9 ways in which playing Dark Souls is like writing a novel

After so many years and watching some YouTube playthroughs, my SO finally convinced me to give Dark Souls a try. Specifically, Dark Souls 3.

Now, this isn’t my usual type of game. I much prefer games with stories that are, er, more out in the open. I’m also not generally a fan of boss fights (I still haven’t technically finished Link’s Awakening for the Gameboy Color as I never bothered with the final fight). Additionally, these games are supposed to be some of the hardest out there. All great reasons to never play it, right?

And yet, I gave it a try anyway. I’m glad I did. It’s taught me a lot about myself and what I’m capable of, and even about writing. Nine things, specifically:

1. Get out of your comfort zone

Writing is all about challenging yourself to try new things, about not giving up and persevering. And if there’s one thing you need to finish a Soulsborne game, it’s perseverance. You will definitely die. A lot. You will definitely hit some walls. In writing, as in Dark Souls (and other challenges), the trick is to keep going.

2. The ‘soggy middle’

My Dark Souls journey was going great. Yes, I’d died, of course, but I had always managed to retrieve my Souls (which you use to level up, buy things, etc. and which you lose after dying again without retrieving them) and it hadn’t taken me too many tries to defeat the big bosses. And then I went to the Catacombs.

Nobody likes the Catacombs. If they say they do, they’re lying. I did not make it out of the Catacombs with all my Souls, but crucially, I did make it. It’s the same feeling of being in the soggy middle of National Novel Writing Month. Getting through it is half the victory. Yes, there will be endings and edits/more bosses and tougher areas ahead. But no matter, you’ve accomplished something. You’ve reached a milestone. Celebrate your freedom!

3. Unexpected victories

So I fought Mr Consumer of Gods (Aldrich to his friends) approximately 1000 times before I defeated him. After that I was warped straight to the next fight. Being the cautious person that I am, I of course ran to the nearest bonfire to deposit my freshly gained Souls. However, I didn’t end up needing it, as I defeated the next boss in one go.

In writing, too, you will find unexpected victories. Sometimes, you are faced with a really hard chapter and it’s easy to get discouraged. Keep pressing on, because your hard fight will pay off, and the next chapter might just be the one where everything clicks into place.

4. Write, die, repeat

Beating a boss in one go (one-shotting it, as gamers call it) is a great feeling. It’s also something that happens after a lot of defeating other enemies, dying, and trying again. In other words, practice makes perfect. Unexpected victories, such as mentioned above, tend to happen more the more you keep practising your craft. This works for every skill, naturally, and therefore also for video games – and writing.

5. Know when to ask for help

Dark Souls comes with the ability to summon a non-playable character (NPC) or (if you’re playing online) fellow human beings to help you through the game at certain points. Whether you’re stuck on a boss fight or a plot point, don’t keep throwing yourself endlessly at that wall. Know when it’s time to ask for help. You will be glad you did.

6. Strangers, friends, help comes from unexpected places

While I never summoned a human stranger in the main game (yes, social anxiety can also apply to videogames, yay for me), I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of Summon Signs I saw outside of a lot of the boss fights. I was also once invaded (when another human player enters your game uninvited to, usually, start a fight) by someone called the Pacifist Invader. They gave me some items, waved and left.

If you’ve ever overheard a snippet of conversation that sparked an idea or complained about your writing only to be asked a really left-field question (for instance: have you tried putting ninjas in it?), you’ll know how valuable unexpected input can be. Of course, barring story ideas, a nice beverage also does wonders.

7. Don’t let the Chads of the world get you down

In contrast to the lovely Pacifist Invader, I have also been invaded by a Chad (literally called Chad-something). This is not about him. It’s about those people in your life who use whatever tricks they have to try and drag you down. Whether it’s hiding behind enemies (invaders are immune to enemies while you’re not) or constantly criticising your work, these energy vampires aren’t happy unless you’re frustrated and annoyed. Don’t let them get to you. Keep playing/writing. Or, do as I did and take a breather (of a few months), then get back to it.

8. You are in control

You might be intrigued to know that you don’t have to fight every single boss in a Soulsborne game. In fact, you don’t have to fight any at all if you just choose to not play. In my game, while I was eventually persuaded to do the DLC, I ‘let’ two optional bosses live. One boss I never even said hello to. They were just minding their own business, so why make their life (and mine) harder?

The point is, you decide where you want to go and what you do. If you’re getting bored by where your story is going, you can change at any time! Sure, some people say that their characters run the story and that may be true for some writers, but you can still choose what you throw at them. You’re in charge.

9. Sweet, sweet victory

Finally, there is nothing like writing that final line of a book. While it’s probably completely different from the adrenaline you feel fighting a really tough boss (your mileage may vary, please do let me know if there are writers out there whose hearts are going a mile a minute after writing ‘The End’), I hope you do feel a great sense of accomplishment when you finish your story, however long it is. In the end, that’s what writing/gaming is all about.

That’s it. Nine ways in which writing a book is a lot like playing Dark Souls (3). So, if you’re a writer stuck for what to write, why not pick up Elden Ring? Alternatively, if you’re a gamer who’s always wanted to write, you’ll be pleased to know you already have a lot of the tools you need to get started.

Happy writing and/or gaming!

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Disclaimer: I started writing this blog post about a year ago and finished Dark Souls 3 a few months ago, but only finished writing this now because procrastination knows no bounds when the only deadline is in your own head. Also a friend helped me finish the DLC because eff that Slave Knight Gael.

Don’t give the people what (you think) they want

It’s Election Day in the USA and even though I’m far away (hah, rhymes) I not only have people I love who are going to be directly affected by the outcome, pretty much the entire world is going to be affected if the US slides further down the poop-filled slide towards fascism, so I’m channelling my anxiety by actually writing a blogpost again (hello!).

Deep breath. Alright, with that out of the way, time for some insight. From Twitter. Yes, I said it. One of the big reasons why Trump even got elected (aside from the Electoral College and two-party systems just always being a bad idea) is due to the media coverage he received versus Clinton. There’s a lot of misogyny that went into it as well, but that’s not relevant this time and yet the mainstream media is still falling into the same traps they have been for the past four-plus years.

I’m on Twitter a lot more than is good for me. On there, I follow some very insightful women, who give better analysis, reporting and news updates than any of the main US newspapers or TV channels. The problem with these media that individual analysts don’t have to reckon with is monetary interests. The dial for large media corporations has shifted over the years from providing news to providing entertainment. And what they assume entertains is wall-to-wall coverage of this dumb thing Trump has said and the (not terrorists cause they’re white) actions of his followers, etc. “both sides” etc.

There’s a newspaper in the UK (where Rupert Murdoch also has a lot of influence on the media, weirdly…) that switched editors a year or so ago. The one leaving was very much about negative news, specifically negative stories about foreigners, claiming that’s what people wanted to read. The next editor took a more balanced approach (though still right-wing) and lo and behold, the readers were not offended they didn’t hear about foreigners and the many reasons to be afraid and hate them all the time any more. In fact, it’s an older story so I’m not entirely sure but I do believe reader figures actually went up.

Just because one side says we want to hear about things to hate, doesn’t mean that’s true. Just because some corporate person insists that people will only keep watching by playing into their negative emotions, that’s not who we have to be as people. In fact, there’s plenty of evidence to the contrary.

Take Hollywood. Films pasted together by executives’ notes are never as good as films with a clear vision. And these executives tend to be quite a bit more conservative than the average movie-goer. “They’ll never go for a film with a female protagonist,” they say, pointing to that one Catwoman film. Then Wonder Woman happens, and Moonlight, and Black Panther. Do you think these executives become more liberal as a result? Of course not. We have to keep pushing them, proving to them that these are the stories we want to see. Better yet would be to push them out completely, of course, but that’s the problem with living in an autocracy – power likes to stick around.

What’s my point with all of this, other than anxiously ranting? Tell the story you want to tell. Report facts, if you’re writing non-fiction. Write from your heart, if you’re writing fiction. Don’t try to write to the market, because the market doesn’t know what it wants until it gets it. Be the creative person the world needs, not the one it deserves. Certainly never be the one the executives tell you to be, because they know even less about what’s going on than the rest of us.

Also, diversify your news sources and think critically about what you’re consuming. Don’t take any one voice as gospel. And stay vigilant, as there are many people all over the world who would happily watch it burn just so they can hold on to their sliver of (imagined) power. It’s up to the rest of us to stop them. Women in Poland are doing it. People in Nigeria and Belarus are doing it. Hopefully the US can do it to, and keep doing it.

Fingers crossed! It’s going to be a long few weeks/months/years before we know the real outcome.

Who did it best? Comparing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Mario Odyssey and The Odyssey

Epic stories involving arduous journeys have long since been referred to as odysseys, thanks to Homer’s compelling tale of Odysseus’ journey home following the Trojan war. In recent years, there have been two such epic tales released with the name of Odyssey – both games, and both very different. Here, I will attempt to compare them all, and hopefully learn something about what it takes to write an epic story along the way.

To read the comments or not to read the comments, is that even a question?

So, I’ve just had another article published in the Mary Sue (read it here), and due to its subject matter (gun control and toxic masculinity) it’s understandably caused people to have opinions. This has me thinking about writers and reading reviews, and how it’s almost always a bad thing.

Most published writers will tell you never to look at your own reviews, and certainly not to comment on any criticism. Indeed, there are plenty of examples of authors who’ve started fights with commentators and unless the criticism is purely from a racist/sexist/general discriminatory perspective, the author always loses. They may think they’ve won, but other people will see them making an ass of themselves and stop buying their books.

Writing’s a long game. You don’t want to piss people off now, or they won’t help you or buy your books later. That includes editors who might not be interested in your current project, but may be helpful in future. Never write an angry message in reply to a rejection, because you never know who else the person knows. Publishing is a smaller world than many may think, so basically, don’t be a prick.

On the other side of the coin, I’ve also heard of published authors who refuse to look at comments and especially fan suggestions because if they ever unknowingly put the suggestion in a book, there might be legal trouble. This is more of a problem with fan-fiction, but there have probably been some flimsy legal cases based on fan comments, which cost money and cause unwanted stress. You can never be too careful as an author.

Finally, reading reviews or even comments can be bad for your mental health. Writers tend to have low-selfesteem and/or imposter syndrome, making the mental slap in the face even worse, but most humans would get upset if they saw people react negatively to their work, especially if the criticism isn’t based on anything concrete. Getting negative feedback on your work is one thing, but getting random insults that are useless to your personal growth, that’s something else entirely.

Studies have shown that people have to hear nine good things before they disbelieve one bad thing. So, if you’re a writer who’s recently published something, be nice to yourself and avoid the comments/reviews. Focus on writing the next thing instead, and trust your editor or a colleague/fellow author to tell you if there’s really something you should be working on improving.

Of course, I will read any comments on this post, ironically, because I like to get other writers’ opinions. So, please feel free to disagree in a constructive manner, I’m all eyes (because ears doen’t make sense in this context).

Video game writing is hard, yo

A few weeks ago, I got this great idea for a text adventure game a la Zork. So, I downloaded a text adventure creator and gave it a go. Not only was it really hard to find free software that does what I want it to do and isn’t super hard to master (still looking for something better), but I also started thinking about the differences between novel and game writing.

This is what Zork looks like, in case you were wondering.

One of the oft-repeated bits of advice for fiction writers is to write not for everyone, but have just one perfect reader in mind (note: you write the first draft for yourself, but the one that’s suitable for public viewing for this perfect reader). For Stephen King, this is supposedly his wife. Other writers use their agent, or simply imagine who they’d like to have read their book. Just one person.

They say that if you try to write for everyone, you end up writing for no-one, as it’s impossible to please every single person. Writing isn’t about hedging your bets, it’s about bleeding on the page, about making something special and unique.

When it comes to video games, any kind of video game, you can’t just think of one person. Instead, you have to think about the many strange ways in which gamers can interact with your game. This isn’t just relevant for the designers and coders, but also for game writers, as they have to think about in what order a player might come across their narratives. The last thing you want is to confuse the player.

As an example, I’ve been playing Ni No Kuni 2, and sometimes when you talk to an NPC, you’ll find you’re reading the second bit of conversation before the first. A small thing, and certainly not anything that dampens my enthusiasm for the game, but something to keep in mind from both a gameplay and immersion perspective.

When it comes to a text adventure, where it’s basically all text, a writer may want to think about someone who just puts “fart” into the text box over and over again. Then again, this might not be a player you’d mind losing, depending on how difficult the game is.

So, what do you write into the game, and what do you use a standard “does not compute” response for? While it’s still impossible to write for everyone and think of every single thing people might write/click, the audience has to be wider than just your partner or agent.

That said, any type of writing requires passion. Ticking boxes for the things you think people will want to see (moody, silent protagonist, check, annoying supporting character dialogue, check, repeated instructions… you get the gist) will generally not make people want to keep playing, let alone play your game over and over again to find all the little things they’ve missed.

In summary, video game writing is an under-appreciated art form that is super hard to master and I take my hat off to all that do it for a living. I’m having a hard enough time trying to please my one perfect reader (the first, of course, being myself), let alone weave an intricate story into an action-packed frenzy that can handle players making all the most non-obvious choices.

Levelling up as a writer

A few weeks ago (just before I went on holiday, which is why I haven’t posted about it sooner), I got an article published on The Mary Sue, one of my favourite websites. While I publish articles on a (week)daily basis for work, this felt different, like I had levelled up. Not only did I get to write about a topic I enjoy and feel passionate about – books – but also on a website I feel strongly about.

I read The Mary Sue on a near-daily basis; it talks about films, TV shows, feminism and many other geeky things I love. Sometimes it feels like it reads my mind, or at least my Twitter feed, as some of the things I think about/pay attention to are published as articles mere hours later. For my article, I talked about Naomi Alderman’s The Power in comparison to The Handmaid’s Tale. Have a read if you’re interested in that kind of thing. While books aren’t a big section on the site, a lot of its consideration of film and TV through a feminist lens can certainly teach writers a thing or two – especially about what not to do.

My point, I guess, is that this felt like A BIG DEAL. And now here I am, back to writing for the day job, feeling uninspired. After a moment of clarity, I’m back to where I was, and my imposter syndrome is preventing me from pitching any more articles at the moment.

The same thing happened after I got a story posted on Dear Damsels (except this time I got PAID). There’s a moment, maybe a few moments, of feeling on top of the world, and then it’s back to reality. Is this how everyone feels? I would love to know.

A typewriter is definitely levelling down at this point, no? Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

Of course, it could be because I keep posting these things under a pseudonym, with almost none of my real-life loved ones knowing about it. But I don’t have an appealing real name, internationally speaking, and I don’t want to confuse people with my scientific articles, which are under my real name, and I don’t want my current employer to know what I’m doing in my own time. So, at this point, I feel like I’m stuck writing as L.B. Zumpshon.

I don’t think writing under my real name would make much of a difference, though. There’s still the feeling of elation, followed by the crash back down to reality. So, what do I do? Hope I feel strongly enough about another idea to pitch it, and just keep writing in the meantime, I guess…

MST3K: At least my writing isn’t that bad

I have recently started watching the new series of Mystery Science Theatre 3,000 (MST3K) on Netflix and I’m enjoying it. It’s funny and aware, I love Felicia Day, they have some great guests, and the robots are adorable. I would like to make clear that I am in no way suggesting that I could be even half as funny as the writers for that show.

That said, the whole premise of the show is to watch really bad old movies, and boy are they bad. The acting is bad, the ‘monsters’ are bad, and the writing… I have no idea how they got away with so much crap back in the day! Sure, the amusing banter from Jonah and the robots is a good distraction, but not enough to make me forget just how badly made these old movies are, even disregarding all the limitations of the time-periods.

For one, there’s a whole lot of sexism and either casual racism or simply the whole erasure of race (such as the whole ‘only white people go to space’ yuckiness that has pervaded scifi for far too long!) going on. And in general, all characters tend to be paper-thin, with no backstory or deeper motivation or anything. The bad acting doesn’t help either (even Christopher Plummer manages to look bad! Though I blame the writing for that one – episode 6 Starcrash if you want to see for yourself).

Then there’s the plot. I get it, budgets were tight and monsters are expensive, so you can’t show them for very long. And yes, people were more used to a slower pace back then. But oh my gods things move so slow! Nothing happens for minutes, except people walking, or random scenery, or SPACE (which I guess was an impressive thing to film back then, even as fake as it possibly could be). They often blatantly reuse footage to stretch things out even further. There’s no sense of continuity whatsoever, with the plot either dwelling on something too long or skipping something altogether, with no apparent in-between. In short, nothing to write home about.

Anyway, I could go on like this for quite some time, but you’re better off just checking out an episode or ten for yourself. My main take-away from watching is not, as you might think: “Oh my gods there is so much bad writing out there!” – although the thought did cross my mind. No, it’s that people believed in this shitty content enough to invest lots of time and money into it. These things got made, and released, and people might have even watched them in a non-mocking way.

Surely we can do one better? If we believe, and put the time and effort in, we can surely make a story better than these guys got away with back in the day. And if they could get other people to invest in it too, there’s hope for everyone. So, I would suggest that if you’re feeling down about your creative efforts, go look at a terrible movie (with or without amusing MST3K commentary) or read a terrible story. Not only might you gain some tips on what not to do, but it will hopefully give you renewed vigour and confidence in your own work. Just don’t use MST3K and other suchlike things as procrastination, because really you (and I) should be writing!

Reading’s a steal: Lessons learned those who came before me [part 2]

While I have read Sir Terry Pratchett’s last book very recently, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look at it with any sort of analytical eye. There are too many emotions caught up in it for me, too many goodbyes. So instead, I’m taking a stab at Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice, the first book in a trilogy. I’m currently reading the second book, which has given me some more perspective on the first one.

The kindle cover of the version I’ve read

To shortly summarise the book, it’s about a boy who is the son of a crown prince and an unknown woman, a bastard as everyone so often reminds him. When he is dropped off at one of the royal palaces, his very existence causes the crown prince to put himself into exile. He is grudgingly accepted as Fitz, i.e. bastard, and raised by the stable master. As Fitz grows up, he comes to pledge his royalty to king Shrewd and the new crown prince, his uncle Verity. They train him as a royal assassin, a faithful executioner for the crown, and try to teach him the Skill, a form of telepathy. Naturally he is more inclined to the Wit, a highly forbidden form of telepathy with animals that sometimes gets him into trouble. Throughout the book, there are increasing hints of political friction between members of the royal family, which eventually leads Fitz to be caught in the middle of an assassination plot that nearly kills him as well as Verity.

Of course, there is a lot more to the story; it is a big book. I hope I haven’t given too much away as it is. Robin Hobb is not afraid to take her time, and slowly build up the world of the Six Duchies and beyond. As a result, the world seems very big and alive. She also does a lot to set up the sequel(s), by introducing a variety of different, interesting characters that clearly have more story to tell, and leaving the ending open (just like most political situations are never-ending). There’s a second trilogy that centres more on one of the minor but very vivid characters with his own secret past. Given the richness of the world, I’m sure there could be an infinite amount of books set there. If you don’t mind books that build slowly, or getting frustrated by how much the bad guys seem to keep winning, then this is a great book (series) for anyone who loves the worlds of Middle Earth, Ice and Fire, Arthur, Mazalan and Tortall.

So, what have I learned?

• If you write well enough and make readers invest in your character, not much has to go wrong to cause anguish. This in turn keeps people reading.
• There is a fine line between suspense and frustration.
• There is such a thing as being descriptive in the right way (I have just passed a sentence in the second book that’s close to purple prose but then also just so perfect in a universal, philosophical sense).
• I don’t think I’ll ever be able to write a novel in this style; I’m too impatient for real action to happen. Also, I was right to never go into politics; I would literally start stabbing people out of frustration.
• The book is basically a masterclass in how to build a rich, vibrant world, and how not to dump all of it into the reader’s brain against their will.

That’s about all I can come up with. Has anyone else read the book and stolen some tips from it? Have I interested anyone in reading the book? I got it when Robin Hobb was offering the ebook for free, so keep an eye out on (necessary evil) Amazon.

Reading’s a steal: Lessons learned those who came before me [part 1]

This is the first in what hopefully will be a series of blog posts on books I’ve read. It will be a hybrid between a review and a list of things that I’ve taken away from the book that I plan to apply to my own writing. Since the primary advice given to writers is (and always has been) to write a lot and read a lot, I’m trying to read with more awareness of other people’s writing processes.

The first book I’m going to discuss is quite unusual, not only in that it isn’t in the fantasy genre that I’m writing in, but also just because it’s a very strange book. I’m typing of course about the classic ‘Breakfast of Champions’ by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. I’m mainly discussing this because I just so happened to have read it recently, but also because classics are a masterclass in writing regardless of how they relate to one’s own particular style.

Cover art of the version I have

In short, Breakfast of Champions is about two men who are varying degrees of insane. One of them is a sci-fi writer with a destitute life, who is only published in smutty magazines, and gets into all sorts of trouble on his way to an arts convention where he is supposed to be the guest speaker. The other is a rich white man who has lost his wife to suicide and is highly mentally unstable. The book’s supposed author, some iteration of Vonnegut who gets introduced in the preface, also eventually places himself in the novel, and conspires events so that the rich man reads the author’s work, becomes convinced he is the only person in the universe with free will, and starts beating people up. Interspersed in the book are crude illustrations, ranging from smutty to funny to just plain weird. While BoC is a lot lighter compared to Slaughterhouse Five, it still deals with issues such as racism and inequality, describing them in matter-of-facts ways that are (to me) more depressing than if the author openly took a stance on them.

To be honest, I’m still processing the book. I’m not going to pretend I’ve found the deep philosophical implications of the text that are probably covered in many BA and MA theses. As a simple reader, I can only say that the book appealed to my dry sense of humour. I especially liked the illustrations, they added a lot to the humour and absurdity of it all. It was interesting to me that the story was told in a non-linear fashion, as if it was just a framework for discussing the people (and by extension the nature of all human beings). It was also funny how the sci-fi writer character kept referring to other works he’d written, which if I believe the ‘author’ are actually Vonnegut’s story ideas that he wanted to clear from his system. Of course the many serious themes match the absurdity, making me slightly more sad than happy overall. Basically, if you are looking for an easy-to-read story with funny illustrations and deeper implications that will leave you reeling and questioning humanity for days after, Vonnegut’s your man. But you probably already knew that.

Things I intend to ‘steal’ from Breakfast of Champions:

• A book doesn’t have to be a certain length to have a certain impact. Given the amount of space the illustrations took up, I’m sure that by today’s standards BoC would be labelled a novella. Yet the impact it has is no less profound than a much longer book like Donna Tartt’s The Secret History for instance, and they are both modern classics in their own right. Content is more important than word count (which is sometimes hard to understand for a NaNoWriMoer like me).
• A characteristic writing style can sometimes be more important than the story itself. As evidenced by my short summary, the story itself is rather short, and the main climax is given away from the start. This is not important, this is not why I kept reading, and not why it’s considered a modern classic. Instead, it’s the context that the writer places his story in, the words he chooses, the themes he explores, that kept me reading on. Now I know I can never write like Vonnegut, only he can. But it’s helped me realise how important it is to keep working on my own personal writing style, and how much difference that can make to story-telling.
• Related to my previous point, I’ve discovered that describing things as a (mostly) neutral outsider/alien can have more impact than placing the reader in the middle of the action, at least if you’re Kurt Vonnegut. I’m not sure any other writers could get away with the way he described things like racism in the book, since it is a feature of his distinct writing style, but it is certainly worth noting that taking a step back from what is happening can be just as powerful as diving deeper into things.

How will I use these things, if at all? I’m not sure. But in the meantime I’ll keep on reading and writing and trying to improve myself.

Best. Gig. Ever.

On Friday, to celebrate my 5th(!) NaNoWriMo-win, I went to see Jamie Lenman, the former Reuben frontman who has just come back with a new album of his own. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it turned out to be the best gig I’ve ever been to.

Jamie Lenman himself

Why, you may ask, was it so amazing (and why am I talking about something seemingly not about either brains or writing)? Well, the song I liked most off his new album, ‘I ain’t your boy’, was all about how he couldn’t be the person he was back when he was in Reuben, and so I never thought he would perform any of those songs. Imagine my surprise when the first bars of one of my favourite Reuben songs started playing!

What I learned from this, what I wanted to convey in this post, is how unexpected events can spark and energise you. Sure it was going to be a good gig anyway, because I love his new music, but there’s nothing like an unexpected boon to get the neurotransmitters all excited.

This is similar to what a good novel can do, if something unexpected happens in it. If one can create something new, unique, one can transform the reader. To write something you hadn’t thought about before, something that comes up naturally, it can give the same kind of high. So, that’s why I participate in NaNoWriMo, that’s why I’m a pantser (i.e. someone who writes without outlining first, not a panther like autocorrect keeps trying to change it to); to surprise myself. Sure, more often than not I surprise myself with the utter drivel that I’m writing, but occasionally, just every once in a while, I am pleasantly surprised by what on earth my characters are doing, or where the plot takes me. And that feeling, that unexpected-Reuben-songs feeling, is why I keep writing.

Now, time to get back to it.

In case you are interested, here’s the double Jamie Lenman single: