For Now and Forever was created, offline, in 1986 as a round-robin type soap opera written by Smith and then-girlfriend.  Set in modern day, the series (then titled A New Day Dawning) centered on star-crossed lovers Ted Patterson and Sara Sanders as well as key families the Callisons, the Davises, the Bennetts, and the Fairgates.  Although the personal relationship ended, the series continued on with Smith writing alone.  Smith's interest in the history of the soap opera genre started him thinking about the past history of his own series.  In an attempt to investigate this history, he went back in time and wrote a roughly detailed backstory for the series beginning in 1935, continuing forward until the backstory met with the beginning of the series.

In 1991, Smith put the series away to focus on other things and there it remained until early December 2000.  A renewed interest in the series led him to want to write for it again.  However, in the intervening years, Smith had discovered the internet and a new type of soap opera -- the websoap.  Convinced that this medium would be just the thing for his series, Smith began to work to bring an updated version of the series to the web.  Although originally intended to be set in 2001, a direct continuation of the original version, Smith soon realized that the already varied and twisted storylines created years earlier might prove difficult to explain and translate to a new audience.  Therefore, he decided that the best place to begin the series would be, naturally, at the beginning -- 1935 -- and a websoap was born.  For Now and Forever premiered on the web on March 2, 2001, and has been attracting readers and fans worldwide ever since.