December 2025

Hello!
 
Welcome to my semi-regular update with all my writing, reading and editing news. If you'd prefer to get these posts in your inbox, you can subscribe via my Substack here.
 
It’s been a busy few months here, which is why I’ve ended up posting this a bit later than usual. We went up to Barra in the Outer Hebrides for a couple of weeks at the end of the summer, which was lovely apart from the weather. Our tent did not survive the trip. But despite the sleepless nights and the broken tent poles and the endless, endless wind and rain, we had a brilliant time! Our toddler was overjoyed to rampage around lots of big empty beaches and was particularly proud of himself for dragging around a piece of seaweed bigger than he was. My husband and I were overjoyed to discover the cake honesty boxes, featuring the best rocky road I have ever had in my life. Worth the journey north for that alone.

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Also worth the journey to Barra for an incredible sighting of the Northern Lights!

Anyway, once I dragged myself away from eating rocky road and made it back to my desk, I busied myself with a big fantasy developmental edit and a few coaching slots. The topic of pacing has come up in nearly every conversation I’ve had with writers over the last few weeks. With newer writers, this has often involved showing how to slow events down. This can be particularly necessary at the start of a story, when there’s a tendency to want to cram in lots of events to make your story feel big and busy and exciting. In actuality, readers want to connect to a character, and it’s tricky to build that connection when we’re rushing through events and unable to experience each one properly.
 
Conversely, the fantasy novel I was doing a developmental edit on had several points where the pacing could be tightened up. There were a few places in the novel where multiple paragraphs discussed minor details about village life, which were interesting but not really essential to the overall plot. Whilst every detail in a novel certainly doesn’t need to be relevant to the overall plot (the fun, surely, of writing a novel rather than a short story where everything needs to be so much more precise and intentional), it’s worth considering whether you’re asking the reader to spend too long in mundane details, and whether you can convey the same key info/mood/vibes in a more concise way.
 
If you’re struggling with pacing, try re-reading your favourite novel and looking specifically for places where the author has manipulated the pacing. Which moments are slowed down, so it takes longer to read them than the moment would have actually taken, and how does the author do this? Which moments are skipped over using narrative summary? How would your reading experience feel if these moments were played out instead? (You can also book a coaching slot if you want to chat about pacing in your own writing!)

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In editing news

​After the fantasy developmental edit, I worked on a copy edit of a long fantasy novel. This edit was for an author I’ve worked with before; it’s always really lovely to return to a world and characters I already know and see what they’ve been getting up to.
 
In between bigger edits, I’ve fitted in some shorter coaching jobs and some short story edits.

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​In writing news

Lots of short story writing and editing and editing and writing and editing and editing and… You get the picture.
 
My toddler has finally, at twenty months old, started going to sleep in less than three hours every night, so I’ve been enjoying slotting in an hour or two of writing in the evenings. It’s been lovely to sink back into the cosy routines of winter: soft lighting, lots of reading time, and lots of time for stories to meander around my mind.

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In reading news

I’ve read so many excellent books since my last update that I’m not quite sure where to start! What a treat it is when you get a run of excellent reads in a row. Some particular highlights have been:

• The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow. I was just starting this in my last update, and am thrilled to report that this was even better than I’d hoped. Alix’s stories always hit just right for me, but I really felt her writing had stepped up a level in this novel. Strongly recommend.
• On the Calculation of Volume by Solvej Balle. I know everyone read this when it was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and I am probably the last to the party, but I really thought this was incredible. It is nothing about maths or physics at all (much to my husband’s disappointment); it’s about a woman who wakes up one morning to find herself suddenly trapped in time, living in the same day again and again. Stunning, stunning writing. And thinking back to it now has been a good reminder that I need to track down the next instalment…
• Lost in the Garden by Adam S. Leslie. A folk horror fever dream. I became absolutely obsessed with this and frantically messaged everyone I knew who had read it. Did not entirely understand it, did not care. I really loved how confident the story felt and the author’s refusal to exactly what had happened.
• The Rain Heron by Robbie Arnott. A really gorgeous story about connection and community and the intersection of myths and reality.

I always really love looking back over what I’ve read over the last couple of months when I’m writing this. Aren’t books GREAT.
 

Lost in the Garden by Adam S Leslie, guarded by a cat.

I hope autumn/winter has swept some good books and/or words your way. As ever, if you want to drop me a line about anything I've said here or want to recommend me a book, I'd love to hear from you. (And if you’re interested in booking in an edit or some coaching, start here then drop me a message!)