but too much would happen to be comfortably squeezed into 1750 words. So I need two chapters to cover it. But there's not quite enough for two chapters, either. So we wind up with a chapter like today's, which treads water for a little while before getting to the action. But I'll confess to liking the material that pads it out at the beginning. Besides helping (IMO) with the pacing, it also adds a little emotion to things. |
| I guess you all noticed that there was no chapter last night, either in sequence or as a one-off. Well, sometimes these things happen. It was a confusing weekend on this end of things. I had previously finished the revisions I needed to do to set up the commission I'm working on. But there were details to the commission that hadn't been settled yet, so I had to miss two days of writing while waiting for them to be finalized. They are still not completely settled, but enough got nailed down that I could resume writing, and the sequel to "Schools of Fishiness" is now written and sitting on the launching pad.Today, though, brings part one of a two-part one-off (so to speak): "Guilty Consciences All Around" That link goes to the interactive, and there is no equivalent public page, because even though I wrote it, I wrote it for someone else. By sheerest coincidence, you see, a reader/author slid into my Inbox yesterday with technical questions for a storyline he wanted to write. It turned out that his idea wouldn't work, but after a quick back-and-forth I offered to launch a spin-off chapter that would let him publish a reworked version of his original idea. That is today's publication. And because it sets up a branch that I will not be writing, I've not included it in the public pages. The background to bring you up to speed: Will has been trying to get rid of the Libra, but it keeps yo-yo-ing back into his possession. First, he lost it in a scrum with some bullies; then after telling a teacher about it and getting it back, he tried burying it in the school time capsule. (That involved sneaking onto school grounds at night, digging up the already buried capsule, and putting the book into it.) But then the time capsule gets dug up by perpetrators unknown, and its contents scattered. Will has gone to Mr. Walberg to ask if a book had been recovered from the capsule, and learns that the perpetrators left a piece of evidence behind—a piece of evidence linking the theft to those same bullies who had taken the book from him in the first place. As today's chapter opens, Will has decided not to tell Mr. Walberg what he knows, and to again try putting the whole business behind him. I have to write one more sequel to finish setting things up for the other author, and then I'll resume with the commission on Wednesday. |
| Oh boy, has it really been two months since I've thanked people for gift points and tips? Well, one thing drives out another, as old Barliman liked to say. So, my thanks to * Clockworange * Easy * That One Guy * Tal * smitch * HayateZero * Chelsea Woodard * thatdude * Ero for the GPs that they've sent me recently. I don't care about the size of the donation. Just getting a tip really does lift the spirits! * * * In other news, today's chapters: Interactive: "Schools of Fishiness" Public: "Schools of Fishiness" finally polish off the rewrites. It puts the story on a parallel track to the original version (with Will and Chelsea hidden in Dana Pak and Yumi Saito, respectively, rather than in Sarah Pak and Dana), and the choices at the end are a little different. Originally, it was Adam Karter and Alyssa Randal as choices. But I dropped Alyssa because I got the feeling it wouldn't lead anyplace very interesting. But she might be a victim of a mask in an upcoming chapter! Or at least a choice of victim! What comes tomorrow? Supposedly the start of the new commission, but I might end up skipping the day or putting up a one-shot of some kind. I don't have the commission started, and today wound up being a bookkeeping kind of day. My WdC Inbox was getting overstuffed, and I cleaned it out and reorganized it. I'm not sure how much writing time I will have this afternoon/evening. |
| I am still composing and posting one chapter at a time as I rework the branch that I deleted. Today's chapter heavily recycles some of that material: Interactive: "Dramas, Public and Private" Public: "Dramas, Private and Public" But it's stretching out, and the branch will be two chapters longer by the time I reach the point where the last branch ended. Part of that is just trying to break up some of the text-heavy parts. Today's chapter, for instance, originally ended farther in the process, but that left the entire chapter as an exercise in spell-solving. So I moved part of the spell stuff to tomorrow's chapter, and inserted a small character scene, to give it a little relief. The other reason is that the pacing feels better being slowed down a little. It was one of the thing that bothered me almost as much as the continuity stuff when I reread this branch: It just moved too fast. Anyway, tomorrow will bring a couple of hundred words to wrap up the spell-casting, with the balance of the chapter given over to character stuff. Then a chapter that will be almost entirely character stuff in order to set up the concluding choices. Then we'll get into the commission, and something genuinely new. |
| So as I think I warned you, I had to nuke a bunch of chapters today. Fifteen in total, spread across two branches. As my revisions accumulated, they reached the point where the new plot was starting to diverge from the old. In place of the original chapter, "Put on the brakes," there is a new one, now published in both the interactive and the public document: Interactive: "A Hairpin Change in Plans" Public: "A Hairpin Change in Plans" All by itself it doesn't alter the plot. It just arrives at a similar destination at a slightly more sedate place. But Will isn't going to wake up tomorrow where he woke up yesterday (so to speak). Because everything from here on out is going to follow a new plot line, I am going to have compose new chapters, so I will be returning to a one-chapter-a-day publishing schedule. Just to be clear: Yes, this is a new plot line, but it is going to run next to the vaporized plot line along a parallel track. And then it's going to go further into actually new territory. |
| Okay, here's what I've got for people. It's both a whole lot and not very much at all. If you are someone who reads the public pages only, I've got a new-to-you six-chapter run, branching off of "The Return of Gordon Black" [public version]. Will has sold the grimoire to his friend Caleb, but it is Will who is summoned up to the school by Chelsea Cooper when her boyfriend uses the grimoire to accidentally petrify himself. Will is trying to help her fix Gordon; at the same time, he is starting to research the book that he had tried getting rid of. As the new branch commences with "The Increasingly Complicated Life of Will Prescott" , Will has uncovered a new spell, and has decided to prepare it in her presence.If you are a WdC member, you likely know the chapters in question, which are practically ancient. That is why I am revising this branch--to align it more closely with the story as it has evolved. The same chapters are now revised in the BoM interactive--starting with "The Increasingly Complicated Life of Will Prescott" [interactive version]--but the changes to these six chapters are mostly stylistic, and only substantive in only a couple of places. (Yes, those substantive changes will cause continuity issues in some of the other branches that come off them, but I'm not going to worry about them unless it comes time to add new chapters to them.)That's all I had time to do yesterday, so I don't have anything really new for you. Today I will be making revisions to more chapters, and will be posting them tomorrow, so that will also be a day of new things only for readers of the Archived version of BoM. |
| That "Student Bodies" chapter is now up. I'm also now at work on revising the branch that leads up to "Invalid Chapter" . Part of that branch is going to get sawn off and completed replaced; some of the branches that lead off that sawn-off part will disappear, at least temporarily, until I upload the back-up copies again. So tomorrow is unlikely to bring a brand-new chapter. More likely, it will bring a much revised version of something that is already up. I'll give more details tomorrow when something gets published. |
| So, at the start of the week, I said this would be a six-chapter run. Change of plans: It's going to be a five-chapter run, because I got stuck for a sequel to today's chapter. Fortunately, the guy who commissioned this branch also commissioned those "Student Body" chapters from me, so we made a deal whereby I'd write an extra SB chapter to make up for cutting one from this branch. So you'll get an SB chapter tomorrow. And after that? Oh, it's a mess. That's what I've got to figure out today. I have two more commissions to fulfill. The next one is supposed to be a sequel to "Invalid Chapter" . But that's an old branch that is now out of continuity with BoM as it has since evolved, and the discrepancies bother me. I'm extremely tempted to do a thorough rewrite before continuing with the commission. It's already the case that I'd have to make very large changes to "The Princess and the Pauper"; and, as an added excuse, I'd have to post a bunch of those chapters to the public Archives edition before pushing on. So I would have a good excuse for doing clean up that I want to do anyway. But it's extra work and would delay getting to the new stuff.I could let plans there sit for awhile, and skip ahead to the second commission. But that's going to be a long one—fourteen chapters, I'm thinking. But I'm not sure I'll have a better idea in two weeks about how to handle the first commission than I'll have now. |
| So here's the first chapter in the next branch: Interactive: "The Invisible Boyfriend" Public: "The Invisible Boyfriend" Spoiler: It's the track team they're going to infiltrate. There will be five more after that, and then we'll switch over to a new commission. |
| Yeah, I'm late posting today. I got a new PC game and it took forever to copy it over, download updates, etc. And then I had to goof around with it a little. Anyway, last chapter in this run of "Student Bodies" is up. New stuff starts up tomorrow; see "Branch's End" to get up to speed on where and what it will be. |
| Okay, now we're going to suspend this branch and go on to something new. But I am pleased that people liked it enough to gently press it to go on a little further. Interactive: "An Exercise in Substitution" Public: "An Exercise in Substitution" It does end with another "Continue" even though a choice gets set up, because I figure that Will (and the reader) need a little more time and experience before deciding what to do with Dana. Tomorrow, the last "Student Bodies" chapter. |
| So I got one puckish (?) complaint about where I left the last branch dangling. And after writing today’s Student Bodies chapter, I found that I hadn’t taken it as far as the commissioner had requested. So, change of plans: There’s going to be one more of each after today’s posting. Something new will start on Monday. |
| Today's chapter, a little late, because I had an errand to run: Interactive: "A New Kind of Carjacking" Public "A New Kind of Carjacking" That's the end of this branch for now. The next storyline is written for a commission, and is set in the same general area: Will and Sydney using masks to make a Brotherhood of Baphomet. This branch ignores Blake O'Brien and the other troublemakers as they concentrate simply on making the Brotherhood. Will has suggested that instead of a "brotherhood," they make it a coven, using girls drawn from various sports teams. In "Three by Three" Will has to decide which teams to draw from.That will start on Saturday. Tomorrow I'll complete the "Student Bodies" commission. |
| To no one's very great surprise, I'm sure, the "Madison's friends" option won yesterday's poll. I will write it today and post it tomorrow, which will conclude this branch for now. Meanwhile, go check out "Student Bodies" for another chapter. |
| Latest BoM chapters are now up: Interactive: "Two Virgins Walk Into the Warehouse" Public: "Two Virgins Walk Into the Warehouse" Poll: Completed and deleted Meanwhile, I am really enjoying my new computer. The hassle of setting it up (and even the continuing hassle with the Bluetooth mouse) was really worth it. |
| New chapter of "Student Bodies" is up. For the record, the choice "Madison Crawford" won the poll yesterday. I'll get right on that. |
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