Writer's Blog: One Way at a Time (Patreon)

When I first started writing Mind Blind, I put out each pathway to school separately. Meeting Kenzie was released first (I remember being simultaneously terrified that either everyone would realize they weren’t a Ment . . . or that no one would). Then came Gray’s walking route with flashback (changing to past tense was another thing I worried about). And finally, the subway route with perspective shift where readers could first meet Noh (another thing that I felt super nervous about).

My point (other than the fact that my fears turned out to be mostly ungrounded) is that this all felt like a lot at the time, but I managed because I only completed one route at a time. I divided the whole candy bar into fun-size pieces. 

Now that Mind Blind has reached the point of branching endings, I’ve realized that I need to do the same in order to make writing more manageable going forth. Trying to write each major ending path simultaneously is, simply put, too complicated! My brain has reached overload point, and I fully believe that my neighbors have noticed the burnt smell emanating from my condo but are simply too polite to say anything.

Not to mention, it feels personally unsatisfying (to me) to release a 25k+ word update while knowing that you guys will only get maybe 3,000 words of that.

Going forth, I’ll be focusing on the path where Button agrees to cooperate with Noh. The other paths will still be added in (Caleb’s and Isaiah’s interrogations are already written, as is a scene involving a certain return character). But Noh’s path is the one where all of Mind Blind’s mysteries can be solved, so it’s the one I want to take to the finish line first.

Lightening my code-load to one final route will also reduce the balls I’ve been dropping due to juggling too many pathways at once. Heck, I haven’t even decided whether or not to let Vengeance kidnap Kenzie! I mean, I want to go through with it (it would be too fun not to, I think). But implementing it properly will require my full attention, and my mind is primarily occupied with Noh’s reveal and what happens after. I want to make sure that each pathway can wrap up tidily, and I feel like working on the separate branches one at a time is the best way to do that.

I’m trying to avoid any major spoilers (that being said, avert your eyes now if you want to go in blind!). The routes that will lead to Nick’s discovery are:

1) Cooperating with Noh, and the three major outcomes to their narrative arch (this is the path I'll be finishing first),

2) Interrogating Isaiah for info (Sally features heavily in this route),

3) Interrogating Caleb for info (not going to spoiler this one!),

and finally . . .

4) Route 4 aka Episode 4, which I’ll simply refer to as “A New Hope” (which happens in lieu of Isaiah/Caleb should certain conditions be met).

Hopefully (ha!), you guys can understand why it’s too difficult to write them simultaneously—especially as each route will vary within itself depending upon Button’s romance, their relationship with family, their MIV stats, and how much they’ve sympathized with Vengeance over the course of the game. I'm not saying that Button can turn into an evil overlord or anything . . . but I'm also not not saying that.