BoM/TWS Message Forum

"An Alpha of Your Own" 

This was a much longer line of chapters than I had originally anticipated. The goal had been to get to the point where it terminated--with "Fading Thunder" , more or less--where it would then make a turn toward the story I had been planning to tell (and which I will come back to at some point). But there turned out to be a lot of plot to get through because Chelsea had things going on elsewhere. I also had to motivate the connection that Will and Chelsea make at the end, and that required an extension of that plot. Basically, Chelsea had to get the hots for Will because he has finally supplanted Gordon at his number one job, which is bullying the people that Chelsea wants to see bullied. And the best way to do that was to force Seth and Cindy apart, which was not part of the original plan.

So, Will gets to spend a lot of time being Steve Patterson in these chapters--more time than I think he's spent as Patterson anyplace else, so it doubles as kind of an exploration of Patterson. And I don't think he turns out to be very interesting. He is very practical, very focused, and very self-centered. Very capable too. But characters are more interesting when they don't get what they want, or don't get it easily.