Everyone’s a Martyr

Afterward and Author’s Notes

So twenty five chapters, four months, and 46,006 words later it’s finally finished. I decided about a month ago that I should probably do an afterward to the story because I felt the need to address how much the story has changed.

The original storyline was always the same. Kyle, Jason, and Katie were meant to die (and come back to life) in the same way that they did in the finished product. But “Everyone’s a Martyr” was first meant to be ten chapters.

The first five chapters were created as they were planned, but some of the chapter titles were different than intended. Chapter 1 was originally “The Last Heist” and Chapter 4 was “Guns don’t kill People, People kill People.”

When I first put “UPRISE” up on fictionpress, I got into a private message conversation with ‘therealme1123,’ who I really just wanted to thank for sticking with me through the story since the beginning (even if you didn’t like the ending!) I think you helped me a bit more than you know.

Anyway, that was the point that the story began to change.

The original “Point of View” Chapter was thrown in as an extra chapter and I never really intended to make it more than that. After I posted “Catastrophe Beneath the Heavens” I went even farther out on a limb and posted a second POV chapter, just to clarify more on the actual events of the Catastrophe, and that’s when everything got out of whack.

I made a second game plan, which upped the ante to twenty one chapters, and brought back Eric Gold, who was never intended to make a second appearance in the ten chapter story after his arrest in chapter 3. For the most part, I followed this plan pretty accurately. I added in a few extra things, such as the “Behind the Devil’s Desk” chapter, and the extremely short and not that important “Condemnation” chapter, and also I split up a chapter called “The Price Tag on Temptation” into two separate chapters that became “Textbook Armageddon” and “Heaven Will Pause.”

As boring and un-exciting as all that sounds, I started to ponder a sequel while planning out all of these chapters. I had entire branching storylines that would have upped the ante to over thirty chapters, including the continuation of the character Yemi and the rest of his time in prison (2 chapters), and the continuation of that character Theo, who the POV in Part II focued on (3 chapters).

So, while I continue rambling, I’m mostly here to ask a question. I sketched out a plan for a sequel to “Everyone’s a Martyr” called “No One’s a Hero.” I’d really like to know if people would feel it beneficial to the plot of the story to continue on in a sequel, or if my ending is good the way it is.

Quickly, for those of you wondering why I had such a weird and sudden ending, I’ll say I love Twilight Zone reruns, and mind fucks and cliffhanger endings are what I like best.

I don’t feel it would go against the feel of the story to make a sequel, because it has certainly grown into something much larger than the meek ten chapter Twilight Zone tribute I originally meant it to be.

So message me or let me know in a review what your thoughts are on that.

On my final note, I’m planning on going back and doing some major revising to the earlier chapters. As an author, I felt the quality of my work slowly grow as I continued writing this story, and especially in the two final chapters dealing with Eric, which I wrote in first person, I really thought I’d found my niche.

So I’m going to go back, re-write the earlier chapters, probably right up to the point where Jason kills Kyle (which needs some fixing as well to up the drama.)

I’m already planning on making the characters more identifiable so their deaths actually mean something, specifically Katie.

Anyway, any help with the chapter editing would be greatly appreciated. Just hit me up with a message with any suggestions and stuff, and I’ll give you a mention in the final product if you manage to help me out. :D

Thanks, Jake