Torrential rain, bleeding finger & writing progress

AI instruction: Woman with white, pixie-cut hair, wearing a fluorescent yellow waterproof workers' jacket, walking in torrential rain across a wooden bridge over a fast-flowing river, pulling a large green wheelie bin

20. Thursday 22 January 2026

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 all over six of the keys on my steno machine. Minimal procrastination but double delays beyond my control!

                That said, I wrote three chapters for version 3, one of which is actually a future chapter, meaning I still have two chapters to write to get to the point where my version 2 chapter 20 ends. However, that extra chapter obviously counts as a bonus for next week’s target of reaching the version 2 chapter 30.

                I don’t know whether it’s good or bad, but I’m thinking good, but I am largely rewriting at the moment and I have changed quite a lot with the two pre-20 chapters I completed today. It’s hard to explain why without explaining the story in great detail, but as soon as I change what’s in a certain lesson (I’m on lesson 2 of 6), I have to alter the chapters where the group is going through evidence from each lesson. I’m currently writing the post-death investigation chapters for class 2 and as I added to the class 2 content while editing it, version 2 post-class 2 chapters aren't quite right. I like to think this paragraph isn't a reflection of how confusing my novel is.

In other news, seeing as I was productive with the writing today, I did chores in my breaks. I am currently working my way through a utility room tidy-up ahead of Carla and Imogen staying at the weekend. The utility room is a mess of boxes of logs, buckets of coal and the surfaces are piled up with stuff. I tend to pile up stuff when a room is particularly messy; I lost control of the utility room once we started using the multi-fuel burner.

                It rained all day and I only went out to feed the birds (got very wet) and take the wheelie bin out for tomorrow’s rubbish collection (got even wetter than before). It was the kind of day where I appreciated feeling justified in not feeling guilty for not going for a walk.