Editing Prep, Disappointment & Frozen River Thinking Spot

AI of woman in black with white pixie-cut hair walking alongside frozen river. (I did all that, but neither me nor the river looked like this)

4. Sunday 4 January 2026

I converted the first eight of fifty chapters into Word (from my steno software, Eclipse) and printed them. I read through chapter one, marking anything that sounds a bit awkward or cringe, where there are errors or where words, a sentence or, more alarmingly, a paragraph doesn’t work for whatever reason.

                Again, I wasn’t at my desk when it came to reading and I am sure I could have done more. I’m definitely starting the year off by underachieving. Which obviously means I’ll slowly up productivity levels and congratulate myself on how well I’m overachieving, maybe by the latter half of January. I feel there’s hope for me, particularly as I kind of enjoyed making scribbles and underlining and other marks with my erasable purple pen. There is something very satisfying about having “the right pen” for a job, coupled with the fact I much prefer editing (and reading) on paper rather than screen.

                Although I have written six novels, the first one (in my twenties) was barely edited. The second, in my thirties, was probably far better but I also didn’t really edit that one either. I then totally overachieved in my forties and wrote and edited far more appropriately. By book five, Infinite Possibilities, I felt I’d figured out how to write and how to edit, by which I mean for me. I spent a lot of time studying and reading about writing and also reading a lot of fiction related to whatever I was writing at the time. Book 4, for example, was partly set in Japan (where I lived from 1998 to 2000 and when I set most of that novel, The Agency for Unusual Placements) and I read a lot of Japanese fiction around the time of writing. I think it helped me with reminders of Japan and a certain kind of – well, I call it “Japan weird”, which to me is an entirely positive aspect of most translated Japanese fiction that I’ve read. There is always an element of the weird, and my novel also had a surreal theme.

               I’m still reading crime fiction as research for Crime Writing for Beginners, paying close attention to how published novels are written and, for at least the first few chapters, what information is shared with the reader. My first chapter introduces the seven main characters (Marie, the crime writing tutor, along with the six amateur crime writers). I think my chapter one is kind of okay for content, but it needs a lot of tightening up.

                It’s been astonishingly interesting reading the beginnings of other novels. I’ve written very brief notes on them, listing what I learn that I figure will be relevant later. For some books, it’s apparent the place is particularly important (eg In Cold Blood by Truman Capote). Obviously characters are important. Sometimes the (main or only) murder occurs straight away, sometimes a lot later (eg Artists in Crime by Ngaio Marsh). I’m not going to mention names but there are some books that disappoint me. The purpose of each chapter is not clear, I’m too annoyed by sloppy writing to engage with the characters … I imagine every single aspiring writer tells anyone who’ll listen how many dreadful plots and poor writing there is and how did they get published. I know it’s not as straightforward as it seems though, and agents and publishers know what sells and what they want. But sometimes, it’s difficult not to feel disappointed … about so many things actually!

                So, tomorrow, Monday, I’m planning to be back at my desk. I’ve set myself a goal two chapters a day but I know I can do more than that. I would really like to have this edit and subsequent edits done by the end of February but that depends on a vast array of factors, some of which are way out of my control. After that, something to dread, submitting to agents. Yet again.

We don’t have much snow in Scottish Borders but it’s been below zero for the past few days and every day gets a bit deeper into subzero and running water is freezing more and more each day. I needed to have a walk and to talk myself into getting on with the edit (I did at least do one chapter?!). This photo is of “my” riverbed. It’s just down the road and I often go there, to walk, sit, skim pebbles, write, eat; I can’t imagine ever seeing anyone else down there. It’s one of my favourite places. I love the way the river has frozen in different shapes, I assume from how fast the water flows along different parts of the rocky riverbed.

Ice on Tima Water, Scottish Borders. 4 January 2026