My new project is about a former fundamentalist Christian and a former Catholic who develop a secular Gnostic (early "spins" on, and candidates for, dogmatic Christianity; Sethians might be older) sect and accrue a cult following. Protag 1: Simon, a student of classics at not-Providence-College (wink), a Catholic uni. Through learning about Greek myths and philosophers, he begins to doubt the Bible for its mythical stories. P2: Helen, student of philosophy at not-Brown-University, an Ivy League school. In her ethics and metaphysics, as well as science, classes, she becomes disillusioned with biblical morality and claims of nonphysical things. It's basically a retelling of the legend/myth of Simon Magus and Helen of Tyre. I'm stuck trying to decide where to start the story: shortly before deconversion of one or both characters or after. My last novel involved a Catholic deconversion, but there's interesting psychology and internal conflict with the process of doubt and deconstruction. Any suggestions, please?
Just write it, and in revisions you can decide if you need more or less on the beginning. But you need to get it down in draft form before you can see what's working and what isn't.
