Where to write & edit and how easily the wrong environment can hamper productivity AKA excuses for not getting on with things

Day 3. Saturday 3 January 2026

AI. This doesn't look like me either, and neither do I have one double-finger-tipped finger.

This afternoon, I surprised myself by making a start on what I keep calling “the big edit”. “Start” in a very minimal sense though; I just reread the first four chapters and then felt a bit miserable, knowing it needs work but not being entirely sure how to go about making it into the masterpiece I envisage.

                It’s subzero in Scottish Borders and we’ve had the wood stove going constantly since new year’s eve. This has meant my life has been centred around the fire. I have been enjoying reading, eating, thinking about writing, lying down … but I am not good at writing/editing when I’m not at my desk in my lovely room with a view of trees and hills.

I watched/listened to a conversation between Alexander McCall Smith and Alistair Moffat at Borders Book Festival a couple of years ago, during which they discussed where they wrote. AM said he wrote in the same place, though pointed out that he kind of had to as his research is largely paper-based and he needs access to it at all times. AMC said he could write pretty much anywhere, even in noisy environments. I know that everyone is different and there is no right or wrong, but of the two extremes, I definitely fall into the Alistair Moffat camp of writing not just at home but in a specific place. My desk. This is a long-winded way of saying that, because it’s been so cold and because the fire has been lit and is so lovely and warm, I have not “been able” to work at my desk (which is upstairs and cold, although an oil filled radiator works well). It was quite an achievement for me to read as much as I did on my laptop not at my desk, but I now realise that I will feel a need to start again when I am actually at my desk. So basically, I have done no work today either.

                When I start the big edit, I will be using Eclipse software, which is the editing software most stenographers in the UK use. It is a lot quicker and easier to use than Word and there are hyper keys, which allow certain keys to do things that would take a few hits to edit in, say, Word. The home keys for the right hand on a normal keyboard are j (one word left), k (one line down), i (one line up) and l (one word right). Hitting "a" capitalises and uncapitalises the first letter of a word. There are a lot of other commands. That said, I know there are people who can use Word more efficiently than me for editing, but Eclipse, for me, is amazing. I write myself notes (“ctrl a” brings up a box into which I can write myself a note or just leave a little marker. If I then press “t” I can continue down the document, stopping at all my notes, or carets as we call them). Stenography, like most professions, has its own language, which means “civilians” often try to excuse themselves if a group of us get together to talk shop.

                Now that I have kind of mentioned how I edit, I suppose that means I could … should … would actually kind of like to start editing tomorrow. At my desk with the heater on.

Today’s photo is of some frozen snow crystals (or maybe frost or just frozen water). We only have a dusting of snow but the cold is because it’s constantly below zero, with a forecast below zero into next week, with a huge amount of snow, ice and wind forecast for Friday. I love snow and snowflakes, and maybe all the more so for having just finished reading The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper.