I've drafted 4 chapters so far, and outlined a chunk of the rest of what I'm hoping will be book one of the tentatively titled "Sublight Frontier" series.

My writing style is rather dialog heavy. And after some trial and error I've put together a style that blends novel and screenplay. The narrative frame I've adopted is that the manuscript is history from the future. But by this point the events are so far back in the past that rather than a recitation of fact, history is a retelling of legend.

The "Narrator"/"Author" is the 2XXX century version of William Shakepere. He/She writes entertainment, normally. But he/she decided that they needed to branch out into something redeeming. (Or, perhaps, they got a nice fat educational grant.) But after talking things over with actual historians, he/she decided that what normal history lacks is good story tellers.

"Sublight Frontier" is their equivilent to Shakespear's history plays. There is a always a kernel of truth to the stories. But where facts and good story telling collide, story telling wins. And... if it's better for story telling purposes that he/she composite several characters together, or juggle the order of events into something that makes better sense, so be it.

At the same time, this narrator is far enough into the future that his/her culture has no dog in the race, so to speak. So when looking back at which side was "right" or "wrong", their first concern is actually not alienating a portion of their audience.

Oh yes, and they are decidedly not the professorial type. Think, Douglas Adams.