Tired out ... after a day of overachieving

Creepy AI "me" with extra thumb, extra leg, a three-fingered hand and a missing pupil. My AI instruction was: Woman with short white pixie-cut hair, wearing warm black clothes lying on a large, black beanbag with a laptop on her lap. She is inside a wooden cabin. There is a mug of tea and a Mars bar next to her.

36. Wednesday 25 February 2026

Well I certainly didn't expect to have finished my first, more general, edit of version 4 today, after only three days working on it. Yay me. It's 18:30 and I have only just closed the file I've been working on. I started work around 07:45. I had a lot of breaks but I otherwise worked on it all day. I'm drained. I hadn't actually thought about how long this initial phase would take so I hadn't thought about the next phase, other than that it's the scene-by-scene edit, which I always find hard work.

This was not a thorough edit, more dealing with obvious points. However, I have finally appreciated that working on the third version of this novel means that I had ironed out more conflicts and weak points than I'd realised. I have far fewer notes about problem areas than any of the books I've written before. I had felt very disheartened while writing version 3, thinking I was taking a sideways step rather than progressing towards my finished version (ie when I'll feel ready to submit to agents, not when I feel it'd be ready for publication). Now, I feel unexpectedly positive that this stage of editing will be starting on a far tighter draft than previous manuscripts of mine.

But I'm too tired to waffle on more.

In other news, it rained almost all day, I loved working in my cabin, particularly slouched on my huge beanbag, last night in the cabin I didn't sleep well and was woken by the sound of US military aircraft flying overhead, which then made me look at Flight Radar for ages. We kept the fire on overnight in the house and I genuinely enjoyed my breaks indoors. I love this house even more when it's warm in winter.