Daynote - Fri 8 May 2026
A day of cutting words.
Not my desk, above (I don't really use sticky notes), but visually representative of the Desk Vibe for today, which is editing.
I did get out for a walk, buying a copy of a UK newspaper for a pal so they could have a paper copy of a really good review. If you're a writer, I highly recommend a physical scrapbook for such things - it's good to be able to look back and have these physical reminders of incredible days.
ON DECK: Today is a Writing Friday, at home, and I'm really excited, because it's my first ever Full Editing Day. I've done days where I edited before, of course, but they were weird, panicky, exceptional days (as in, exceptions to the rule, not exceptional editing days), usually before a deadline.
This is my first regular Writing Friday (since going part-time in January) where the primary (and only) objective is to get a bunch of editing done, and I'm very excited for both how much I'll be able to do and also how much data this will give me for my overall work planning.
TOOLS AND PROCESS: What do I mean by work planning? Well, here's the thing. Editing is a weird thing that I find to be quite distinct, behaviourally, from drafting. I've written enough novels now that I kinda know, day by day, week by week, how many words I can pile up in a given time period. And while I might get a bit frustrated when I reach the end of a 90 minute weekday writing period, I also know I'll be able to pick up the thread pretty happily the next day.
Editing is different. When I'm editing, I'm holding basically an entire book in my head; character arcs, things I want to emphasise, stuff I want to cut, continuity (oh lord the continuity), locations, backstory, flashbacks, motivations, all of it. And when my timer goes off at the end of a usual workday session, I always sigh very loudly, because that whole thing kind of goes 'pop' and I know I'll need to spend some time getting back into the 'whole book' headspace the following day. It makes progress feel very slow and fragmented.
So I'm super curious what a dedicated day feels like, how my working velocity will vary over the course of the day and if it will give me a good sense of how quickly I might be able to get through an edit, now that I have this extra time available. Tune in on Monday to find out!
LISTENING: Another cracking episode of the Bloody Scotland Podcast, this time with John Connolly and Zoë Rankin. I've said before I love this paired structure and every episode proves why.
WATCHING: Well, PROJECT HAIL MARY was fantastic, and I'm very glad that I caught it at the cinema. A note-perfect adaptation (which I think actually deepened many of the emotional beats through excellent dialogue and stellar acting), didn't shy away from the bravest narrative choice of the book and was absolutely stunning to look at.
READING: A tiny bit of CHILDREN OF STRIFE by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon) before falling asleep last night. Still wild. Hopefully a bit more of this today, depending on how the editing goes.
LINK: I enjoyed this interview with The Honest Editor and Katie Clapham, an author who also runs an independent bookshop.
UP NEXT: Editing editing editing. Then this weekend I expect I'll be trimming hedges again, if the rain holds off. I'm girding my loins for next week, when I have two in-person evening events and a podcast interview to do, as well as prepping for an event I'm chairing the following week.
Onward!