Many things unrelated to editing or writing (more sourdough and more weather)
- Karina
- Jan 11
- 3 min read
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 detectives (as in my story) need to have some kind of investigative knowledge and insider info. I had thought about giving another character, Daniel (a potential love interest of one of my crime writers, Isfa), a role as a private investigator. But that got a bit out of hand (my way of trying to make it seem at least mildly plausible). So now, Eric is indeed going to be a retired police officer, though I think he may have only been in the local police force for, say, ten years, when he was in his twenties.
This may not sound like a big deal, but I realise there are a lot of conversations and situations that may need to change, even if only slightly. My big dilemma ahead of day one of “the big edit” tomorrow is whether I should actually rewrite the novel. That isn’t quite as dramatic as it sounds because I would steno it alongside what I’ve already written, so I’d hope most of it would be more or less the same. It would mean I could incorporate my amendments with slightly changing Eric. He is already a self-declared crime fiction expert because he’s read so much crime fiction, so he already tries to lead the investigation based on his perceived superior knowledge. I’d want to add a few references to cases he worked on and incorporate the police force into his back story (he’s currently a retired local government worker).
A few days ago, I was lamenting the necessity to remove threads, now I’m struggling with how to add threads. So that’s why I’m increasingly thinking a sort of rewrite might be the way forward. But that seems like an even more overwhelming proposition.
In other news, I might have messed up my sourdough starter. It had been in the pantry, which is almost fridge-cold, sealed in a Kilner jar for six days. I got it out to feed it and thought it smelled a bit too sour and there was a layer of watery liquid on top. I should have Googled. I didn’t. I took some out to treat as a loaf-in-three-days and the rest to treat as a starter that needs reactivating for a loaf-in-four-days. An online search later told me, after it was too late, that I needed to pour off the watery liquid, called hooch, to keep a milder taste, though it also said it could be mixed in for extra "tang". I mixed it in. Anyway, the three-day starter doesn’t look thick enough, but is bubbling a bit. The four-day starter might be okay. I’ll see how it is tomorrow. I might discard the three-day one. Everyone who's tried making their own sourdough goes through this obsessive phase ... just the first few trial and error loaves, right?! I will recover from sourdough obsession, won't I?
Another distraction today was the snow this morning. I fed the birds in more localised areas than usual, clearing a bit of snow in certain places so they could easier get their food. This was a mistake, I have never seen them so rowdy, squabbily (I know, it's not a word and the spelling looks wrong however I write it) and badly behaved! I should have made a snowman but it was grey and dreary. Then it started raining. When I went out this afternoon, the sheet ice was still, just, under the snow, a few centimetres of snow, slush-like wallpaper paste and then the road was like a canal in places where the snow and ice were melting, rain was falling and the water couldn’t soak into the mud because it was still frozen. Fortunately, the weather forecast is above zero.
