Hey man, thanks for reaching out but first, hear me out. I’m not a grand writer or anything like that so I’m about as amateur as we can get, but I can give you a few ideas.
You already have an idea on what you wanna write, if you sit down and can think of how it’s gonna go, step by step, that’ll take the fun out of it. Come up with a few ideas that are stretched out from each other timeline wise in the story and either freestyle write your way to those ideas, or write the most logical ways you can make those ideas happen within the story. (Like in my one chapter with the 117th, I wrote how Johnson launches himself into space while a ship explodes behind him halo 2 style. I had that idea for almost a year before I could write anything that could make sense leading up to it. That’s including adding chapters and ideas I had before that one.)
Make sure you’re interested and invested into your story, but don’t over do it. Make sure you take a healthy break between writing sessions in order to get the most enjoyment out of it. You don’t wanna work on it too much to the point you either get writers block or get sick of the story as a whole. Worst case get sick of writing overall.
Lastly, I’d say not to worry too much about popularity. If you like what you wrote, then that’s good enough. But it does admittedly help. Hell half the reason I write is because people like you either comment or reach out to talk. (Thanks for that by the way)
I hope these do help, I’ll have to check out your story here soon. Until then I’ll see you later man/