Major Novel Changes
It’s been a little while since my last writing update. That’s mainly because there’s not been a lot in the way of updates recently with both manuscripts out with beta readers… until the last few days, that is. And that’s not to say I’ve been just twiddling my thumbs while I’ve been waiting for people to finish reading my stories. I have been working on the plan for the rest of the Augment Saga beyond this first part, but there’s only so much that can be done while there’s still uncertainty about how the story will end up looking when it’s finished.
And, it turns out, it’s a good thing that I didn’t plan too far ahead because, in the last few days I’ve had a few more of my beta readers come back to me - both for the main novel, and for the novella - and the feedback has been very in-depth but valuable. It has also meant that I’m going to be making some pretty major changes to the structure of From the Grave of the Gods.
I’m not entirely sure what that will look like at the moment, because I’ve only just started implementing the feedback and thinking around how to manage some of the more challenging things. At any rate, it’s going to be a really big job and it’s likely to take a while to do. Some of these changes will also affect the story of The Re-Emergence in a minor way, but I’m going to be focusing my attention on the main novel for the time being, to make sure there’s nothing else that will end up affecting the novella. I wouldn’t want to mess up the story’s continuity on the first go!
So what do these changes involve?
Primarily, these are structural changes to what I’ve already got written. I’m not re-writing it or anything; it’s more about shoring up what’s there, fleshing it out, making sure I don’t rush through important ideas, and making sure the big events land with the weight they deserve. I’m going to be adding tons of new content as well, such as new subplots that give a better insight into how the events of the front-and-centre plot lines affect the wider world. It is also growing ever more likely that I’ll be splitting this book into two - not fully decided on this one yet, but there is a natural break-point that would work very well. I certainly wasn’t expecting to be considering it, but if the story comes out all the better for it, then it’s a good change to make. I also realised that by splitting this story into two books, the main arc will eventually form a neat trilogy within the wider Saga. I’ll probably also have to change the synopsis for the book, but there’s plenty of time to figure that out.
What’s the bottom line?
All of this is really just to say that I haven’t given up. I’m still hard at work on both The Re-Emergence and From the Grave of the Gods, but it all might take a little longer than I personally expected. The “Coming Soon” should therefore be taken in the Frontier Developments sense (if you know, you know), rather than anything imminent.
My updates on the blog may also become a little more ad hoc, as sometimes - like now - there’ll be a bunch of things happening all at once that are fairly significant, and equally there will be times - like in the last few weeks - when there’s not a lot going on.
The ebb and flow of writing.
