I have been rather busy of late with chores that have nothing to do with the things that I like, such as writing, but now I am enjoying a reprieve. So, it is time to catch up with things related to my science fiction novel; Should Iolos Fall.

It is going to be a long book! Currently, I expect it to be at least 100,000 words, but it will probably exceed that. Having carried out a review of that I have written so far, some 50,000 words, I could see that certain strands of the story are going to add a lot more to the total. I am not dong this needlessly, as if 100,000 words is my target, but because I can see that to make the most of the ideas that are inspiring me then I need to give them time and space in which to develop. At the moment there are four main strands with two others planned to invade and largely take over the plot at a later stage. One of the first four will provide the resolution, which may only be of a kind as I have not decided yet. If this is beginning to sound complicated then that is because it is. Although I can see each individual strand in my mind, and to some extent in the stylesheet that I use, not everything is included simply because I have not sorted through the complexity myself yet. What I do not want to do is lose the reader in a plot that becomes a maze, however.

At the moment I do not have a main protagonist, I have a number of characters who all add to and drive the story between them. I have been writing the second draft more or less as a normal book, but now it is time to approach it differently. I have decided to separate the four threads and write them out individually. I have done something like this previously. It makes the actual writing easier as I can concentrate on developing the ideas surrounding each group of characters as I write about them. I am currently aware that most if not all are very superficial at this stage. I need to develop their actual psychology more. I also want to work on how their subjective perspectives influences the way they see their opposites in this conflict. Darth Vader was a villain because he used the dark side of the force and fought for the empire. Luke Skywalker was a hero because he used the light side of the force and fought to restore the republic. Both killed people. To the family and friends of those people who died either Vader or Luke might be seen as the villain. I always find such simple dichotomies unsatisfactory. Indeed, this was one of the inspirations for this book.

Changing the way the book is written is going to slow me down as I extract the work related to each strand and develop it separately, but it is nothing radical. Each will follow the main plot and each will be woven into one main story when I edit them back together again. Hopefully, when I do that, I will have book that has depth, interest, thought provoking ideas, and characters that readers will enjoy.