Triptych Second Draft Complete!

That was quicker than I feared. The second draft of The Pantheon Triptych is complete.

As I hoped, given that Katsu's and Tomlin's stories had already received a second draft while writing Steffan's chapters, most of it was straightforward. I spotted a couple of easily fixable inconsistencies, which was no great surprise. The non-linear nature of the story was hard to keep straight in my head!

There was also the expected degree of clarification and tightening of language needed. Most of that could be done as part of a careful read through. Only two areas needed significant work.

The worst was the opening chapter. I probably rewrote about 75% of that, largely as the framing was wrong given how the story evolved. I cut one small scene, Steffan with his late father, as it was unnecessary and slotted in much more neatly a few chapters later. I stopped giving so much away, and foreshadowed a few things nicely.

It's still not perfect, but that can be fixed in the third draft. I need an outside opinion for that, and a bit of space so I can attack it fresh. There's a bit too much early exposition, but it'll do for now.

The other significant change was late in Katsu's and Tomlin's threads. I wasn't happy with how their chapters interleaved. One story got too advanced compared to the other, so I moved the closing portion of a Tomlin chapter into the next. Needed a little surgery to make it work, but it's a massive improvement.

The novel now has its own page on my website. There's an updated blurb, and what's approaching the final cover (also seen above). I'll likely tweak it a little. Go take a look.

As an aside, having just checked the blurb, you might find Katsu's surname changed in the third draft. Katsu Kuzara from Kitara is a bit of a mouthful and I'm not sure the initials give an accurate impression of the man...

And that's it. The story currently comes in at a few words under 110,000 words. Feels a little high, but again, I need feedback on that. I've now sent a draft to my son in his role as editor/beta reader/sternest critic.

That gives me at least a couple of weeks' break before considering the third draft, probably more. Plenty of things to be getting on with (like my life). I also need to start looking ahead to what comes next.

I usually have a clearer idea by now what the next novel will be, but nothing's coherent enough yet. Plenty of little ideas, but not quite gelled yet. It'll come.

However, I do intend to write a short story next. It's a somewhat silly idea, based on a misinterpretation of a single word, that then took on a life of its own. It evolved into a background story of a ridiculously complicated fantasy world that could be fun to write.

I'm not intending to do anything with the story other than publish it on my website to make people groan, but it might turn into something more. If I like the world, it could be the perfect setting for a novel. The story could even become one of its chapters. We'll see. One step at a time.

I'll be back when I'm ready to set out on the third draft.