7-9 on Heal. What to do?

I'm new at this, GM-ing my first campaign, I'm having a lot of trouble with 7-9s in certain situations. I've read all the theories about what they are supposed to represent but sometimes I just can't think of anything suitable.

For example, last night they were in the midst of a dungeon crawl, got to a room full of bad guys, there was a big battle but the party triumphed and cleared out the monsters and then it was time to heal up. The Cleric rolled to cast the spell and got a 9, she chose the "put her in a spot, or hard choice" option.

The game had to stop while I wracked my brain trying to think about how there could be a hard choice for a simple heal. I thought of making another monster appear, but that didn't seem fair or soft enough. There were no dangers in the immediate area at the moment. Should I have invented a new one? But then don't they EVER get a break? They'd just barely survived a big battle, any more damage might kill someone.

Anyway, after stalling the game for a minute or two, I failed to come up with anything I wanted to do so I just caved and said "never mind, nothing bad happens" to get the game moving again.

What would have been a better option for the 7-9 result on a heal spell while not under duress?

I think that your players should have been more carefull with this one, they know that they are already in bad shape and yet they prefer to be in a tight spot than having the spell revoked until the cleric can commune again ? In this particular case, I guess I would at least give a challenge to the Cleric. After all this is what she choose didn't she ?

While you heal your ally, the magical energy from your spelll sparkle out of control,  one of the monster suddently get on his feets and jumps in your direction claws out You think that if you stop your spellcasting he may drop again, however doing so wont heal your camarade. You may however still heal your ally but you expose yourself to danger. What do you do ?

This way, others in the group have a chance to deal with the danger, and the cleric have a choice to make.

The specific wording is "You draw unwelcome attention or put yourself in a spot. The GM will tell you how."

"Unwelcome attention" has huge possibilities outside combat. Any magical beings in the dungeon that could sense the disturbance made by the spell? Any restless spirits that sense the cleric's divine power and seek him out" (to attack, to pleed for release, whatever)? Any spying, sniveling rat folk who have a prophesy of a giant ape-thing whose touch closes wounds? Is the cleric's deity *itself* a source of unwanted attention? ("Hey bud, why you wasting my divine might on *this* unworthy scoundrel?")

Scale your GM moves to the current situation and the current amount of risk. Unwanted attention or being put in a spot during combat probably means real, immediate, peril. Outside of combat, you've got a much broader scope of scale and consequence to play with. Think offscreen!

Couple ideas:
1. Target of the spell heals but caster looses that many HP.
2. Nearby dead creature reanimates and attacks.
3. Nearby bad guys "detect" the presence of the divine spell (maybe they can even track the cleric by his divine aura).
4. Target regains HP but the wound really hurts, suffer a Debility (I am a real bastard GM).
5. The energies of the spell activate "something" (magical trap, weird effect, etc.).
6. The cleric's deity reveals something in a flash of divine insight (future danger, the death of the character, etc).

Just a few examples that have come up in my game.

yeah, you must fight the fear of going too hard on the pcs. He chose to draw unwelcome attentions even if already in a bad shape. That's a bold move, if not a fool one. Surely, it's something that will have consequences for everyone.

GM: you can feel the fabric of the world pushing against your will. You can heal Hob, but I'm going to deal damage to you one-for-one.

ok, now I ask a question: why all this custom move things when the discussion here is about "draw unwelcome attention"? It's not that the gm can do whatever he wants on a 7-9 of cast a spell. The pc decides which option he likes and the gm follows that, period.

The Cleric rolled to cast the spell and got a 9, she chose the "put her in a spot, or hard choice" option.

Ummm...you're right though. I went with a hard choice which isn't a thing in this move, should have put them in a spot.

ok, now I ask a question: why all this custom move things when the discussion here is about "draw unwelcome attention"? It's not that the gm can do whatever he wants on a 7-9 of cast a spell. The pc decides which option he likes and the gm follows that, period.

Hmmm, Yes that's true Adam, but really, that's what the list of GM moves is for isn't it? When you need a little prompting to come up with a cool narrative twist. All the GM moves can be manipulated to fit within the 'you draw unwelcome attention or put yourself in a spot' choice on the cast spell list. In fact, the examples given under each GM move only need a little bending to fit this particular situation.

So really, if you can't come up with a 'spot' for the player to be in, scan the list, cue a move you like and go with the flow. Its bound to make the character's life more adventurous!

I would presume that Sage and Adam conceived of it that way. In a sense the player is saying, 'yup I cast my spell, but you get to hit me with one of your moves too (gulp).'

Ooh...the cleric falls into a trance and awakes on another plane where must do battle with the avatar of the character's wounds.

Something else to consider that I've done in my game.
Oftentimes when a character is attempting something and I feel like there isn't really any risk involved I don't have them roll dice. The other day when our cleric wanted to heal a couple of characters outside of combat I just had everyone regain 1d8 HP. No big deal.

In general if I can't think of consequences for a 7-9 or a 6- result, then why bother rolling? In DW dice rolling isn't really about success-failure but the "cost" of success.