i really DO want world peace!

So after A Certain Amount of Time cooking up this novel idea, my problem right now is that it's too damn big. Not just in the sense of long -- I think I'm attacking it like a television show, as if I think I'm going to have to keep it running for eight years, and I want to make sure there's plenty of room for new stories to come along. (Heh, now that I think about it, it's not entirely *un*like The X-Files. Only with intrigue instead of conspiracy, and instead of the FBI -- barbarians. Look, just take my word for it.)

After watching it not work and not work and not work for weeks now, I'm trying to deconstruct and diagnose, and here's my problem, I think. If Chekoi remains the main character (and since I generate characters in batches, it's not always a guarantee that the one I was originally viewing as the protagonist will stay in that spot), that character goal thing that's supposed to drive the plot forward? It's just too *much.* It's very true to the way people think and feel -- he wants to change the world, and lord knows plenty of people want to do that, at one time or another in their lives -- but it's not a *story.* I have this whole infrastructure of race and culture conflict, and where he fits into it, and his political sympathies and the complications thereof. But it's not a story.

I dunno, I'm fishing, and I'm not even sure what for. What do you DO if you want to save the world? (The fact that I don't know the answer to this question might be indicative of bigger problems than just this novel, but let's not focus on that right now.)