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Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024

2:12am EST

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Total Online: 3,229

The Book of Masks Homepage

by Seuzz

Rated: 18+ · Book · Other · #2156493

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
7/1: Interactive: "Solving Other People's Problems"

7/1: Public: "Solving Other People's Problems"

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Junas

Sep 27, 2024 at 3:15pm
In response to "From One Female Impersonation to Another"

Dude fell off

Junas

Jul 10, 2024 at 10:46am
In response to "From One Female Impersonation to Another"

Good, go away stalker!!!!!!!!

ThePrussian

Jul 10, 2024 at 9:50am
In response to "From One Female Impersonation to Another"

lol, goodbye low effort troll.

Junas

Jul 9, 2024 at 10:30pm
In response to "From One Female Impersonation to Another"

Liar!!!! GET AWAY FROM ME YOU E-STALKER!!!!!

ThePrussian

Jul 8, 2024 at 11:20pm
In response to "From One Female Impersonation to Another"

Your profile shows the date your account was created.

Junas

Jul 8, 2024 at 9:57pm
In response to "From One Female Impersonation to Another"

How tf do you know how long I've been here.

Nostrum

Jul 8, 2024 at 8:30pm
In response to "From One Female Impersonation to Another"

Wanted to politely answer earlier but because of the attitude...

First, Seuzz does that every now and then. Look at this very blog - he's been away for up to 6 months and has always returned. You can see each time he returns that he apologizes and explains the reasons why he's missing. Sometimes, he calls these breaks in advance; sometimes, like with life, he can't explain them. It has happened several times just during these past two years, it has happened before, and it'll happen again. And yes - we worry that something happens to him whenever he disappears without a trace, but all we can hope is that he's doing okay.

Second, as Prussian said, just because he skips a week doesn't mean the series is dead. Missing 76 days, mostly non-consecutive, out of 190 days is pretty laudable: you can't expect someone to update daily and keep it all by himself. He deserves a break, even if unannounced, to keep the story flowing.

Third, he's not the only one who posts in the series. There are a group of collaborators (myself included) that sometimes post things, but we all have our reasons not to post like crazy. Part of it is trying to keep quality control over what's posted here. There's a reason why the Interactive has had several prizes and mentions over the years. Even if something happens to him, the community will keep the series alive, one way or another.

So no - the series isn't dead, and saying "wrong" as if you knew more than us shows your ignorance. The interactive is quite large, so you can binge on one chapter per day until Seuzz returns - in case you want to refine or consolidate your thoughts on the story. Not going to ask you about what you've done on the rest of the year, 10 months and 20 days since you've been here, but I'm pretty sure you didn't spent it reading the Interactive in-depth, or else we would've heard of you by now. It's a community that's more active than you'd think, but not a terminally online one.

1 Like

Junas

Jul 8, 2024 at 8:23pm
In response to "From One Female Impersonation to Another"

Yes. Come on

ThePrussian

Jul 8, 2024 at 8:09pm
In response to "From One Female Impersonation to Another"

Nope

Junas

Jul 8, 2024 at 6:03pm
In response to "From One Female Impersonation to Another"

Wrong

June 27, 2019 at 10:47am

#961616

A Commentary Track on Recent Chapters

A commentary track on today's entry.

Two weeks ago, in "Improvising in a Complicated World"

, I wrote:

Today—Tuesday afternoon, as I compose this—I am supposed to start writing the storyline that you guys voted for over the weekend, one involving Will, the YouTube crew, and Andrea Varnsworth. I spent some time thinking about it yesterday, and I got an idea I liked. Something in line with what you'd expect from the anticipated storyline, but with a bit of a twist. It got me excited.

But when I started gaming out some of the more distant consequences—not outlining, just playing "what if ... and then what if ... and then what if"—I remembered two other certain characters who are in play. And those two characters wouldn't exactly derail what I had planned, but they would complicate it.

Put it this way: Given characters A and B, then X is bound to happen. It is inevitable, and it will happen almost immediately. And X would badly interfere with Z, the plan I have for Will. It would probably forestall it entirely, and even if it didn't forestall it, any story that juggles X and Z would be ungainly. A challenge to handle, at least.

So this is where I am as I slump thoughtfully over my laptop: What the hell am I going to do about X, when it is Z and its complications that I'm so interested in?

I can now say that characters A and B are Andrea/Will and Chelsea/Josiah; that Z was Will's plan to sleep with himself in a way that he could get caught and thereby become notorious (in a good way) with Andrea's friends; and that X was Josiah wanting to get together with Will to rekindle the spark between Andrea and Chelsea. I wasn't uninterested in the latter, but I was more interested in the former. I was also more interested in setting up a conflict between Andrea/Will and Charles—he's not going to play Will's game—and all of that would have been a momentum-killing interference if I'd tried juggling it alongside Josiah.

So, yes, today's chapter is meant to derail Josiah's plans and set up a branch that would concentrate on Will's plans. But the alternative, where Will goes off to meet Josiah, is still available, and the proper course of action there is for Josiah's plans to derail Will's interest in promoting himself with Andrea's group.

Meanwhile, there are some interesting comments in the post below, regarding Andrea as a POV character, the merits of Will's plan, and whether the interactions between them work. I'd be interested in seeing these opinions expanded in light of today's chapter, particularly Charles's appearance at the end of it. For the record, that chapter was composed before I saw the comments, and it was in no way influenced by them.

I can't say that I intended for readers to react as (at least two) readers reacted. I didn't intend for Will's plan to be a bad plan, and I certainly didn't consciously try to portray it as ill-conceived. But I did intend for it to fail, and for it to fail by leaving Charles baffled and even a little angry with Andrea. (Well, this much I intended: rugal felt that Will's plan was motivated by "a bit of a complex over the fact that the 'new and improved Will' isn't even a blip on the radar of people like Andrea and her friends." That much I intended absolutely; it was the motive for him to make that play.) So I intended Will's plan to go wrong. Did my imagination therefore prepare for that failure by supplying a chapter sequence that was unhappy and "inorganic," all the better to show that the plan was a misreading of Andrea's social group? I don't know. I can only say the reaction actually kind of pleased me. Whether it made for a satisfying read, of course, is another question.

But I don't think it explains why the chapters were so hard to write.

Finally, I used variations on some ideas proposed in this week's QotW. Today's chapter doesn't set any of those up as choices, but it does set up the chance that those choices will become available later.

3 Like • Comment

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