Trouble in the Stardomes

So I'm approaching the supreme ordeal of my novel Combined Cognition now.  I knew what my big set-piece action scene will be, but I had to figure out why it happened.

That takes me back to the motivation thing I wrote about a couple of weeks back.  I had my reason for the killings - revenge. Now I had to work out the detailed method.

I'd never planned to write about terrorists, but that's what I find myself doing now.  But the trouble with  them planning sabotage on an orbital shipyard constantly on the lookout for trouble is that the monitoring systems are likely to find your bombs before you have a chance to detonate them.  And with the shipyard already on high alert that meant switching methodology.

So my terrorist - yes, I really do have to call him that, even though he masquerades as a priest - had to figure out a different method of "opening the way", as he calls it.  A method that couldn't be discovered before the time he wanted to use it.

I don't enjoy writing about death and destruction.  There's enough of it in the real world, and I like to keep it off the page in my stories.  But this time I couldn't.  It had to be centre stage.  So how could I turn this situation around into something that I'd be proud to have written?

The answer was to focus on the stories of the people coming to the rescue after the terrorist act has happened.  Every time there's an atrocity in real life Twitter explodes with stories of the bravery and courage of ordinary people who risk their own lives to help the injured.  I wanted to take that strand of everyday heroism and weave it into my own story.

I did a detailed chapter plan for these last four chapters, and there I worked out the choreography of the attack and its rescue.  With the difficult work done, it was just a case of sitting down and writing that action.

I find writing chapters after I've worked out difficult logistics and motives an absolute joy, and true to form, these chapters have flowed from my pen.  I even managed to get another attack in after the big one, which just appeared as an idea in my mind while I was writing.

So I can't duck writing about trouble in the Stardomes, but I do have control over the focus of what I write.  I'm choosing not to focus on the death and destruction.  I'm choosing to focus on the stories of ordinary people who risk their lives to save others'.  People we can admire for putting themselves into danger, while asking "would I have the courage to do that?"

I like to think of the story as a place where we can see our own potential reflected back at us, and be inspired by those characters and their bravery.