BoM/TWS Message Forum

On the blog ("Seventy-Three New Chapters Lead the Big Parade" ) I've described the giant update I made to BoM this weekend. I'll make a few comments about the mass of them, and on this project.

This was by far the most intense writing I've put into a BoM story area in a long time. There were some days when I wrote nothing, but there were other days when I wrote up to 6 chapters. I invented a bunch of new characters; got to revisit some old ones; and learned things about some of the established characters that I hadn't previously known. It was exhausting and exhilarating both.

And yet the story hardly moves forward at all, in any branch. I hope readers will forgive that, and will not exhaust themselves with it. I was certain that all these branches would collectively destroy the readers' patience if I dribbled them out one at a time, which is why I published them all at once. But I hope that readers will have fun worming their way at least once into the maze, and will not be averse to returning for other go-rounds.

One effect I was going for, was an emphasis on the contingency of everything that happens in this story. Of course, BoM itself winds up in wildly different places all the time, based on Will's choices. But this is one place where I hope you can see, in miniature form, how radically things can shift direction based upon small choices he makes, not only at the end of chapters but within them, even while in so many other ways leaving the world at large seemingly unchanged.

Finally, I would love to hear from readers which of these paths they followed first when they went into the maze, and why they followed that one as opposed to another.