Apparently (the story goes) there are some rules in novel writing that should never be broken.

Yeah, right, and your local Priest is absolutely trustworthy.

So, in no particular order, here are the rules I am deliberately breaking in Descent. Oh, and these are only a tiny selection – you have to read the hexalogy to find them all.

No new characters after the first third of your novel. Well, Diaspora, Deceit, and Destiny all  introduce many new characters (all in first-person POV of course), and a fair swathe of them are main characters. So get ready, 200,000 words in and the new guys’ll keep turning up.

No alliteration. Sorry, what? The Descent series’ six books are entitled Diathesis, Death, Diaspora, Deceit, Dissonance, and Destiny. Alliterative enough for you?

Don’t leave your central characters off the stage for too long. So, get to the end of Death and you’ll have to wait until Dissonance to see half of them again; and the others? No sign of them until Destiny, 300,000 words on. How’s your memory?

Heroes are heroes – always. No, not in my universe, although it will challenge you. What do you think is evil? How ego-centric are you? Do you really want what’s best for humanity? We’ll see when you read Destiny.

Ciao