Triptych Third Draft Complete

At last, the third draft of The Pantheon Triptych is complete. It's been a long haul – easily the most changes I've made after feedback – but it was well worth the effort.

I learnt so much from the non-linear way I wrote the first draft, particularly in Steffan's section, but in several areas, it was definitely to the detriment of the readability of the story. That had to be fixed, often by shuffling things around and reframing. There was more to it than that though.

There were layers and nuances in the tale that had become partially obscured in the telling. It was especially true in the closing stages of Ona's arc, which I was desperate to fix. That's been the main focus of my changes in these final chapters I've just redrafted, all of which occur after my three main characters have come together.

I'd also removed some unnecessary background to Steffanov's story from Steffan's earlier arc, which had a natural new place in this same phase of the story, and helped me reframe Ona's tale. Very pleased with how it turned out.

There were originally four chapters in this phase, and I expected to add one more in the build-up to the big finale. What I didn't expect until I got there was the realisation that my existing finale didn't actually solve all the problems. I'd glossed over a significant challenge that was worthy of a proper solution in the lead up to establishing a new status quo.

So I ended up adding two new chapters – and an entirely new epilogue:

• Tripartite Unity

• Plan to Succeed

• Prepare to Fail

• Becoming Rurik

• Remaining Rurik

• Pantheon Unity

It means that more than half of that section was entirely new. That's quite something, but it's a significantly more satisfying ending now. The novel also came in just shy of 123,000 words, longer than I expected, but it seems to be the length the story needed. Phew.

So what's next? Well, one final draft. That will be a much simpler process, reading through linearly and looking for errors and inconsistencies my changes have introduced. There's a high risk of that, especially around Steffan's story, and any other new sections.

I'll be resisting the temptation to make any non-essential changes. This draft needs to be kept to the bare minimum. After that's done, I'll make one final read-through just to be sure, and then it'll be ready.

This process will be in parallel with, you know, life. I've a backlog of things, as usual after a major draft. There are a couple of shelves to put up, a wall or two to paint, gardening, housework, and on top of that, my son will be starting to house hunt nearby soon. I'll be his chauffeur.

Not sure how long this will take. I'll tell you when it's over!