Author's Note:
I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to read and indulge in this story. I hope my readers have all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I know it doesn't have the largest audience and I can only assume that lots of readers didn't read it straight from Chapter 1 to 91, despite the fact that it was relatively necessary to in order for the events of the story to make sense. I hope anyone reading this will take the time to absorb the story as a whole, but I am also eternally grateful to those who enjoyed bits and pieces, whether that was the plot itself or the spicy chapters (lol), or the fallout after the island, or Jack and Ralph's relationship in general. Whatever it is that brought you all to this story, I'm glad you stumbled upon it and hope that you enjoyed it.
I was certainly not expecting this story to reach 91 chapters. In my original plan to write it, I expected maybe a couple weeks at the most. The reason Phase 1 only has eight chapters is because I was initially expecting to not go much more than that with Phase 3. I was surprised by my continued inspiration and how easily the story continued to flow through me. I would've liked to go into greater detail in Phase 1, and I likely would've had I known what Phase 3 would turn into. I simply didn't consider it when I first started writing well over two months ago now. There are still so many questions, plot lines, and situations that went unresolved by the end. I was feeling that seventy-one chapters in Phase 3 was more than enough, and so a lot of sacrifices were made in terms of character developments, plot lines, and unresolved issues. I simply didn't feel that I had the space to dive into everything I wanted to. I still have so many ideas and ways I'd like to explore the progression of these things, which brings me to the next order of business in this A/N.
I am planning on doing several character analysis chapters following this author's note. I will be diving deeper into most of the major characters themselves and into lots of their internalizations and expanding on their backgrounds in greater depth in a way I didn't have the chance to in the story itself. For example, a lot is to be said about Ralph's moral dilemma of trying to reconcile loving Jack with everything Jack did on the island. Also, Jack's power struggle with balancing both pleasure and control in the boys' physical relationship. Just a couple key examples. There will be a chapter on each character (except I think I will do the twins in one chapter). I'm not sure yet how many words I plan on putting into them, it could be more or less or approximately the same as the majority of chapters in the story itself. Surely, characters like Ralph and Jack will likely be longer than those who appeared in the story less often or played a more minor role in general. Nonetheless, I plan on examining most characters from the original Lord of the Flies story and those I created around them in the before and after phases (1 and 3).
The final note I'd like to make here is more of an announcement than it is a note. At the end of the story, Roger revealed that there would be a trial to determine the boys' guilt or innocence in the deaths that occurred on the island. Obviously I didn't expand on that at all before the story concluded. I won't go into any further detail about it now either because I plan on writing a sequel story in which the trial will take place. As of right now, I plan on going beyond the trial depending on how the story itself plays out and how I'm feeling about it in the trial's conclusion. The plot will essentially carry on from not long after where we left off here in Phase 3. The sequel will begin by focusing on the trial, but will follow the characters during and outside of it. I'm also excited to see where it might go after that. I also plan on starting a Lord of the Flies oneshot or multi-shot story for shorter stories and ideas I have. If you can't already tell, I'm simply in love with the story and the characters and I look forward to writing some of my own short stories beyond the full length story of Before and After.
Once again, thank you all so so much for reading and I look forward to reading it through for the first time myself so I can recap on the story itself, and then begin to work on the character analysis chapters, and finally the sequel which I plan to release the first chapters of sometime this month (hopefully sooner than later). I am going back to school next week though so it may be a slower updating process than it has been over Christmas break. Thanks for reading and for all your patience and I hope my readers will continue to follow the boys into the sequel story!