I Didn't Know Who My Main Character Was Until After I Published My Novel

Yuzuko Shikumi has always been a mysterious character to me. Her name written in Japanese is 仕組み 柚子 (ユズコ). 仕組み (Shikumi) translates to structure. 柚子 (Yuzuko) can be seen as a translation of citrus child. I picked the name Yuzuko after reading the Citrus manga about two stepsisters who engage in a romantic relationship. The main character of that show is confidently called Yuzu.

I picked her surname to represent the opposite of destruction, which is the main theme in my novel. Citrus fruits like lemons can also be sweet and bitter. She’s the character I feel I put the most thought in with the name. Some of the characters names are added in for some laughs like Lavender Knickers and Christian Strippers.

She wasn’t originally the main character during the first draft. Bobby Fishman was, Game of Mass Destruction could have been seen as a sequel to my novella, Fishman. She was always going to be the main antagonist‘s granddaughter. The old backstory I had planned for her was that she was going to be a supporting character. She’d be one of those characters that appear to be brutal at first, but when you get to know her, she’s gentle.

The backstory I planned out for her is that she lives in an alternate futuristic Japan where robots and humans can live together. She thinks her country is great, and she doesn’t mind working endless hours at work, school or home just to keep everybody happy. Yuzuko is a person who avoids confrontation.

Being nominated to play a game about killing robots when your family is famous for protecting their rights is confrontation, Yuzuko struggles to cope with.

In this futuristic Japan Yuzuko lives in, the population dropped so low that the Government forced older students to get married and have children to boost their population. Everyone likes Yuzuko because she does everything that society wants her to do. Her girlfriend, Sakura, is not that lucky. Sakura was ridiculed by peers for having a miscarriage and also giving away one of her kids. I didn’t fit all of this into the actual novel, but it’s in a prequel WIP.

Yuzuko has one son through her husband. Her husband committed suicide during Yuzuko’s affair with Sakura. To this day, Yuzuko still blames herself for her husband’s death and visits his grave every morning. I’ve also toyed around the idea of Aron being Yuzuko’s twin. They both have the same father and the same birthday.

Without a doubt, Yuzuko’s greatest flaw is her inability to rest. Her greatest strength is her loyalty and will she will fight anybody who disagrees with her. She is a great defender of her grandfather, (Professor Denki) who founded a robotic welfare company. If Professor Denki was a real person, he’d get a lot of backlash for his robot empire.

If you asked me who the main character of my book was back when I published it, I would struggle with the answer. Now if you ask me, I would say that Yuzuko Shikumi is a woman who’s lived a happy life, but one filled with tragedy and betrayal.

Yuzuko tries so hard to be a good person, she forgets to care about her own well being. If I did write a sequel for Game of Mass Destruction, Yuzuko's mother would play a central part. I would try and explain why Yuzuko's mother did what she did and what she hoped to achieve. She would also expose both her parents and her relatives for their questionable motifs and actions. One thing that is stuck in my mind is how Yuzuko's mother was put in a brutal conservatorship by Professor Denki in an attempt to keep her apart from her mother.

Game of Mass Destruction was planned to be a stand-alone novel. But now, every day I feel drawn to write a sequel and finish off the prequel I wrote where Yuzuko and Sakura are at school.

Thanks for reading my article. If you’re interested in my dystopian sci-fi thriller, the Amazon UK link is above. You can also check the book’s website out for other places where you can buy the book.