on f**k it novels

so, I’m publishing a novel.

It’s been a sharp learning curve, and certainly a journey, but most surprisingly, it’s been fun. I’m someone who puts words on paper pretty easily, but somewhere in the last five years of my historical romance novel, I got way in my head about it. I’ve spent a lot of time questioning if it’s worth the time and energy, who will even read it, is it even good, am I proud of it and who could be—none of which registered, of course, and simply became a part of the writing process. When I stepped back for a moment, I realized I hadn’t let go in writing something since fanfiction days (which honestly tells you everything you need to know about this work).

I heard this phrase on Tiktok of “f**k it novels”: the easy, checks-all-my-favorite-boxes story that’s just something you want to write, and that’s what this one was. It’s far from the Great American Novel, but I’ve been told it’s a fun time to read, and what more can a gal ask for, that that my readers feel what I feel when writing it?

It’s been weird to think about the fact that I spent five years pouring into a novel that meant a lot to me, and then shelved it at the first sign of discouragement, but then could crank out werewolf-adjacent smut in four months. To write something fun, and have that be enough, and have folks want more of that. It’s just a few weeks till it’s out, and I hope the wider world likes it, but this post is to say ‘write the silly novel’. It could be the best, most healing, step you’ve taken in a while.