2025.07.05

Jul 5

When I first started having the inkling that I may not want to write romance novels anymore, at least not as the all-consuming full-time job it once had been for a decade, I was terrified.

There was no back-up plan.

This was wildly terrifying on two fronts.

The first: Money. Obviously. I essentially quit my job.

But I can figure that out. What keeps me up at night isn’t that I have no idea how to pay rent. It’s that I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I wanted to be an author more than anything for literally my entire life, and suddenly that drive was gone.

Losing your job is stressful. Losing your purpose is devastating.

Whenever I start to spiral with a shrill, “What do I do if not write romance novels?!”

What do you want to do?

Without thinking, I always respond with the simplest of answers.

I want to create pretty things.

Minimal websites. Typography-first designs. Vision boards, wallpapers, logos, brand boards. I like to take concepts I love (astrology, tarot, digital gardens, slow living, commonplace books) and package them in an aesthetically minimalist and pleasing way. Book covers, pins, mood boards.

I’ve spent the past year or so trying to figure out how to stuff that desire into a business plan. A creative studio? A template shop?

I thought I was being practical, but I think I’ve just been … stalling.

Spending so much time thinking about what to do with the skill/passion, that I’m not actually doing anything at all.

So today … I did. I made pretty things with no agenda other than the creative process.

The first is a graphic I made to remember our meal from yesterday, in one of my favorite fonts. It serves no purpose but to please my own eye.

Below that is a wallpaper I made for July for my laptop and phone. If you want to download them for your own use, you’re welcome to.

Here’s to letting the creative process lead us, and not the other way around.