That time of year when you’re assessing things. How much you ate, how much you drank, how fit you feel. Our minds turn inwards as our days become our own – the usual holiday dynamic of expectation followed by excess of excitement followed by morass of introspection.
So I published my first-ever novel in 2025, and it didn’t go at all as I expected. Firstly the process itself was many coloured, finding an editor, working with an editor, assimilating feedback, then your collaboration disappearing into the aether like another project done. I think I realised, for the first time in 2025, that my journey towards writing a book could be done, potentially, just by myself with minimal help, because good help is hard to find. You can’t just turn up and shout an idea from the rooftops and hope you’ll make a connection and be generous with your ideas. Ideas – you know, the ones you claim come easily to you. You’ve got to put them out there and see what lands and where.
This is the big learning I’ve had. I sweated hard over Human Software, and I’m incredibly proud of it. This doesn’t mean it’s flawless, far from it, but at least it has an ebb and a flow and characters that I believe are right for it. So my learning is this: you should always trust your instincts, always, and go harder and deeper into the next project. Leave everything out there on the page.
So this is what I take into 2026. No fear, no plan for social media, no plan for an agent or an editor or anything. Just me versus the page, and a lot of fun and imagination to be had.
It’s free. It’s risk-free. Just do it. Why wouldn’t you?