Soul Shadows: casting it out there

Today Chapter 3 of Soul Shadows was published. I'm enjoying writing this story, but it feels quite weird this relinquishing of control of plot. I suppose it makes storytelling a bit more like life. The twists and turns of our own personal narratives do not depend on the whims of a single, all-knowing author, after all. Now, with Soul Shadows, I'm casting it out there, to be directed by the whims of a few hundred authors (or a few dozen, I don't actually know how many people are reading it), who will send it any which way they like.

The story's going okay so far, but I'm constantly worried that I'm landing myself with hostages to fortune or that I'm going to end up in some impossible cul de sac from which the only escape is to make the whole of the previous chapter a dream – a la Bobby Ewing. Usually when I write, I'm constantly going back over previous chapters and tweaking bits and pieces to make it all consistent. This isn't possible with FEx. I hope readers will make allowances, as the odd slip-up is almost inevitable.

At the start, I was told to imagine it as a river snaking its way through a valley. We can control the valley, but we can't control the precise direction of the river. The result won't necessarily be pretty or elegant, but it should be a fascinating journey. The river will meander in some odd directions. But maybe that'll make it more interesting. I certainly won't be able to take all the credit for it – this is genuinely a team performance, and I'm counting on readers to help me reach an interesting and unexpected destination.