AN: The end, then. Thanks for enjoying the ride with me, Guys. And sorry for the long delay on this. Its been a busy couple of weeks, and I was hoping to have a couple more things done before posting, but life is not cooperating. Enjoy the last word :)

Acknowledgements

So, firstly, I think I need to give a huge mention to James Dashner, who – of course – wrote the novel on which this story is based. And right up there with him, is Wes Ball, who directed and envisioned the film adaptation of that world, which is the version I chose to base my story in.

The next shout out is to one of my English teachers from way back in secondary school. I loved English in school, and I've always loved writing, but that one teacher said a number of things that have stuck with me over time and really helped to shape the way I think about writing and telling a story.

I need to do a mention for my puppy, who was around fourteen months old when this was actually being written. She was going through her first season and had to spend around a month cooped up in the kitchen and dining room of my house while it passed. Her being cooped up meant I had to keep an eye on her, and that meant I had a full month of doing very little else but working, sleeping and writing this story. Sitting on the same chair for hours at a time meant I could really get stuck in.

A mention should go to my cousin – she knows who she is – with whom I shared the first five or so chapters before they were posted. Her encouraging feedback definitely helped keep my Muse in place long enough to finish.

And of course, a huge mention to every single one of you guys, whether you favourited, bookmarked, alerted or reviewed, or whether you just kept coming back to read it. A story is nothing without someone to read it, so each and every one of you has been invaluable.

Afterword

The Idea

So…It all really started when I discovered, on a TV advert that Maze Runner was being released on DVD and Blu Ray TOMORROW.

What?

I was sure it was due out in the Cinemas in the next week or so.

But no. Basically, I'd entirely missed the cinema period (how is still very beyond me). But I think that can only be a good thing, given just how many times I watched the film back to back for the first two weeks I owned it.

Yes, I bought it the day it was put on shelves.

A week later I knew most of the movie back to front. A week after that, I knew almost all the dialogue by heart. And within a month, I was completely fascinated with the concept of Glade life.

And it was that fascination that sparked this story.

The Process

I felt there was a whole story left to tell that Dashner had completely skipped over by the time Thomas was introduced, so that's where I started. And the rest you all know.

I wrote the bulk of the story in three weeks, practically without a pause, doing hours in a single sitting. (And just so we're clear, my Muse is an awfully flighty bugger and I've never finished a full length story before. I'm notoriously hopeless to the extent I decided some time ago that just doing one shots was the best way forward). But this has been a massive exception.

I barely wrote down any notes and I literally just kept typing, coasting through events that I knew in my head I wanted to happen. There were also many, many repeat watchings of the film itself to keep the environment and characters constant and present in my mind. It helped a lot when I struggled with how some characters might speak. And there was a lot of research through the Maze Runner Wiki to fill in what the movie left out.

At the end of those three weeks, I had around 84,000 words, a finished draft and 250 pages; an outrageously disliked number in this fandom.

And then began the tweaking.

With the first handful of pages ready, I started posting on the tenth of March.

And I'd continue to post a chapter twice a week after that, with a lot of tweaking as I went.

Bits got reworded, some things were taken out and a lot of scenes were added in, as I felt bits were missing, either for pacing, world building, character development, or hooks for later plot elements. But the main things stayed the same.

At the time of finishing the story, and posting the last chapter – on the twenty-first of June (wow) – it is 107,297 words and 329 pages. Not only a much happier number, but also longer than the actual Maze Runner novel, which comes in at just over 101,000 words.

And with all the little tie ins and hints and the many dynamics at the core of the story, I'm really proud of what it became. Far more than I expected to be.

Eva

Eva's character came to mind as soon as I was struck with the idea of telling a story about the Glade itself.

'Girl in the Glade' is overdone, perhaps, but I think it lends itself to a great story when done right, and that's what I aimed for. Whether I succeeded will always be up to the audience. I wanted to write from a first person perspective and explore the possibilities and limitations that come with that. I just find females easier to write that way than I do males. Plus, Newt was a clear favourite of mine, and the complexity to him really fascinates me so I wanted to explore another layer to him with a romantic relationship.

Not long after deciding the story would belong to a girl, the idea for her purpose there started to form. I knew it had to fit and be realistic on a number of levels – it had to make sense for WCKD as part of a science experiment, mainly. And working with that helped to shape her backstory and bring about the side project of the Eden Switch.

To help give you an idea of this: Eva was – in the very, very early days (like the first two days of writing) going to be called Eleanor. But in the end, it just didn't sit right, and as I started to dig deeper, everything just fell into place. Girls in Group B were said to have more biblical names, while boys of Group A were named for famous inventors and men of science. Eva, as well as fitting the Biblical theme for which she'd been originally intended, also matched Adam, which is where the concept of a switch developed. So…I knew about the Switch, and why it had been done and a decent amount of Eva's previous life that made her right for it all before she learned her name in the second chapter of the story.

That's how early some of those big elements were planned.

And all I can say is that the things she knew before and the things she's learned since still have significance to come, should her story continue.

It took me a long time to find a faceclaim for her that I was even partially happy with. I've gone through lists upon lists of brunette women and actresses. None of them fit how I see her perfectly, and I'll always see her the same in my head, but for those of you interested, I decided her faceclaim is Zoey Deutch. I know the eyes are the wrong colour, but I'm thinking in overall terms – face shape/structure/complexion etc. She's as close as I've found :)

The World

The Glade, prison though it was, supported a full length novel. It's a very small space for so much to happen. You could liken it to a TV show taking place on a single set, like an apartment.

How many shows do that?

Not many. Most shows will have at least a few sets to move the characters around and keep things interesting. I personally find a fascination with shows that can still deliver in limited space. If anyone knows of the TV show 'My Family' one of their Christmas special episodes literally happened in a single train/tube carriage when it broke down.

Yes, the Glade is bigger than a train carriage, but hopefully you get the point.

It's not a big world. It's smaller than Hogwarts, or The Shadowhunter Downworld, or Camp Half Blood or District 12 and so many other places. Not in terms of literal square footage, but in terms of space to move and tell a story.

Take Hogwarts. In the books or the films, how many aspects of that castle did you see? Hagrid's hut, the forest, the gates, the lake, the Pitch, the grounds, the Willow, the entrance hall, the Great Hall, each of the classrooms, at least two of the common rooms, the dorms, numerous corridors and hidden passages, the roof, teacher's offices, dungeons…and still more.

In the Glade, you tend to have the Doors, The field, the Deadheads and Homestead. They can be broken down a bit more; the Kitchen, the Butchery, the Infirmary and the Gardens, even the Hammock huts…but places for the story to be told are far fewer than in most stories. At least, that's how I see this - as always, how you see it is up to you.

But it's that very small, contained nature of the world in the film that really intrigued me. Not just that it was so small – that alone isn't so amazing. What makes it amazing is that such a small, confined place was the entire world to more than fifty boys who had no memories of anything else and had to make a life there.

The Family

And of course, at the very centre of this was the many, many dynamics between the characters. I've said a lot on this before, so I'll keep it short.

I wanted to write a real story about characters who are very real and very human. None of them are perfect. None are evil. Each of them have the capacity for good and bad and all of them are complex. Writing so many people who have all found a family in each other was one of the primary joys of writing this, for me.

And I think that's most of the things I really wanted to say (though I'm sure I'll think of more as soon as I post this).

Other Updates and Information

A Sequel

I know a lot of you are hopeful for this. All I can say right now is that I would love to continue this story, but I don't know that I will just yet. I've mentioned it before to many of you, but in the interest of being abundantly clear:

1. I have some ideas for where I want Eva's story to go, and I have to see the film before I can work out if my plot ideas will mesh with the canon timeline. If they don't…well I need to have a think on some things.

2. I was unnaturally motivated when writing this, and thankfully, things came together so that I actually had plenty of time to do so. It's not always the case. I will need time and inspiration to write a sequel. My Muse is flighty at the best of times, but even if she sticks around, I'm hoping to move house before Christmas, which will eat up time.

Hopefully I will be able to let you all know around September if I'm going to attempt a sequel, but it will be longer before it's actually shared.

Until then…

The Eden Switch Companion Series

The first chapter of this is posted and more will follow as I get them written and proofed. All the one-shots are a little disconnected, told through various points of view and all the events take place during the Eden Switch story.

The second chapter is halfway written and I'm still open to suggestions on scenes you'd like to see through other eyes, though many of the favourites have been added to my list already.

The series is complementary only, and you do not have to read it for anything in the main story to make sense. The single chapters are purely an extra insight should you want them.

Eden Switch AUs

The first chapter of this series will be posted soon. It will be posted on fanfiction, Ao3, and also, possibly, on my Tumblr account, so keep an eye out!

Again, these are all unrelated and done mainly for fun, for those of you who like AU stories, and aren't quite ready to let go of the characters yet (or my versions of them, at least). I'm open to suggestions with this, but no promises that everything you throw forwards will be done. You can comment/review or submit an ask to my tumblr with prompts or ideas if you want to share them.

All of these stories will also be one-shots. They may be in made up worlds, or in other fandoms. The characters will all be, at the core, the same as my interpretations you see in Eden Switch, but due to their different setting/situations/backstories, you'll get to see other parts of them.

Tumblr

On Tumblr I'm 'Seaselkie' and I'm aiming to reblog some character questions/headcanons and so on, so that if any of you have extra questions you'd like answered, you're welcome to send them into my ask box there.

I accept anonymous asks, so you don't need an account to contact me. You will just need to keep an eye on my blog page so you can read the answer, which I'll have to make public. Alternately, I'm happy to e-mail replies if you provide an address.

I'd also like to post some gifsets when I can work them out properly, so you can look out for those in the future, too.

DeviantArt

I'm an artist as well as a writer – that's how I like to see myself. So I actually post a lot of my own drawings and paintings on dA. I'm Tattered-dreams over there, if anyone is at all interested in checking it out. I mainly do equine/horse related art, but I have been expanding into human and other animal subjects over the last few years.

I have almost finished some concept drawings of Eva from this story and they will be posted there when they're done, for anyone interested in that. They're single full body designs spanning from her arrival through to the night after their 'rescue' and even a bonus image of a costume design for the potential sequel.

And that's about all of this. Just some Guest replies now :)

And obviously I can't respond directly to any more guest reviews from this point, so to anyone else who leaves kind words here without logging on – they are deeply appreciated. If you have questions but don't have a fanfiction account, feel free to head onto my Tumblr to ask them :)

Here we go:

Loving it: Thank you for answering those questions – It's been great to see which chapters and titles stood out for different readers. And I always think that a first chapter really has to engage you if you want to keep people coming back, so I'm glad it did that for you. As for the titles, I love poetry, so I guess it makes sense that some of them feel that way.

Thank you for all your amazing reviews, I'm thrilled you enjoyed the story and hope you like the companion series, too!

Guest: Thank you! Glad you liked it. As for making a story of the second movie, I'd point you to what I said about the possible sequel above. That's the best explanation I can give :)

AN: That's all, folks! I'll let you know what's happening around September. Until then, hope you enjoy the one shot series :)