Hello there, it's my first time trying to write a novel. My future novel is one that will take place within the 1940s to early 1950s of the Soviet Union. I'd like to know some tips on writing it like pacing, character development, and exploring other factors like culture. I am aiming to write a novel in the place of a Detective's perspective (now Private Investigator's pov). I'm not following the traditional format with stories like Sherlock Holmes where it takes place in the assistant's pov.
So far I've been researching things about the Soviet Union so I have a better idea on what to write for the novel and its atmosphere. My main character's name is Igor Borisov who's an ex-detective in his 40s who is haunted by an entity known as the The Midnight King (TMK) who first took form from the psychic of Igor during an episode where he was harming himself during midnight time (something similar out of the Babadook on how the entity takes form of grieve and trauma).
It's every midnight that TMK comes out and messes with Igor ever since he was a child following up to his 40s. There was a temporary absence during Igor's 30s where TMK was away since Igor had moved away from his old home. TMK later takes the form of a shadow in Igor's mirrors causing him to relive the past trauma. TMK also has disciples which represent all kinds of emotion (inspired off Homura's clara dolls if you've seen the Madoka Magica Rebellion movie). Keep in mind I haven't written anything about these "disciples" and it will be worked on.
For now, I am just looking for advice that could help me navigate around the story and at least piece it together. Also, TMK will also be apart of a cult group in which the disciples are present. These disciples are all in Igor's head, but I'm wondering how I'll write that out as the cases that'll take place within the USSR and other near by countries will be presented as the evil-doings of a cult. I want to make these discples apart of Igor's imagination but seeing how he is going to research the case with law enforcement, it'll be a bit hard to piece it together.
Moving on now, there's Igor's mother who was abusive towards him and manipulated him when he was a child which I haven't thought about yet. She was an alcoholic, but later in Igor's 40s, she became more ill. Igor's cousins had been killed in pogrom cross-fire (they tried to protect those involved from getting killed by Jews' oppressors but ended up being killed) causing grief for the family. They had a fortune hidden for 20 - 30 years but it had been confiscated by officers.
For Igor's description, if I were to imagine him I'd say he has fierce black hair and a scar on the left side of his face which was an incident from what happened when he was little - getting scarred by a knife from his abusive mother. Igor would smoke a lot especially at 20:00 outside his Soviet apartment that reeks of ciggerattes and alcohol. On occassions, he's reminded of the mistake that caused his partner to get killed in the detective work from 10 years ago... considering this is during war time efforts, he is financially unstable (as almost anyone else is who was living at the time in the USSR). This is the main reason that he and his wife had a divorce from 11 years ago.
Igor used to have a daughter but this daughter passed away. TMK in the story will use his daughter and old assistant as reimaginated "vessels" or corpses to traumatize Igor to mess with him. I plan on writing something where TMK sends Igor into hallucinations where he sees his loved ones like his mother dying as well as the orphan kids he'll later care for through out the story. As for Igor's cultural background, he'll come from the Tuvan region which I and a friend had talked about which is fitting at least for his physical description if I had to say. I might make it that he and his mother used to live in the Tuvan region, but had eventually moved to Moscow for better economic (despite the economy presumably) and educational opportunities for Igor to get into the prestige universities.
Igor is a weary, anxious, and mistrusting type. Later through out his life he starts to believe that people are out to get him and that is his main flaw. I want to write it that later in the story he starts to come into accordance with people and start trusting them a little gaining his humanity back is what the orphans in his soviet apartment's role will be for this particular theme. I also want to add symbols within the story like a crow symbol which represents the turning of madness for Igor and TMK's arrival to haunt him as well as a deranged creepy clock which Igor imagines in his head during his worst moments.
If there are any questions, I'll gladly answer. I'm still in the process of figuring out the entire story, so I might not know how to answer or even come up with one if it's something I haven't thought about for the story, but I'll try my best. I also have a notepad filled with ideas for the novel that I'll write. For the name of the novel, I was thinking about simply naming it "The Midnight King," but I'd decided maybe I'll finish the entire story first and then come up with a name. Thanks for reading!