Ah! It's good to be back. I know it's been a while since I added my recent addition onto the Original Forever Family. A couple months now, but I think I'm finally ready to toss myself back into the battlefield. Namely having a steady wifi connection at the moment, and having played through the entire series again (Even Andromeda for the first time) For those that aren't aware of my recent post or the reason why I am currently revamping the Forever Family series, I'll basically post this:
"A lot of things add up to the thing for my absence. Some personal, some not-so-much, and others just because of my own fault. Namely, procrastination and laziness. A lot has happened in the time I've been gone obviously. Lost my computer, and my flashdrive, so a lot of planning and already done writing has gone with it. Which to be entirely honestly, is not entirely a bad thing. I'm sure it's just me, but looking back on old writing, I can see a lot of places where I went wrong. And honestly, I want to start my comeback by fixing it. I know it seems like a cheap excuse, to come back to the site after so long, and stick to the comfort of my Forever Family series. But I want you to know that I am not going to just rehash the FF series, reuploading the same things with updated stuff. So, I'm going to tell what I plan to do differently this time.
1. I plan to try and avoid simply stealing the game's scenes. I did this a lot with the romance scenes and well….in general. A lot of the scenes were just from the game, with a couple of added tidbits here and there. Which is fine in some cases, but not as often as I did it. Honestly, if you guys wanted the game all over again, you would just pick up a controller and play it.
2. I'm going to be less heavy-handed. I….did not write subtlely at all. And characterization suffered for it. The romances were heavy handed, the characters were heavy handed in their personality, and so on. I'm going to try and be a bit better about this. I've felt like I've gotten better at writing as I've gone, but still, I rely on you guys to tell me when I'm in the wrong. So please, don't feel like you have to be kind in the reviews.
3. Opinions getting in the way of writing. Yeah…..looking back on Forever Family now, I really shouldn't have posted three chapters worth of rants and opinions on the story. And now I do have somewhat different opinions. I still dislike Diane Allers, worst character in Mass Effec period and I'm still a pretty much a Talimancer, but I'm not going to go on witch hunts vs Liara fandoms or anything.
3. Trying to focus more on an over-arcing story. This one really isn't a problem, but I was clearly focused more on the romance aspect of the game, between the Shepards and the Dextro-romances. So, I'm going to try and balance this with telling a story. Not every chapter is going to be about the romance, and I'm going to do more with the space i have. After all, there is no space limitations on chapters.
4. The characters will feel like characters. I did rely a bit too heavily on the people who have played the game before knowing these characters and how they acted. Anyone who was reading fanfiction without playing the game, though probably rare, was probably confused. This also falls into me stealing from the game too much, instead of trying to give these characters my own little spin, I was just using the game's version of them.
Other than that, I don't have much else to say. I'll probably end up loading this up as another update to Forever Family, or perhaps as the start of the….good lord, I've fallen into the reboot trap. Still…..it might be uploaded in the Reboot of Forever Family. In the end, I might end up doing both, to let the old fans of Forever Family know that I am not active again, and that a hopefully better version of the story is coming out soon. I am looking for a decent name for the series, as calling it Forever Family, Reboot, seems like a bad idea. And no! I am not calling it Forever Family GO! If you suggest it, I will find where you live and you will regret the suggestion!"
So, the time has finally come. For those who read the original series, there will be enough changes that I hope this keeps your attention. The first chapter is pretty much the same, as I still like it, so I'm going to rapid upload two chapters today. The first four/five chapters indeed a good portion of what happens in the games, but that's just so I can set the story out there. For those curious, I did indeed decide not to go all the way back to ME1 in this case. I tried, but...well, honestly, I wasn't really sure what I could do with it, so I couldn't justify writing a whole series around that ideal.
With this new series, I really hope you guys don't feel obligated to be nice in the reviews. If there is something you feel is wrong or needs to be fixing, let me know. I only ask that the reviews be constructive and not just "I didn't like this chapter. Delete it!" To put it simply, the choices made in this story involving ME1 are: Wrex, the Council and Kirrahe are saved, Ashley Williams Killed on Virmire, Rachni Queen spared, and a bunch of other small decisions that are too long to list. For now the story will be rated T, as there will be swearing from a few characters (I mean, Jack is almost a R rated character by herself) but for the most part, there is nothing too much off yet. If you feel the rating is inappropiate and needs to be raised, please, let me know.
As always, I hope you Read, Enjoy, and Review!