Writing

I think the problem with my sourdough is that it's over-proofed. I think the problem with my novel is that I'm trying to put in too much detail. My bread and writing life seem to be about excess. That was a lame tie-in, but kind of reflects a slightly disappointing day.

Thursdays seem to be my peak performance days. As with last Thursday, I totally overachieved today. I wrote/edited five chapters. It’s amazing how good it feels to have a productive writing day. I wouldn’t have had time or inclination to snack had I not tidied the snack drawer in a break. Big mistake. I wanted to empty a few packets and storage jars, so ate the contents. I then rediscovered Squashies and ate a load of them.

Today, I edited two chapters and wrote a third, a chapter about a party that I’d sort of accidentally forgotten to write in version 2. It felt like a fairly productive day and I think I found a way to write about the party without describing the whole thing. The crime writing lesson before the party included discussion on using one significant event to make whatever point you want to make about, say, a whole day. So I wrote about one thing out of the ordinary that happened to

I eventually got into the swing of things today, but I don’t feel like I worked well. I got myself a bit mixed up because I realised I had some timescale errors within the chapters I wrote on Friday. I’m now on chapter 28 of version 2, which is chapter 26 of this version. That does mean that I’m only two chapters off reaching my target for this week, but I don’t feel like I’ve done that much as a lot of today's editing was just altering copy and pastes. It's more satisfying r

Today did not go at all to plan. I reread class 3 with a view to getting back in the zone to then start editing/rewriting the chapter that is later in time connected to class 3. However, that is where my edit ended today. I am not impressed with myself, in the slightest.

My friend Carla and her daughter Imogen are currently on the M6 heading north. The three of us are having a sleepover in the cabin that Carla helped me build. As is often the case when I have a hard finish for some writing, I kind of overachieved today. Well, I say that but for (fictional) class #2 I had to rewrite and change quite a lot, but for class #3, which I was doing today, it was more of an edit. Hurrah. It was good to have a more positive day in terms of feeling I’d

I was at my desk and editing at 07:00 this morning. All was going well for the first twenty or so minutes. Then I had a stomach ache and, trying not to overshare, ended up back and forth to the bathroom for half an hour. So that was annoying. The writing resumed, all fine, then mid-afternoon, I somehow cut my middle finger just under the cuticle. I wrapped some kitchen towel around it, dabbed the blood and resumed stenoing. Then my finger slipped. Strange, I thought. I’d bled

AI instruction: Woman with white, pixie-cut hair and large, translucent green glasses wearing a multicoloured woollen hat and a black coat and black jogging bottoms, walking along a road through a valley in winter (river, trees, grass). She is carrying a white plastic bin bag and litter pincers 19. Wednesday 21 January 2026 I had such good intentions for today. I thought I’d get straight to it, write and edit loads and be finished so I could read and do a few jobs around the

I was expecting to feel bad for not having written every day, but I’m okay with it, and rightly so; I need a break. That said, I have struggled to get back into my writing and editing today, and I certainly don’t think that what I wrote today is my best work. I’ve realised that to attempt the ten chapters I’d like to write this week, seeing as I barely did anything on Saturday and took Sunday and Monday off while I stayed in Edinburgh, I’d need to write two chapters on two da

17. Saturday 17 January 2026 My work-in-progress novel is called Crime Writing for Beginners , which is the name of a six-week course. When one of the six students dies in a perceived accident at home, the remaining five decide not to waste an opportunity to put their investigative skills to the test so treat his death as a murder. The idea is that the reader knows almost as much as them because almost all knowledge they have of the victim is from the unconventional exercises

My main aim for today’s editing was to rewrite one version of events of the death of one of the members of the Crime Writing for Beginners course. I wrote it once, rewrote it, tried to make it work and failed; today’s plan was to rewrite it and make it work.

15. Wednesday 15 January 2026 Does it count as having rewritten two chapters that I wrote chapter 8 and deleted chapter 9? Probably not, but I have written a few paragraphs of chapter 9, which was chapter 10 and chapter 10 is double figures so sounds like a leap in progress. What's wrong with my memory? I think I might have actually written two-maybe-three chapters. I think I started with chapter 7. Go me, if I did! Chapter 9, which was 10, requires a proper r

I didn’t rewrite as much as I hoped today, but I did work through some problem areas in the four chapters I wrote yesterday, so I feel kind of okay about today’s progress.

Surely not? I’m trying to think how many chapters I worked on today. Three? No, can’t have been. I think it actually was. I can’t check – well, I could but it would require my getting up off the sofa to go upstairs to fetch a physical hardware key and that’s just not going to happen. I’m thinking three though. I'm mildly impressed with myself.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading a novel called There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura and translated by Polly Barton, mainly for one section, where the main character’s job is to watch covert footage of a writer. The narrator is amazed how much time he spends sitting at his desk and/or not writing. I would have been horrified to think of someone watching my attempts at writing today. I first sat at my desk at around 08:30. I turned my desktop PC, monitor, keyboar

AI instruction: Woman with pixie-cut white hair and thick black glasses, lying on a sofa with a notepad looking shocked 11. Sunday 11 January 2026 I wasn’t planning to do any editing today, and I didn’t, but I did write a few notes. The shock element of the AI picture is kind of what happened when I had an idea. I spoke to Chris, who came up with a suggestion about making my annoying know-it-all character, Eric, into a retired police officer. He, Chris, thinks amateur detecti

AI instruction: woman wearing black coat and black jeans with multi-coloured hat, short white hair, walking along road through valley with river, ice, hills, trees I didn't do any editing, didn't even open my manuscript. But I tidied my study and desk ready for Monday. However, I finally finish reading Portrait of a Murderer by Anne Meredith (first published in 1933). I enjoyed it, a locked room crime fiction story, but I lost interest a bit. I met someone once who said they

AI instruction for a sketch (hence, erm, the scribbles at the top?!): woman with white pixie-cut hair and thick black glasses, wearing grey jumper handwriting on a clipboard at a desk overlooking trees 9. 9 January 2026 I’ve impressed myself by finishing the final ten chapters of read-through and highlighting areas to work on. When I first started editing my manuscripts more thoroughly (books four, five and six), the thought of scrutinising every word seemed like an impossibl

8. 8 January 2026 Instruction to AI: Woman with white, pixie-cut hair and a black jumper talking to a friend (black bobbed hair) via laptop video call with a backdrop of snow and hills (I don't know where to begin with how much is wrong with this illustration, though cool that I have a laptop that doesn't need a table and unfortunate to be right handed but have two left hands) For the past few years, my friend Narissa and I have had regular Zoom (sometimes in-person) chats to

Instructions to AI (not verbatim): woman with white pixie-cut hair, thick black glasses, black jumper sitting at a desk looking out the window at trees and hills while writing [I definitely did not request her right hand to be at the end of her left arm! Or to have a neck that long and thin and to be looking in a strange directions] 7. Wednesday 7 January 2026 Not only did I copy, format and print out the remaining 30 chapters ready to edit, I baked my first ever loaf of sour