The Gods in Haven: Second Draft Complete

Well, that's the second draft of The Gods in Haven complete in about twenty days. A little faster than I expected, but there were extenuating circumstances.

I concentrated first on a few outstanding jobs around the house and garden. With that done, I thought I'd get out and about a bit, climb up to the West Kennet Long Barrow again, that sort of thing – except I developed an annoying ear infection. Not bad, but just enough to make me dizzy and not want to walk too far.

Oh well, I thought. I may as well sit down and take a quick look at the opening of the novel. The edits proved annoyingly addictive. Once I started, I didn't want to stop – it was surprisingly good fun!

Of course, it also turned extremely hot. Another excuse to sit in front of my computer and not move. Didn't take much by then.

Most of the work was in the opening third of the story, mainly fixing characterisations that hadn't fully settled down. That often involved tweaking their dialog to establish their personalities better, rather than any change to the narrative. I did insert one extra small scene to support that, and also seeded a few red herrings here and there. Fun!

Along the way, I renamed some of the five parts of the novel:

• Source of Power

• Signs of Growth

• Tides of History

• Bounds of Influence

• Winds of Change

Overall, the book has increased from 102,000 words in the first draft to 106,600. That'll do for now.

I've now sent the second draft off to my son/editor/beta reader/critic for his annoyingly expert comment. I'll need the break to think about changes I might want to make in the third draft, which is when the bigger changes usually come. Currently I've nothing on my list. That's unusual. I must be missing something!

In the meantime, as well as having a life, I'll be looking ahead to what comes next. I have a couple of ideas, but I'm starting to get intrigued at writing a sequel to this novel. I like the world and its characters, and really enjoyed the slightly different writing process that suited this novel well.

I'd not considered it until writing the last chapter in the first draft, which, while setting up the new interim status quo, accidentally opened up the possibility. I leant into that on the second draft and explicitly expanded this. It might have legs.

I'm not totally sold on the idea, however. It has many intriguing aspects and potential new alliances, but it doesn't yet have a plot. I'll need a new MacGuffin too. If it happens, it'll be set about a decade later.

I might start off in the same way as the first novel, by writing a few short stories set in the world. They could be things I reuse in the story, or more likely, be set in the intervening period. That'll ensure the new reality at the start of the sequel is properly grounded.

We'll see. I'll be back with news once I'm ready to set out on the third draft.