This postMy Music 201 paper is done and printed out. Phew!
Reading about Beren and Lúthien the other day got me thinking about my own writing, and it wasn’t long before an idea presented itself: the war in heaven. Not only is it epic in nature, but there’s a wealth of dramatic material — in other words, it’s a really, really good story. A true myth, if you will.
So, here’s the plan. The first part of the novel will be about Lucifer’s fall from grace, because that’s one of the driving forces behind the war. And it also happens to be a fascinating case study in psychology — how someone who was so good originally (he was in authority in the presence of God, so I doubt he was a slacker) could become so utterly corrupted. The book will explore those ideas, starting with his schoolboy days. (Yes, yes, I know that we have no evidence for anything like that. This won’t be a doctrinal dissertation — it’s fiction, pure speculation, and the main thing I’m driving at is not the specifics of our pre-mortal existence, but rather the universal human traits which still exist today and will exist forever.) Slowly, one step at a time, he’ll start to stray from the path, and over time he’ll fall completely.
He has to be a likable character (at first), because how else could he convince a third of the hosts of heaven (we’re talking billions of people here, folks) to follow him? He’ll be funny, suave, charming, all of that. And that’s why this will be such a sad tale — the tragic fall of one who had so much potential but destroyed it all and took almost half the land down with him.
The second part of the book will be the story of Lucifer’s efforts to rally the children of God against their Father, finally resulting in their expulsion from heaven. That’s where the book will end.
I admittedly realize that this is kind of going to be a book about Satan, but thinking about it that way is mildly disturbing to say the least, so we’ll keep it focused on the war in heaven. Lucifer certainly is not going to be the hero of the tale, and evil does not win, lest you think I’ve gone over to the dark side. But I think it’s important to try to grasp how such a large number of people could follow someone like that when they lived in the presence of God. It blows my mind. And so, in order to understand it better, I’m going to start writing this book. We’ll see where it goes…
As for models, I started reading Added Upon but found it very stilted and didactic. Not that that’s necessarily bad, but this story deserves better. Paradise Lost is the obvious king of the hill in this genre, but it focuses more on Adam and Eve’s fall than on the war in heaven, and it’s poetry (which isn’t quite as accessible for many people), and there are so many classical allusions that it’s often hard to get. Again, that’s fine, but War in Heaven or Lightfall or whatever I end up calling it will be clear, gripping, and epic. Or at least that’s how I see it in my head right now. :)
I also realize that this is one heck of a story to attempt for my first novel, but that’s okay because I can always come back and revise it later when I have more experience. The fact of the matter is, this tale is about to burst from inside me, and I’ve got to tell it. Plain and simple.
One last thing: while I can’t attempt accuracy in describing the pre-mortal existence, primarily because of the lack of source material from which to work, I will do my best to make it consistent with what we know and with itself. So expect some musings to pop up now and then on here. (For instance, did we live in family groupings? We were all brothers and sisters, so were we one huge mass, or were we divided into quorums and such? Did romantic love exist there? Was the war in heaven purely a psychological debate, or was there more to it than that? Do spirit bodies eat spirit food? Are there heavenly libraries? How large was heaven? Did we hang out in Heavenly Father’s castle all the time or were we spread out? Did we have family home evenings?) I don’t expect to find real answers, but it’s certainly possible to come up with something that makes sense enough to keep up the illusion.
