NOTE: IF YOU WANT TO GET STRAIGHT TO THE STORY, SKIP THIS CHAPTER... OTHERWISE, READ ON! Possible spoilers... but it's kind of fun.

REVIEW THIS. Come on, it's really not that hard! Besides, it'll up your review count, which looks good for a person.

January Update

Wow? Has it REALLY been a year? Yes, it has. But, as I said, I refuse to let this die. I've revamped the last chapter I did… it was weak. It was clear that, yeah, facing writing problems. So, it's better now. And I have retooled the death… it works a lot better, and is significantly more believable.

So, how much more of this is to come? Well, two or three chapters, and an epilogue.

Hopefully, I'll get those done before another year passes. I'm going to try to get the next chapter done within the month. Hell, I may even start working on the later chapters… I think I feel better about those than I do this one.

Oh, and, by the way, I'll give you a preview of my next work. That's the one where I posted a very rough first chapter before… the reason for this is, I need a title, and there are two possible. Please leave your vote in a review (and, please, review too, don't just give that vote).

'A young girl sits in a small room. She is one of a twelve member jury. They face the trial of a mob boss who has been accused of murdering his wife. The evidence is clear- he's innocent. Yes, he's a murderer, certainly has caused the deaths of countless people, and he deserves to die. But, he did not kill his wife- he HAS been framed. The girl votes with a sense of justice- he is innocent of the crime of which he is being tried, and is, therefore, "NOT GUILTY." No one else agrees. The jury, not having reached a verdict, is sequestered that night at a hotel.

But the mob boss wants to be sure he gets a jury that will gladly vote him innocent. That night, in their hotel, all the jury members are poisoned. The young girl, not feeling hungry, survives. When the "bellhop," arrives to take her dishes, and finds her alive, he produces a gun, and finishes the last member. She falls to her bed, and stops breathing.

She takes a deep, sudden breath in. Everyone at the table is looking at her. She apologizes, then looks down at the slip of paper in front of her. With her pencil, she violently crosses out the word "NOT," and hands in the slip. The jury has reached a verdict. Sentencing will happened at a later date. She leaves the courthouse, gets in her car, and drives six hours straight to her parents house.

A year later, three jury members have died under mysterious circumstances. The girl continues to live at her parents house, for fear that the mob is still after them. But when one jury member dies on TV, through a series of events so strange that she cannot possibly rationalize it as being caused by any humans, she realizes something more is going on. She returns to her city, and the bodies pile up faster. Can she survive?'

I have some VERY interesting ideas for this particular story… something quite original, even. But I have to work out the logic of it. So, what should the title be? DEADLOCKED, or HUNG JURY?

Oh, and as a final note, my story WILL tie in with the movies… yup…

x-x-x

December Update

When I started these notes, it said "October update." But, I WON'T let this story meet the grim reaper. In the garbled digitized voice of Zeus, "Rise from your grave!"

Remember when I said updates would be slow? This is what I meant. Most of this chapter was churned out in a short period of time, so the quality won't be as great, but I wanted to give people SOMETHING.

So, for those who have been very dedicated to my story, I hope you enjoyed the present I left you back in September. That will be the next of my final destination fanfics (well, other than my Kolchak: The Night Stalker/FD spin, but that's more a Kolchak thing...), currently entitled, Final Destination: Deadlocked. And, of course, it will employ something very different to keep it fresh... something that, so far, has not been seen in any FD story that I'm aware of... but, remember, it's a long time coming.

Speaking of which, I've become more aware of the FD stories. Someone on Wikipedia has been so kind as to list the deaths... and I'll talk about them now.

They have quite a range... the rather interesting and well thought up (crushing by bathtub, live boiling) to the completely absurd (DVDs fired from DVD players at insanely high speeds, impaling someone, and a person knocked by a firehose blast into a gazelle pen and onto the horns of one of the animals).

Most of them manage to bring about some new and interesting ideas into the fold... unfortunately crushing one of the ideas I had (FD in Victorian England... still might do it, though...) and loosening up another, which I was thinking about abandoning altogether anyway. Oh, did I just suggest something about this current story? Whoops!

Unfortunately, two of them end with absolutely NO hope. I hate that. You can do it the first time, but after that, there HAS to be a possibility for some sort of safety, otherwise, it's just the ending to FD1 again. More so, one is so particulalry morbid and depressing, you'll wonder, "What was the point of reading that." I can't stress this enough; if there is zero chance for the survivors from the very beginning, why write it? You already know the ending!

Well, that's not true... you can end on an interesting note... I believe you just need to give people SOME reason to arrive at the end. And, I'm sorry, but ending on "The last person is going to die, that's it," just doesn't work.

-x-x-x-

August 28th Update

Thanks for the reviews guys! The more, the merrier. And, just so that it be known... I am working on another Final Destination fanfic... it's a crossover with another series I love, and it's intended to be sort of a quick, fun read (not too long, nothing too new, nothing too creative, etc.). So, we'll see when that happens... I might do it before I finish off this one, though, to garner more interest (yeah, I can be an attention whore, admitedly).

So, I promised to talk about what I think about the Final Destination series theories on death and such. Let's begin. And, for understanding, a "survivor," is someone who escapes a plan of death's, and when I say "see a sign," that includes premonitions. This WILL be very confusing.

-Failed Deaths- NO. NO NO NO. It's one thing to lead a person into believing that someone is going to die. It's another thing entirely to have death fail to kill someone without the intervention of someone who shouldn't have been there... and, of course, they have to recognize a sign in order to do it. Death's plan is written out, and it happens as such. I understand that they're necessary to some extent, for tension, but I disagree with them.

Tim's death is one major problem here. He SHOULD have died in the dentist's office. Unless the assistant was a survivor ... but she would have had to escape death after Tim escaped death (as Tim's plan would be rewritten not to include her... then, unexpectedly, she's there). If she saw a sign, that could work too, but she wasn't freaked out, so she didn't.

So, I don't do those. However... some people just put themselves in danger. As such, I don't have any failed deaths in my story... but I WILL mislead you. However, if they don't end up dying, it wasn't going to happen that way at all.

-Survival of Death- This is important. This MUST be available. If it's not, what's the point of the stories? They're going to die gruesome deaths soon, and that's it. FD only seemed to offer an escape, but didn't, but as it was the first, that's okay. But, it can't be like that every time.

For this reason, however, the death's of Officer Burke and Kimberley post FD2 I do NOT view as Canon. They will die, but to make it be in such an odd way, at almost the same time, seems more like revenge on the part of death, not "natural," death. An escape, a long lasting one (or even a short one, but with a more reasonable death) is necessary. Without hope for a happy ending, why read it? After all, you know what's going to happen.

I do include death and resuscitation as a means of escaping death. Whether or not child birth counts... I don't know. Without a doubt, if a woman becomes pregnant post-survival, she's freed (and not temporarily, like in the original script ending of FD... again, we need that hope). However, if she's already pregnant... I guess I can look at it either way. I do believe, though, that if a woman becomes pregnant post survival, other survivors who were to die before her are NOT safe... least, not unless their turns are skipped, and she breaks the chain.

And, of course, were she pregnant beforehand, this would count the same way.

-Extreme Intervention by Death- Water, anyone? Seriously, the one REALLY sucky part of FD was the water. Death not only killed someone VERY intentionally (water doesn't flow like that), but then, it covered up its actions. No. No no no. If death can somehow make something happen to cover things up, that's one thing (such as the dodgeball in my story... it's bounced out by other balls). But to totally cover things up with no explicable natural explanation... no.

So, those are the rules I play by. I also have made up some rules of my own that are not otherwise affected by the movies... and, if I write the next FD fanfic I want to, I will break those rules immediately (but since these stories are officially not canon, I can do that!)

So, until next time!

And KEEP REVIEWING! Remember, you can review multiple chapters!

-x-x-x-

August 8th Update

I'll take this moment to talk about the movies, and what I think abou them, as I said I would. I'll also talk about the one book which I've managed to get my hands on and read (which, by the way, I read in one night... I can be like that with some books).

So, FD1. I love it. Plain and simple. Great movie, great idea, totally original... can't really argue with anything in it. That's the easy one. Well, actually, I have one big argument... I'll discuss that next time.

FD2... well, it's much of the same. However, we get a great opening death sequence, and a lot of really cool deaths after that... and those deaths follow a logical progression. There's a reason they go everywhere they go to end up dying, which I like. I mean, a specific reason. Also, we care about the characters... but they're a team, which is one of the main reasons why we can care. After all, if they all ambivalent, why should we care? After all, they don't even care about their own lives, really. But, these people know what's going on, and worry, and as such, we want them to live. Best of all, they found a way to escape death... rather than it just begin some inevitable death.

Which, I shall mention, is why I HATE what FD3 would have done with FD2, regarding the deaths of the two surviving characters... for the purposes of my writing, I will consider the "newspaper article," in the FD3 DVD to be a farce. If there's no way to escape death, then why even read the story? After all, everyone's just going to die, without fufilling any actual purpose... not that they HAVE to have survivors, but there needs to be a way out. FD1 offered some sort of hope... FD2 offered real hope, and possibility. FD3 looked to piss it away.

Which brings me to FD3. I hate FD3. I will buy the DVD triology, particulalry for the "choose your destination," feature. However, I hate FD3. I'll talk about what I liked first. We get a good sisterly relationship, a good idea for the initial death, and the camera angle is new. And some coolish deaths. That's it.

So, what don't I like? First off, I don't care about ANY character other than Wendy and her sister... and Erin to an extent, but that's because she was so cute. Yup, Kevin can go die for all I care. The reason for this is the fact that characters seem much more incidental... they show up in the beginning, so we know they're there. Then, they appear when they die. They don't appear up until that point. After the funeral of the two girls, did any of the characters (save the last 3) appear again until they died? Not that I recall. Worse, we lose the team aspect... the team aspect I view as the fuel for the series. You have to have people working together against death, because, alone, they are picked off easily. Plus, when they work together, we get to see their good sides.

Next, we have the movement within the plot... let's go here, and see someone die, then go here, and see someone die, then go here, and see someone die, then go here, and see someone die, then go here, and we have our big conclusion... The fact that we don't see the characters for so long makes this more ridiculous. It's a scavenger hunt to witness the deaths, and that's all. FD2 took us to many places, but there was always a reason why... here it's just so we can watch people die. So, that's just really dumb.

And then the deaths... cool, yes. Ridiculous. Absolutely! Now, hear me out, before you go "well, it's supposed to be fiction." Think about the teacher's death in FD1... very drawn out, very rube goldberian... but, didn't it seem like it could happen... like everything made sense together... like it was possible? I thought so. That's called suspension of disbelief... and FD1 and 2 were very good at it. FD3 just fails. I mean, the build-it store death... no. Just no. The weight room death wasn't too bad, if not for the bear claw thing. The others vary... I don't want to discuss them all. But, they're too extreme, they're just jokes. Complexity makes the deaths fun, but when it's too extreme, it's just dumb.

And, finally, to talk about Final Destination: Dead Reckoning. First, it doesn't do anything new... but it's a fun read. It plays by the rules, offers some interesting deaths (and some failed attempts at playing "who's gonna die next," if you've seen the movies and know the rules) and the characters are pretty well developed. I felt very bad about Ben... :-( Oh well. He reminded me of a friend of mine. The happy ending is fine, and it offers a little bit of a new rule... I encourage you all to read it. It's fun. And it's better than Final Destination 3.

Next time I'll talk about how the rules of death play out among the movies and the book, and how I interpret them. Should be interesting.

x-x-x

July 11th Update

Again, almost double the size! Yay! Much more character development! Yay! And the deaths are just as gory! Yay!

Ah, the next chapter, and my favorite death of all... in fact, this really inspired me to start working on this story again. In fact, let me take a moment to talk about the origins of this story.

Back in the day, shortly after FD2, there was talk about FD3 being a parody (I practically consider it to be... I'll talk of that another time). I was moritified, and decided to start plotting out a new Final Destination... so, how do I do it? What should happen? Well, obviously, the third film needs something new, something different... then it hit me: A school shooting. Not some big disaster, but, instead, a mass murder, but one that is prevented. From the beginning it was decided that the shooter was also the main character. However, originally, the idea was that one of the FD2 survivors, or Clear (pre-Alex's death) would give a motivational speech on living life and such, and that was the thing to cause the change... but eventually, I decided against it. Deciding to kill your peers is BIG... a motivational speech to make you not do that? Probably not...

There's an urban legend about a class project simliar to the one that occurs... in fact, it happened. This, however, was the basis for the change. But, to make it even deeper, I decided to give the main character and his teacher a connection. Hence the clinic backstory.

And that's basically what the story was. As said, when I came up with this death, that's what inspired me to start writing again.

Next time, I'll talk about what I think of the movies, and one of the books.

Till then!

x-x-x

July 3rd Update- This chapter sure has come fast... don't expect if of the others, especially the next. I was pretty satisfied with this chapter. The next one will need much more work. As I said originally, updating will come very slowly. Also, updated chapter 1 a bit... just a bit...

Also, a quick note about reviews: Reviews are based on the chapter you give them on. If you want to focus your review on a chapter, please, do it for that chapter. If you want to give an overall review, please, do it for this chapter. And, if you want to review every chapter and the story individually... go ahead! I certainly don't mind. Thanks for your support!

And, a quick note to one reviewer: If I knew gymnastics, I would include a gymnastics death. But, I don't. I DO, however, know dance, and have been planning from the beginning to include a dance related death. Boring, you might be thinking... Trust me, not so :-)

x-x-x

July 1st Update- So, I've gone through, made plenty of changes, and will continue to do so.

Just to give you an idea of the breadth of these changes, the first chapter is almost twice it's original size. Also, originally, I intended to standardize the length of each chapter. No longer. Instead, chapters will be however long as they are... so, they'll probably all be longer. I hope you enjoy. This will be completed!

Also, keep in touch with this initial chapter here... I will update it to update you all about what's going on. I'll may also use it to discuss the process of writing this story.

PS- Please, read and review, but remember; reviews are based on chapters. If you want to review a specific chapter, post it in that chapter (and I encourage you to do so). If you want to review the story as a whole, post it to this intial update chapter. Thanks much!