Author's Afterward

There you have it. My first ever fanfic. What a wild ride. It's been a little over two months, and in that time, I've written over a hundred and sixty THOUSAND words! That's roughly twenty five hundred words a day! I have to say, it feels pretty good.

And this isn't the end, not by a longshot. I'll be starting in on the ME2 storyline just as soon as I've recovered from my graduation and its' assorted peripherals. I'll need to start job-hunting soon (and gainful employment, *groan*), which might mean less time for writing, but I'll make do.

Next item of business: I'm officially announcing the titles of the next two installments of what I'm calling the "Red Alert: Dawn" series. The second, after "Red Alert: The Dawn of Man," is going to be titled "Red Alert: A New Day Dawns." The third is titled "Red Alert: Eighth Dawn." Admittedly, not terribly original, but it's better than "Red Alert: Dawn Harder," or "Red Alert: The Dawn of Man 2: Electric Boogaloo," or something equally silly.

Eventually (as in "Valve Time") I'll be rewriting this story. Exactly when and how? That's still somewhat up in the air. I've learned a tremendous amount in the past sixty days (has it really only been that long?), and I can see some things I want to change. In particular, I need to work on my portrayal of secondary characters. Can anyone tell me how many times I used a POV that wasn't Shepard's between Chapters 7 and 25?

No?

I'll give you a hint: It's not many.

Still no?

Fine, I'll tell you.

Nine.

That's it.

In the whole damn story, there were nine places where I didn't focus exclusively on Shepard.

What's worse is that seven of those nine were in the last chapter. Before that, Hackett had one during the assault on the heretic station, and Hannah had one with the Council after Virmire. All told, Hackett had four, Hannah had four, and Tali had one.

Let me say that again: Tali had one. I tried to write her as a secondary protagonist. For those that don't know, a secondary protagonist is a person above a sidekick, but below a partner. Their job is not to compete with or overshadow the main character, but to highlight them from a different point of view. Robin is Batman's sidekick. The Sundance Kid is Butch Cassidy's partner. I was aiming for somewhere in the middle. For examples of secondary protagonists done right, there's (if you read/watch/play these) Clank from Ratchet and Clank, Pikachu from Pokémon, or Watson from Sherlock Holmes (actual Sherlock Holmes, not the watered-down crap in most modern media). And that's what I wanted Tali to be. Not a love interest. Not a sidekick. A secondary protagonist.

In the ever famous words of Dell Conagher (the Engineer from TF2): Damnit, damnit, damnit, damnit!

On top of all that, I've been told (and I agree with the teller, to a certain extent) that the supporting cast of the story is lacking depth and characterization. This is true. I never once bothered to show any character in a vacuum, away from Shepard, and I should have.

When I rewrite this beast, I'm fixing all these problems. There will be new scenes, slight changes to existing ones, and (I hope) a new depth to the story as a whole.

Now for the opposite side of the coin. It may look (to an independent observer) that I'm being overly hard on myself. Perhaps. However, when you exercise your body, you need to be hard on yourself, otherwise, you won't get any stronger. I believe that if I want to become a better writer, I need to strive for perfection; otherwise, I'll never get anywhere. I won't reach it (such is the nature of perfection), but that doesn't mean I shouldn't try.

With all that in mind, I'd like to give one final shout-out to everyone who reads my work, and everyone who supported me through it. In particular, the following individuals were the most inspirational and important:

aDarkOne: Easily the person I communicated with the most, and the one who gave me the best criticism an author could ask for: repeated, well thought out, and constructive. Thanks a million.

hornet07: Second only to aDarkOne in the amount of feedback given. Thanks for the help, I really needed it.

CigarChamper: The original inspiration for the story. Here's hoping you finish your version of a RA2/ME crossover soon, because I'm dying to read it.

Full-Paragon: Despite never having communicated with him/her (not even sure if FP knows I exist, actually), s/he's my favorite fanfic author by kilometers (gotta stick with the metric system, yo), and a real source of spiritual inspiration and guidance. FP, if by some miracle you read this, drop me a line. Please? (Christ, now I feel like Conrad Verner. Sorry for the excessive amounts of "SQUEE!" XD)

P.S.: Now that the story's officially over, I've started a little side project. Check out my profile, and you'll see a "story" that details some of the process behind what went into writing TDoM (and beyond). It's titled "The Voyages of Tallman7," and the pertinent info is in the description and Introduction. Not sure if anyone cares about what's in it, but have a look anyway. It's short, and you just might learn something.

P.P.S.: Don't ask about the Plot Bunnies. It's easier that way.