Fractal Peace: Part Three Complete

The first draft of part three of Fractal Peace is now complete. For once, it didn't go too far off the rails. I did shuffle things around a bit, splitting one chapter into two and slotting another in between, but overall, it held together well after the chaos caused by the characters in part two.

Part three ended up with six chapters in the end, two more than I expected:

• Gathering the Evidence

• Infiltrating the Enemy

• Unlocking the Aevoir

• Accepting the Past

• Understanding the Aevoir

• Aiding the Enemy

Half the chapters are from multiple points of view, giving each of them a chance to shine. It finished with 21,800 words, making 104,400 words overall so far. That's my longest-ever first draft, and I still have part four to go! I'll be lucky to keep it under 130,000 words at this stage.

I've taken a different approach to replanning part four, now called Division. The overall story is essentially unchanged, but the order in which I'll tell it has shifted, as has some of the point of views. I ended up working out what scenes I had to write, which order they needed to go, and then fitted them into a chapter structure.

None of the chapters is now told from a single point of view, which fits the story better. I'm sure the exact scene/chapter organisation will change, but for now, these are the chapters I envisage:

• Initiating the Plan

• Scheduling the Plan

• Positioning the Pieces

• Preparing the Ground

• Starting the Attack

• Defeating the Winners

• Keeping the Peace

I'd better get on with it. Can't wait to get this first draft finished. It's definitely my most ambitious novel so far. I already have a few notes in place for the second draft, but nothing too significant – mainly to bring out a few themes and to expand on one of the alien societies.

I think that's the last tweak to the cover, by the way. I've adjusted the main image to fit around the text position better. It'll do.