The Survivors

Final Author's Note

573 pages.

206,018 words.

This has been the longest novel I've ever written. Who said sixteen-year-olds can't write novels? I began to write this on July 10th, 2017 and I have officially finished on February 13th, 2018. I'm just shocked really. 

I send all my love to those who read and voted seconds after I posted and commented on every chapter with hilarious comments and amazing support. You guys are amazing and truly earned the name Survivors! 

I hope I lived up to my bold promises in the first author's note that hooked most of you. To create a raw, realistic island survival book, mainly clean, and that I raised the bar for island survival books on Wattpad. As if Lord of the Flies and Lost had a baby and mixed it with Michael Grant's Gone.

I hoped to have you hanging on every sentence, made you cry, laugh out loud (even blush, and made you fall for my characters no matter how annoying they got. : ) I know I have done all these things actually writing it. This book caused me a lot of heartache, happiness, and yes, I even blushed at times from second-hand character embarrassment. 

For a while, I lost motivation and I ended up hating this book. But I managed to push through that and finish the book strong! This is usually the cause for late updates, as well as my busy life. I like to own my characters and write for myself, it's honestly why writers write. For their own enjoyment first, then others. I had to think long and hard about what I wanted to do because I had no idea you guys were so into it! 

Throughout the entire book, I haven't gotten a single hate comment. I am extremely grateful for that! So! I made a weird promise in the middle of my book promising a face reveal if I get a million reads... As if that would ever happen! But if it does... lol then I'll keep my promise! But honestly guys, it's like the saying: in a million years. But here's to a million! XD

So I want to show you guys how the story would have gone if I hadn't changed things for you guys... Everything would be drastically different in terms of death and ships. So... here it is!

Original Ships

Levi x Bree (she wouldn't be a jerk)

Ayden x Sarah (love/hate relationship you kinda see when he's taunting her in the very beginning, but that faded fast)

Teren x Thalia with Shane dragged along for the ride

Oliver x Jenny

Original Death Plans

For a moment there... Sammy. 

Shane was actually supposed to die in the tsunami, for real. When he disappeared, I meant for him to get swept away, have a chapter of his view and life, then die alone. 

Leigh was supposed to stay dead and not be on the island, but yah know, plans change.

Teren was always going to die, I knew that from the beginning. It was later when I decided it was in the end, though honestly, I wanted to scare people and leave you in suspense, but it was too good to be true. For him to come with his voice was a hope that never could be fulfilled. His death had meaning guys, I feel terrible but I had to do it!

Seth wasn't supposed to die either, he was meant to be dragged back on the boat replacing what Levi did in the end. He would get his mutated parts surgically removed and be adopted in Leigh's now giant family. The original epilogue was them all playing basketball and the shock of seeing Seth, all better and with them. But Seth is too messed up and his death was meaningful as well.

And yes, I do kill off ships for the sake of keeping things cleaner without the mess of a grieved character who lost their love.

Who was the original antagonist? Actually, it was going to be Lukas. His character description that I made on the first day said: "He lashes out turning off all other traits. Tries to prove himself but always ignored... Starts to open up, later on, to start over, but a bit too late." Ayden was meant to only be the spoiled, rich playboy, not the antagonist against Levi.

The friendship circle changed as well. Sammy was only meant to protect Jenny and kinda ignore everything Levi said. There was meant to be more of a divide instead of only Ayden being against Levi. Oliver was meant to be Levi's best friend while Teren was a bit more standoffish. 

Why animal mutant monster things? Well because I can. Lol, I had actually planned on the strange mutants when I first had the idea long before I created the characters. I drew Seth on a whiteboard and originally named him Gideon, wondering what I could do with him. So I decided to mash the two together and create something of nightmares with him. The creepy vine lady was actually an inside joke with my brother when we used to play together. Unlike normal kids, we played STORIES. 

Like, plotline and character development and everything. Special characters, powers, all with our stuffed animals, legos, and LPS. It was angels and wars and bad guys possessing people-, that's a WHOLE other can of worms that I'm writing. It's way too dark and serious to be coming out of the minds of 6/8-year-olds dealing with the "Underworld" and it's very own Hades who is almost like comic relief and torture-obsessed and a Shadow Realm with monsters-...but who cares! I should post that...

Anyways, creepy vine lady was a weird nickname that was given to a bad guy... She hid in the swamp and controlled vines and was absolutely crazy. It was another level. So I added her in for the sake of reliving some of my childhood! XD

Ending? That was the only thing that didn't change much. Except for the fact that Seth should have lived. I decided it was finally time to have a real ending to island survival books. No more: "It's all a dream!" or "This is an experiment and it's time for rebellion, blah, blah." (Okay it was an experiment but THEY weren't involved in it. They just kinda... landed in it. XD Okay you can kill me now.) I feel like that's cheating in my mind, so I wanted to have a real ending and make reading the entire book worth it. 

Also...

Seth is the older version of Elliot if you didn't catch that!

And... 

Probably in the edited version there will be more animal attacks other than the spider... *shudders* I hate spiders...

So since it's Valentine's Day when I release this and the epilogue, this is my gift to you! A full book filled with relatable characters, love, pain, and a true ending. I won't make a sequel because there's nothing left to be said! I won't split this book either because it would just be awkward. After all... it was only seven days! 

I will have my roleplay book open VERY SOON! Just give me a second to get settled! And I'm open to AU suggestions! I've already planned a gang AU where well... let me just say, Levi looks HOT in black. ; ) It'll be fun to mess around with the characters so I hope you enjoy it as well!

Thank you for the hundred reads per day from the moment the book was released and all your support!! When the book officially ended it has 28, 919 reads and 1, 814 votes! So let's see how far we can go!

I love you guys!Thank you! You are all Survivors now! See you next time! Check out my other books as well! I can write stuff other than island survival! Like my end of the world book that's written in this style as well! Bye!

~Wynter Reign

P.S: I'm going to be editing soon as well so for all your rereaders... no spoilers! I'll try my best as well!