How it all started
Thirteen years ago, I had a dream, and I mean that literally. I was in a crowded airtight structure in the middle of a war. Shots were ripping through the walls, and the people inside were shooting back. When the walls were breached, the toxic atmosphere flooded the building, and people began to die. I remember thinking that this is madness, this is suicidal, like this no one survives on either side. But the shooting continued. When I woke up, I started to write, and after a couple of hours I saved a file (on LibreOffice) called "story based on dream.odt." I didn't know it, but I'd started my novel. It took me a very long time to figure out what the story was about. At first, I just let my imagination run with it and wrote whatever popped into my head. This kept my project going but was no way to write a story. Eventually I needed to settle a few things: 1. In what sort of world is this story set? I needed a plausible setting. 2. What are the central conflicts of t