Fi Phillips's Blog

Last year I set myself a challenge of reading twenty books in 2025. This year I’ve done the same. That’s twenty books read mainly at bedtime, but also a slew of ebooks that I can chomp my way through on my mobile phone while I’m out and about. And if […]

My pre publisher editing process doesn’t play well with my nerves. I have to quell my enthusiasm to send it off so that I can make sure that first draft is the best it can be.

I finished the first ‘mistake catching’ edit at the weekend. Is it good that the ending of book four made me cry because it’s all so emotional?

Back into it today with the dialogue edit.

I’m editing book four. Well, actually I’m re-reading the entire thing right now. Then I’ll polish it to a shine that I’m happy with before I submit it to my publisher.

The longer I spend in the world of the Haven Chronicles, the more I realise that it doesn’t just belong to me anymore. People like you who read my books will hopefully experience them as I intended, but you’ll also interpret and imagine parts of the storyline in ways I’ll never fully know about.

For me, that’s both a little bit scary and wonderfully exciting.

If you’re reading the series right now, or have read it already, thank you so much for spending time in this world. Book four is on the way.

There are over 90,000 words on my screen and a very messy collection of notes sat beside me. The first draft of book four of the Haven Chronicles is complete.

Of course, typing “The End” doesn’t actually mean the end. Now, I get to read it as a whole, darn the threadbare bits, and make sure the characters sound like themselves.

I’ll be living inside this story for a little while longer.

After battling a rampaging mob of rat, cat, and car sized spiders, assisted by a group of newly freed harpies, I'm exhausted. I desperately need a cup of tea.

Okay, so that wasn't me. It was Steve and co. But writing it felt like a battle. And I still need that cup of tea.

If you enjoy the world-building side of fantasy, my monthly newsletter takes subscribers a little further behind the curtain of the Haven Chronicles.

I share writing progress, bookish chat, and occasional sneak peeks that often don’t appear anywhere else.

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One of the hardest parts of writing a fantasy series is creating a world that is constantly developing as the characters within it learn and change. Power balances shift. Relationships strengthen or fall apart. Beliefs, whether religious, cultural, or about self, change. Sometimes massively and dramatically. The reader’s eye on that world grows and deepens with each new instalment.

In Book Four, Steve is making plans and fighting in adventures that the boy we met in Haven Wakes would simply have run away from. So much has changed, in him, in what he knows about his family, and in the world he finds himself in.

Every fantasy series begins with a small corner of a much larger world. At the start of Haven Wakes, Steve’s life is firmly rooted in the high tech city of Caercester. The rules of his world are stable, understandable, and largely free of the strange forces that shape fantasy stories. […]

You see this is what happens when you care about your characters.

I’m writing an emotional explanation from a young character who we first met in Haven Wakes. I love it when a character’s voice is so easy to write that it practically writes itself. But blimey, this is emotional. I’m getting a bit teary. I may have to get a fresh cup of tea.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how the world of the Haven Chronicles has changed since I first wrote Haven Wakes.

When you begin a series, you only see part of the map. The rest reveals itself slowly. That might be through the politics and culture of the world you’re writing about, the magic systems, the back history of your protagonist and friends, or the consequences of your characters’ choices.

The world contained in book four seems so much more immense and rich now. The characters have grown and learned about themselves. We know more about the different types of magic. The stakes are higher and that world seems to be less forgiving than at the beginning of this journey.

The way that fantasy lets a world grow alongside the people living in it is just one more reason to absolutely adore this genre.