There's nothing like a clipboard to make me feel self-important
- Karina
- Jan 9
- 3 min read
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 impossible undertaking. I’m not looking at that level of detail right now, though I have highlighted some words I don’t think are quite right, but I have read every sentence and briefly thought about it. I largely wrote on a clipboard. I'm sure that feeling self-important with a clipboard made me more diligent and efficient. However, it’s a lot quicker to read your own writing than it is to read someone else’s novel for the first time. Although it takes concentration, at times I really enjoy doing this kind of detailed scrutiny. But I know the hard work is yet to come, actually thinking of how to implement the changes and unravel or add in threads of ideas or themes. I’m going to have a break from it over the weekend and plan to start the long process of a thorough edit from Monday.
The task ahead makes me feel positive. It is good to be progressing this book and getting on with it. However, it also currently feels almost impossible. It’s the unthreading of events and details that most overwhelms me. I also have a few key scenes or chapters that need a complete rewrite or, in a couple of cases, writing from scratch.
Unfortunately, I didn’t think to do this from the start of this read-through but maybe halfway through, I wrote out questions I know need answering. Some are fairly minor, such as to ascertain when one character, Eric, is given a smartphone and when he starts using it. It may not sound at all important, but it is and it needs to be accurate. There are a few things that will require more thought but less unpicking, for example, I’ve finally thought of a way to “reveal” what actually happened. I need to write that, first making sure I have a watertight story. There are backstories involved to write that and some are not clear. That will require quite a lot of adding, altering, weaving in and clarity.
It helps me to think of it as fifty chapters, fifty work units. I also know that quite a few chapters could and probably should be treated like individual stories in the sense that I need to make the end of quite a few chapters more interesting, mini cliffhangers. It’s not a particularly exciting story, nor did I intend it to be; it’s mainly about the characters and their approach to the death of one of their classmates.
I feel I should apologise for this being a particularly dull and uninspired post. I have no good reason for that, other than being subjected to The Scorpions (I don't like any music while I'm writing). I was also disturbed this afternoon (in an interesting way) by two people coming to the house when their vehicle grounded on some ice up the forest track behind us and they were waiting for a friend to help them. They were very nice and we invited them in for peppermint tea and hot chocolate. One had been silent for four years, the other killed his pet goat and made a curry. I love living in the middle of nowhere, you meet such wonderful characters.
Today's photograph is of the first bunch of daffodils I've bought this year and which are opening up. I love them, especially in January when there is snow and ice around and the bright yellow of daffodils outdoors seems an impossibly long time in the future.
