Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ A new life ❯ Promised A/N (finally...) ( Chapter 11 )

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WARNING, THIS IS NOT A CHAPTER, THE STORY HAS ALREADY ENDED. This is just an author's note where I want to tell something about how I feel about writing and where I explain some of the things I did in the fic. I can't say I really care if you don't read it, it is for those few who DO like to know how other authors think about their writing.

FOR INFORMATION ON THE SEQUEL, CHECK THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE.

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I don't know if anyone has done this before, but here's some background information about the story. For those who want to read:

This is only the second story I've finished besides one-shots and song fics. The other story is a fan fiction from DBZ, but that is beside the point. I have been seriously writing stories for about a year now. Before that I mainly put my emotions on paper, explaining them with real happenings. I've found out that writing is a very good way of `telling' my emotions to somebody, even when nobody reads it.

Right now I'm not too happy with the world we live in and I would love to do something about it. But I know that alone there is little I can do. So I've come up with the best way for me to help. Other people do it in other ways, but I like to use my stories to show the reader my thoughts on different matters. With the stories I write I hope to reach other people and that's why reviews are so important to me. They give me more that just the satisfaction that my stories aren't bad and that I'm not as bad in English as I think I am (I'm from Holland so English is not my mother language), they show me that people actually want to read what I have to say. I therefore want to thank all my reviewers. I do that not only to thank them all personally at the beginning of the next chapter, but also to take a look at their profiles, if the reviews are signed.

I am currently working on other stories now and I have some of them up here too. However, most of them aren't finished yet and with all stories longer than just 1 chapter I eventually loose interest, no matter how exited I was when I started it. This causes my stories to suck in my eyes, which only makes it worse. I feel like I'm letting down my readers and I'd rather take a break and finish the story later when I've found my interest again. Here I, and other authors, use the excuse of the so called `writers block'.

To avoid this all from happening I have decided that I will only get a story up at ff.net once it is finished. That way I can update regularly and I don't feel like I'm letting anyone down. I'm currently working on another story about Gundam Wing where Heero and Duo are slaves but I am glad I haven't posted it yet because the writers block came to pay me a visit. I will put it up when it's finished. Same goes for the sequel to this story.

It took me only 1 week to write this story, or at least the first version of it. I ended it when I felt the `writers block' coming up and decided to put the rest of my thoughts in a sequel. All I needed to do now was re-read the story to get it better, 1 week is too short to get it perfect. My favourite chapter was the 2nd chapter. I love the part where Duo gets caught, even though that is not a main happening. I liked writing it and I've written that part over and over again until I felt it was right. Of course I re-read the whole story and I'm glad I did because in the first version I had a lot of things that were unclear because I was going too fast. I can say I'm pretty impressed with myself. I re-read my other finished story once and I felt I could've done so much better than that. I wonder if that will happen with this story too. I don't think that feeling will be so great.

That's enough of that, now to the happenings in the story. I'll tell you per chapter why it is the way it is.

Chapter one

Let's start at the beginning, someone breaking in. The first chapter was simply to draw attention. I've tried to create a scene that makes people want to read more because they REALLY want to know what happens next. But I also used another trick besides the scene. I never gave any of the characters a name until someone else named them. I kept calling Duo `the (braided) boy', `the teenager' or my favourite, `the youth' until Solo mentioned his name. (I did the same to all the other characters, unless I was describing duo's thoughts.) I kept the story going around Duo. That actually comes from the `Harry Potter' books by J.K. Rowling (is it spelled like that?). There all that is described is what happens to Harry and I liked that so much I decided to do the same to Duo. You hardly read about anybody else's actions if Duo doesn't see them.

And of course: `The youth shivered. He was cold. He was always cold.' I introduced it in the first chapter and I've used it many times after that. It was more of an experiment actually; I like it when things like that keep returning. It can be recognised and I loved writing it.

Chapter two

Here you meet the rest of Duo's gang. You learn a little about who's in charge and what they do and how they think, enough to understand Duo's actions in later chapters. I had this all thought out so I knew what I needed to tell about Solo. He's the only character that actually gets a line because he is the only character that comes back in person later in the story.

I didn't want Duo to be one of those sacred I-can-do-nothing-wrong-because-I-am-the-ultimate-being kind of characters. Humans aren't perfect so neither is Duo. He is literally a criminal because he has to live the hard life on the streets. I don't believe he could just survive for years without stealing. That was also why I didn't use the `I run, I hide, but I never lie' motto. He says it only once in the show, when he's with Quatre in that underground base or something. `I run, I hide but I never lie. That's me in a nutshell.'

Duo was the only one who got arrested. I wanted it that way because then I wouldn't have to let him worry too much about the other(s) and where they went to. Solo HAD to escape since he came back to get Duo out. In this chapter I also introduces Zechs (without saying his name) who will have a slightly bigger part in the sequel. I wanted to let him appear later as Noin's boyfriend but decided against it since I didn't like bringing Noin into this story.

Chapter three

When duo gets caught they let him off very easily. In real that wouldn't happen like that, he has still a lot of other minor crimes and break-ins to pay for. The reason I let him off this easy (I could've made a lot more chapters about his captivity) was simply because that wasn't what I wanted the story to be about. Or rather, that wasn't what you wanted to read. I guessed you wanted to see the meeting with the rest of the Gw gang a.s.a.p and I was right. I got questions of when they'd meet after the first and second chapter so it was just a simple trick to attract readers, to not let you get bored.

This chapter is also where I first introduced Saria's painting. When you use it more often it becomes sort of a `character' itself. This was also an experiment, the first time I used it and it gets annoying to keep it coming back. The readers can either like it, not notice it or hate it and in my story I used it to indicate Duo's feelings towards everything that had happened to him. I used it to tell you that he missed being back on the streets where he felt he belonged. As you go further in the story you see that eventually it stops coming back. That's because he's finally starting to accept his life in the orphanage. He accepts that he now has `a new life' (which explains the title). A character like that is a very handy trick when you want to explain feelings or when you just want to make the chapter longer.^-^..

Chapter four

I let him stay with Wufei first. I decided the Chinese warrior would be the best person to get Duo into trouble and have him ending up with Heero. I let him get in trouble to show you that he closed himself for the other kids in the orphanage. The reason why Wufei acts so bad was explained in the last chapter.

This is also the chapter where Duo and Heero get a room together and where Solo returns. A lot of events, maybe too many, but I decided not to make separate chapters of them or they would get really short. When Solo returns, Heero discovers the truth about Duo and that fact is what eventually get's Duo to trust Heero when, after their fight, he keeps his mouth shut about the visit.

Chapter five

Here I introduce Trowa as someone Duo dislikes. I needed a part for Trowa and so I created this story line for him. He's very OOC, but in the sequel he will be his silent self. I just created a new background for him.

I also introduced Hilde and Quatre. I wanted to use Hilde more in the story but I kinda forgot about her. . . That she's not in there often is the main reason why most of you think I can better use 1x2 than 2xHilde. Mind you, she WILL return in the sequel. About Quatre, I know I made him weak, and that is going to change in the sequel too, but I just needed it to be that way for Duo to befriend him. I needed Duo's conscience for the weaker people to kick in. I must say that I'm still not satisfied with the way Duo spoke to Quatre when he brought dinner, I think I let him go too far. But I couldn't think of anything else.

Chapter six

Okay, this is where Duo's protective instincts kick in. Here he learns not only about Quatre, but also about Heero and I think this chapter is the beginning of Duo accepting the orphanage. The last fight with Heero was still a resistance, but more because he knew he was going to fall, if you get what I mean. Not much else to say except that I didn't want to separate Heero and Duo. I've been thinking on letting him share a room with Quatre or Trowa or even to get one for himself, but decided I liked him with Heero best.

Chapter seven

Here I use Dialogue to explain things. But first I gave Trowa a reason to get back at Duo, though the main thought of Duo choosing Quatre was to make up with him. Maybe the dialogue with Quatre was too long, I think Duo told way too much about himself and I was doubting whether to leave it that way or not. But I really needed to explain a thing or two so I decided not to make it shorter (much). I could've let Heero study at the library but him seeing this event resulted in him warning Duo and him getting jealous which was exactly what I wanted to achieve. And of course, Duo and Quatre meeting Darryl (I actually know an identical twin called Jeice and Darryl and the could easily resemble that blonde bad boy from Harry Potter who's always jealous at Harry and who has two boys by his side too, forgot the kid's name, though) resulted in Darryl eavesdropping without them noticing and that resulted in Trowa finding out the truth.

Chapter eight

I'm slowly working towards Christmas though it won't come until the sequel. You might have noticed that Duo thinks a lot during the night. I used those moments to explain a few things. They were pretty boring to write (I prefer writing dialogue) but they were necessary (here we go again, Damn it, how do you write that word! Thank whoever discovered spell check! ^.^). I threw in some dialogue to make it less boring. Besides, I liked the idea of Heero loosening up a little bit. And why he said he was from Japan. . . well, I think he just wanted to go to sleep and he knew Duo would shut up after an answer. Poor Q-man, he doesn't understand why Duo calls his roommate Hee-Chan! Well, that's it for this crappy chappy.

Chapter nine

Here I show you that Heero's getting jealous. I think I did that too fast compared to how he loosened up last chapter, but the end was coming and I wanted him to be jealous so that Duo had a reason to go outside. So I needed it to work towards the end. They get a little fight, Duo leaves but in honour of Solo he returns to make p for it, or at least he wanted to. I think this is the only chapter where I left a real cliffhanger. Sorry `bout that, just couldn't leave it out! There's not much more to say here, just that Duo remembers Solo.

Chapter ten

Last chapter and a longer one for that matter. This was the end. I wanted Trowa to look like a real bad guy but I also liked the idea of him failing miserably. So why not try both? To get Trowa to become what he is in the show, I had to give him a past. Well, he lost all of his friends because of the money so maybe he realizes now that money can't buy everything. Or is he planning revenge? That you will find out in the sequel.

This chapter was also the beginning of a friendship between Duo and Wufei. Heero brought the latter along with him when he went looking for Duo and now, after seeing what happened to the braided boy and after what they said, Wufei realizes they made an `unjustified' start and is willing to correct the mistake. And that is how all ended up well. I hope you have enjoyed the story, now about the sequel.

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ABOUT THE SEQUEL

I can tell you that I am working on it. I have asked you which pairing you prefer, 1x2 or 2xhilde and when I started writing the sequel, I had no votes for 2xhilde yet. The girl WILL come back in the sequel, but the story will contain 1x2 and not 2xHilde.

Any suggestions on this story WILL help me make the sequel a lot better than this story was. So please review me and tell me what you liked/ didn't like and what was good/bad about this story. Any suggestions of things that might happen are welcome too of course.

The sequel will be called `A NEW FUTURE' and it takes off where I left it here. In the sequel there'll be Christmas, Hilde, Solo, more friendships, love, troubles and probably more Zechs, Noin and perhaps Relena. (VOTE for who you want in there more!)

I want to try and have the sequel out somewhere in September. I know that isn't very fast, but we have the summer vacation and all before that and you will be on vacation and I have found a job in an amusement park so I think it's better to start posting after the summer vacation. If you want me to mail you when I post the first chapter, my e-mail address is in my profile. For those who have my old address, I have a new one. The old one will still be used for a while, though.

Oh, just one more thing, I need help for this fic as well as others.

I NEED SOMEONE WHO CAN EXPLAIN THE AMERICAN SCHOOLSYSTEM!!! So, if there's anyone out there who can tell me a thing or two about it like how it works with classes and how many years it has and more, please mail me so that I can ask you if I need to.

THANK YOU ALL

Little princess