Hey all, I know it's been a little while since the last update on this story and that's why I wanted to make this chapter to bring up what I've been thinking and feeling about this story.
First off, I love this story so much, the idea of Lee surviving, coming into season 2 along with Molly and making some great changes as well as writing out how I'd think he'd act and be is so much fun. Not to mention that I can fix and use certain characters more often than season 2 ever did is awesome in its own right. The only problem is...I don't think I really have done that.
I've been struggling to write continuing chapters for this story for a while now, and it's due to how I wrote all the chapters before and wrote the characters. For a lot of characters, I don't feel like I wrote them consistently and so whenever I put them in scenes I don't think anything I write feels natural anymore. And sadly, I think Lee is the worst contender in this ring. I wanted to write a more brutal and depressing outtake on Lee in this story and early on I thought I was doing pretty good, but as time went on I sorta lost my way, and now Lee just seems crazy going through super lows and highs every other scene.
Not to drag it out but I feel Lee can be a mixed bag, struggling to do what's best for everyone obviously, but he also needs to be the way he always was, collected enough to keep things running and people happy. Along with Lee, I am upset with how I handled him and Clem, never giving them enough time together. As well as my use of Luke, making him too much of an antagonist, my use of Matthew, only having him do like three scenes before just giving him the boot, and most of all, Carver.
When I began to reach the part of the story with Carver I wanted this huge, Lee vs. Carver storyline where the two men went at each other in a battle of wills. I wanted Carver to start to break Lee down, almost change him into becoming someone like him for a while before Lee finally broke free and put Carver down. He'd have inspired the other survivors with him that the world wasn't what Carver thought it was but at the same time, I wanted Carver to shape Lee into becoming a real leader. Yet for some reason, I really don't even know why I just killed Carver off like nothing and it never really sat right.
That being said, I don't think I did everything wrong, I really liked the way I've started to shape a relationship between Nick and Kenny, along with Molly as a whole, and especially the 400 days characters who have been tons of fun to write with. Yet, I feel like I put myself in a corner that I just can't get myself out of, any scene I write just feels bad or wrong and then I hit such a heavy block that I can't seem to push through. So that brings me to my main thought.
I think I'll have to stop writing this story and think about doing a rewrite, I just sadly don't think I can keep pushing forward in the story when I have so many character issues and regrets on where the story went. That being said, I really want to hear what you guys think about this too, I want to know if you agree with any of my personal grips and agree it could improve if I did something different, I want to hear your thoughts and critics. And more importantly, I want to know if you'd like to see a rewrite at all so I could try and get this story done right and then continue on as I still have a bunch of ideas on where this tale could go!
So that's it, I know it may be a disappointment but I do want to give you all a little insight on why this story seemingly got forgotten despite it being very popular. I'd really appreciate any feedback you guys could give and I also just want to gauge how much interest there would still be if I decided to do a remake with some big changes and fixes. Thanks guys, I appreciate everything you already do just by reading my stuff in the first place!