Stop thinking, start doing

in pursuit of 2026 goals: being less self-centred and perhaps more of a bitch and also the algorithm can do one

Happy New Year, from the middle of January!

I wanted to do some intentions for this year, but it instantly became kind of funny and also stupid to write because they were exactly the same as everyone else’s. Go on my phone less, is it? Wow!

So instead of that, which I assume we’re all setting as a goal and then failing at because January sucks and sometimes you need a bit of mindless phone usage and Heated Rivalry content injected into your prefrontal cortex — here’s another intention.

This one is more interesting and may apply if you’re someone who has social media, feels bad about using it, worries about doing it properly, and/or hates how much sway the fucking algorithm has over your mental state.¹

Less time navel gazing, more time doing

My 2026 intention was borne of a realisation, as I once again struggled to think of what, if anything, I should be posting in December and January and beyond given I have a book coming out in May and no one knows about it: good lord I spend a lot of time wondering about how to present myself online. Does everyone shoved into a content creator role do this???

It’s particularly ridiculous, given how little time I spend presenting myself online. It’s also, so so so so so so boring. Oh my god, it’s so fucking boring.

In fairness, a lot of this navel gazing is a result of the social media nightmare we’re all locked into. Being an author or creative in this period of history means you need some sort of online presence.² And honestly, having to create this presence is a breeding ground for self-obsession.

It’s hard trying to be a brand when you’re just some guy

There’s so much genuinely useful marketing advice out there, and most of the best stuff is around finding your audience. You identify things about yourself and what you do that are specific and niche and marketable, and then you identify your audience and what they want to see, and then you focus what you’re posting to meet that interest and need. You find your personal brand.

That’s fine and everything. But my problem is that I’m not interested in posting about these things. I’ve always struggled with genre, in the way I struggle with categories in general — is this the bisexual experience? Bisexuals, sound off in the comments.

For example, books. I don’t understand the approach of only reading romance or only reading crime or only reading literary fiction, because I’ll read any book (not a brag, or only a brag for absolute nerds, i.e. probably all of you reading this — hi, love ya).

It’s really hard to force a category onto the kind of books I love most, which can be succintly summed up as ‘funny, life-affirming, thought-provoking, perhaps featuring yearning or stupid hilarious character dynamics or highly niche settings, perhaps also informative or comforting or mind-expanding or all of the above’.

The way my books have been pitched to readers therefore doesn’t feel reflective of the way I think about them, because my kind of books don’t fit into any one particular genre.

This makes it really hard to create a niche online, because real life doesn’t fit into a niche. Am I banging my head against a wall here? We’re all thinking this all the time, right?

I technically write romcoms, according to the genre they’re pitched as, but I don’t only read romance, so I don’t want to have the kind of online presence that suggests that’s the case. Two competing factors:

• I hate the snobbery around romance and it pisses me off every day, so this makes me want to post about it more.

• I don’t want to zoom too far in the other direction and pretend that books in other genres don’t also have value. It doesn’t have to be a romance for me to be interested.

It’s hard to talk about this with any nuance in a context where our attention spans are 0.5 seconds long and people want clickable, digestible content that will feed the endless scroll. I’m not made to create that kind of content, and I think that’s fine, actually. Most of us aren’t.

So it’s time to opt out. In 2026, my goal is to think less and do more.

You can show not tell, and you can do this anytime! You’re doing it right now, probably

My intention is to let go of any opinion of or indeed interest in ‘what I am like as a person’ or a brand or an author, and focus on actually doing things that demonstrate what kind of person you are. Or to put it in meme form:

out: thinking about who you are

in: doing things that show who you are

In the biz we call this show don’t tell, and unfortunately it applies to real life as well.

Maybe I’ll post about it, maybe not. But I’m going to commit to only posting content I find entertaining and funny and interesting, and not worry about if others will too. Any successful stuff I’ve posted has been off the cuff and half-arsed, so clearly we can learn from this. If it’s taking longer than an hour to make a post, just delete and move on. God I love deleting stuff.

Relatedly, shall we all agree to stop worrying about coming across as palatable? It doesn’t matter even a tiny bit if people think you’re nice. It matters if you’re actually good. You can be a bitch all you want verbally, but if you’re also doing good things in your community and being a force for good, who the hell cares?

A lifechanging phrase my friend put on our group chat recently, is if you do it, it’s done. We can use this mantra to not just stop procrastinating small, annoying tasks, but also as a reminder to interact with the real world. Light the fancy candle. Stop saving stuff for later. Use up the bottle of toiletries. Meet people nearby. Force yourself out there. Contribute. Build the village you want.

I hope you’ve had a good start to January, and unlike me, you’ve avoided the worst of the Heated Rivalry brainrot.³

Big changes are coming this year, and I still haven’t decided how much I want to write about them — but maybe I just won’t decide, hey? Maybe I’ll just either write about them or not. How about that.

Oh and please preorder my new book, Ex Marks The Spot! It’s a treasure hunt set in Oxford, out in May, and it’s fun and hijinksy and also takes love and joy very seriously. You can also request to read it early on UK Netgalley if you’re on there.

1. Arguably I should make a NY resolution to stop saying fuck all the time. But that doesn’t feel very Authentic to me

2. Don’t come at me with your examples of authors who don’t have any presence and are wildly successful. Do you know how rare that is? Do you know how much publisher support you need to sell books without any presence???? Lots, I bet!!! And we don’t all have that!!!!!!

3. Just kidding. I hope you’ve been sucked into the brainrot as well. Join us in the cottage