Fractal Legacy First Draft: Part One Update

It's been a while, but I have been busy, honest. When I last posted, I was about to head into a final read-through of Fractal Peace and Fractal War before setting out on the final part of the trilogy, Fractal Legacy. I think I owe you an update.

The read-throughs of the first two novels went better than expected. No significant changes needed, and I even managed to shorten them slightly (but not much). Then it was time to start Fractal Legacy.

When I outlined my plans for the novel back in December 2023, it was to be told in three parts. Part one would have alternating chapters on two different story threads: one featuring characters from the first two books, and the other featuring the as-yet undiscovered world of Kitran. They would come together in parts two and three to resolve the two significant issues left over from the earlier novels.

The ideas for part one are still largely unchanged, except I'm adding one extra chapter on its end which will combine the two threads, setting things up perfectly for part two. However, I have pulled forward a significant event from part two into part one. When things began to go wrong for the characters, I decided it should go really, really wrong, all in one go.

That leads onto the other issue: the two problems to be solved in the last parts have begun to overlap more than I anticipated. That's fine. I've a much more satisfying resolution that can tie them together. It came to me in a flash of brilliance in the shower (he says modestly), and I knew I had to do it. That means that the novel is only two parts long (called Expansion and Contraction), but you will find out more about the religious heritage of the Falki than you ever expected wanting to know.

I also said in December that I intended to write the even-numbered chapters (the Kitran thread) in part one first. Just after that, I received the feedback I needed to complete the first two novels, which removed the reason why I wanted to avoid continuing with the existing characters until I was sure they wouldn't end up differently. Instead, I ended up writing the odd-numbered chapters while the characters were fresh in my mind.

I've now completed that thread (the orangey chapters in the image below), right up to the point where it would combine with the other thread. With a bit of renaming, it now looks like this:

Those five chapters are told from the points of view of Cabeliac Onga, Amina Ya, and Alana Curst from the first novels. They've reached just over 25,000 words so far, which is about a quarter of the story done. To my surprise, 11,000 of those words were from Curst's perspective, with Amina coming in just ahead of Onga in second place. If you'd asked me before I started, I'd have said it would be the opposite order,

There were plenty of pleasant surprises along the way. It was the one part of the book I was most worried about in terms of maintaining interest while the essential things happened, but I couldn't have been happier with how it progressed. I loved the way it finished, dovetailing perfectly to where the other thread will end. It was almost like I planned it.

Next, it's time for the blue chapters. This is where I have to brush off my cutting-edge (pseudo-) science knowledge about how artificial wormholes might work and the role of exotic matter in their creation. Those two topics are the specialities of Cayt Noosk and Laz Turka respectively, the two point-of-view characters for this thread. I'd initially envisaged Laz as the primary character, but as it's progressed, I've realised that's likely the wrong way around. We'll see.

You'll notice I've already added a webpage for this novel to my website. It's still a work in progress (as is the cover) but it'll give an idea of what's coming. You'll also see I've fleshed out the roster of characters further too, with representatives of several other races met along the way (hence the title of part one, Expansion). These are the characters at the time of writing:

Right. I'd better get on and bring Laz and Cayt to life. They've been expecting to breathe since I first mentioned them in December. I'll report back once the first draft of part one is complete.