Damilola, or Milo as they prefer to be called, is a writer, editor and BTS stan. In this episode of 49th Litverse, we talk about their journey into writing, their connection with music and why they like being unknown.
Please describe yourself in one sentence
Milo: An over-imaginative child that’s stuck in a young adult’s body because I refuse to believe I’m old. I’m not old. Only when I clock thirty that I’d believe I’m old.
And thirty is not even old. Let’s give you sixty.
Milo: Yes. So, I am an over-imaginative child that’s stuck in an adult’s body. So yeah, that’s it
Okay. So bouncing off of that, if this was a job interview and they said to introduce yourself to us but expand on that sentence, what would you say?
Milo: Well, if this was a job interview, well, my name is Damilola. How old am I? 29 years old. While I legit studied Economics in school, I am more into creative arts in terms of writing of any kind, as long as it’s writing. Also reading too and also listening to music. I used to like movies, but I do not know where I stand on that right now. Job for now, I do a lot of freelancing which also relates to writing, which is writing articles, writing CVs, writing stories for people and doing all those in ghost mode. Yeah, I don’t really need people to know that that is what I do. I don’t need the accreditation.
I am someone that is very, I refuse to tell myself OCD, so I’ll just say that I am someone that is very organised; organised to a very annoying fault. I make lists a lot; I set alarms a lot because the other side to being organised is having ADHD or being forgetful, so I have to always remind myself that this is what I was doing, this is what I should do, and this is what I have to do.
I started writing because I started reading at an early age, and I am an only child that grew up with my grandparents. I was always left alone a lot so I started reading at a very early age and then when I started reading, I started realising that I didn’t like these stories that I was reading and then my grandma was like, form a story for yourself and I was like, okay I’m going to do that. I started writing stories at first, and then I started writing articles.
When I was 12 or 10 years old, I won one Mr Biggs writing competition about– well I don’t know what the writing competition was about but I do know it was a writing competition and I won and they did this award night for us.
Wow, okay, celebrity
Milo: Yeah, lol. And then in Uni, I wrote a lot; I used to write poems and songs and I used to write just like, thoughts and stuff. The plan then was to publish a book of poems but then I realised that they were very depressing, extremely heavy so I was like, baring out my soul to people like this? No, not doing that
I had a semi-popular blog in 2011, 2012. A lot of people don’t know it was me, and it was that time when blogging just came out, and I just used to write funny stories that were not really real, but you just pretend you’re reading that and yeah. I stopped doing that because, by the time I got into 300 level, my depression was unmanageable in the sense that I couldn’t do anything other than what I had to do, so I took a step back from all of that.
These days, I still read but my main reading catalogue is like articles and maybe a discussion that happened on my Twitter TL, and I just wanted to understand the concept they were talking about, then I just go research and come back and be like, oh okay now I understand what they are saying
I hate self-help books from the depth of my very bottomless heart. If I go to your house and 90 per cent of the books in your library are self-help books, the probability that we’ll talk again is actually very low because like; please have an imagination.
What else again? I like BTS, and then I like Namjoon.
That’s valid
Milo: Lol
So, do you want to make a career out of writing?
Milo: Yes, I do. I do want to make a career out of writing but I think for now my only problem as a formally gifted child is deciding exactly what I want to write, because I’ve found that whenever I speak to a lot of people who are known in the writing world, they’re always like, “Okay so what area do you specialise in?” And then as opposed to what area I specialise in, I just have things I write about or I’m not interested in writing about. If you ask what area am I specialised in, it’s kind of difficult. I have written for fashion blogs and articles. I have also written for programming coding. I have also done some self-help articles.
My problem right now is not where to specialise but I’ve been trying to convince myself that I don’t need to specialise in anything and as long as I can do whatever you ask me to write, I don’t think I need to specialise; I just need to be a good writer. Yeah
It’s a running theme, in all the things you’ve been saying, that you just want the money and you do not need your name attached to what you’re writing. So how does that feel? What led you to that place?
Milo: I mean, this not wanting people to know it’s me, is very recent. I used to be very loud about it, especially with the friends I grew up with who were very ambitious people. It was kind of a no-brainer that I would be known, and then just with appearance and personality-wise, I tend to stand out and I’ve always not had the option to not be known. It’s just like, whether I want it or not. And I just started realising that, I don’t necessarily– I like the, oh I show up someplace and someone who is like, “Oh I know you from somewhere!”. I don’t really like it.
And not fame because fame is starting to sound like, “Ay you’re feeling like you’re successful, people know you”, so no not fame necessarily but I just like to, for like of a better word, be mysterious, just meet people and it’s like a clean plate and there’s nothing like, “Oh you did this”. And kind of like–yes, I am putting Namjoon of BTS into this again
Yes, as you should
Milo: Lol. Anyways, Namjoon is the one that made me realize the RM of BTS is different from Kim Namjoon. I’ve understood it at a very surface level concept, like yes obviously, “his celebrity person” is obviously going to be different from his “at home person” but then when the pandemic hit and they started sharing their life story and I started realising it like, “what’s the difference?” He goes to exhibitions, and he’s doing things as Kim Namjoon but I’m like, people already know you’re RM, so wouldn’t you say that it’s the more private persona that is Kim Namjoon?
It’s more like, things outside of his job description and it makes it seem like that is something more in his private life and it made me feel like, I don’t think I’d want to have a public persona in that way because I feel like the kind of person I am, I would not be able to differentiate between the two and with the kind of eagle eye watching world that we’re in, I feel like I am somebody that would have the potential to make mistakes and sometimes those mistakes might be something that I’d need to recover from in private.
After all that thinking, I’m just like, you know what? Why do I have to strive for the idea of success that people have planted in me? To me, what does success feel like? And I just started realising that success is, I want to eat Domino’s and ice cream, and I can afford to book an Uber when it’s at peak period and go to Cold stone and buy the ice cream and still come back. It’s just having money to do the things that I want without necessarily having to do opportunity cost. Like oh if I buy this ice cream, will I survive?
Economics die, lol
Milo: As in, lol. I would not be able to buy fuel for my generator next week, and if I don’t buy fuel for my Gen, my food will spoil. So yeah, no. Yeah, as long as we’re having the money, it’s fine. I will remove it from the bank. So yeah, that’s it basically
Yeah. I know that you write fictional stories, so even though it’s a job and everything, what genres do you feel like if they bring it to you, you’re going to be like, I’m actually going to put the effort in it? I know you actually put effort but the one that you’d double your efforts into it. What genres are they?
Milo: How will I even explain this genre? The genre is Hurt comfort but Hurt comfort where like, is very realistic. And this is not to say that there are stories that are not realistic, I mean, reality is very subjective but in those Hurt comfort genres, the characters are visibly flawed and it doesn’t even necessarily have to have a happy ending, but because they are visibly flawed and they acknowledge that flaw and they are willing to grow, in terms of stories like that, I’m always like, yes let’s talk.
As someone who hates reading uncompleted stories or starting any uncompleted thing, I’ll be like, yes I’m supporting you. If you’re going to be posting every one month, then yes, I’m here for you. If you’re going to be posting every year then I’m also here for you. So yes, that kind of stories
But generally, those stories that have more trans rep characters and it’s not like– you know there’s trans rep where it’s very obvious that you’re tokenizing this person but just put this flow of trans. For example, I love what they did with the trans girly in Heartstopper. Like if you’re not focused, it’s going to take you about 2 or 3 episodes to make you realise that she’s a trans girl.
And it was just one of those things that they admitted
Milo: Yeah, like we used to walk these halls together and yeah. Like if you’re not part of the LGBT community, you’re going to be wondering like, “we used to walk these halls together?” As in how? You won’t know she’s a trans girl
So yeah, those are kind of stories that I’m like, yes, let’s go. So yeah
Yeah. So generally, if you have to write something, what’s your writing process like?
Milo: So, as an attention deficit person that I am, when somebody gives me a deadline, I give myself, at the very least, two days deadline before then. If you tell me I need to submit something on Thursday, I put it into my calendar as Tuesday. Because my brain will not rest and it will not allow me to start until like two hours before the deadline
Meanwhile, I might have read all the articles needed, and researched to come up with the article or the story, like the information is in my head but then I sit down and it’s like, “Erh, no, blanking out”. But then, all of a sudden, two hours to the deadline, we’re writing 600 words per hour, and then we’re like, let’s do this. Lol
And then, whenever I want to write, I have a particular font I write in. Which means that I only write in Google Docs or word. I can’t in notes or any of that thing. It has to be Georgia so I’ve just kind of put it in my brain that I’m ready to engage, let’s do this. And I don’t edit when I’m writing. Even if it feels off, I just write everything, conclude then I now go back and like, see the ones that work well and the ones that don’t.
Then the day of the deadline, I open it and read through it to actually see how it sounds. So yeah, that’s how it works
Seeing as we’ve seen your process, how do you deal with creative block? Like, writer’s block
Milo: Ah. I cry. Lol. Because writer’s block is an absolute bitch. You’re just like, God. And that’s when you know that all the religion that you denied growing up, you’re suddenly a part of it. You’ll be like, “Ogun, if you can, please unblock this brain.” Now I’ve learnt to not push myself though I have no choice but to push myself because there are deadlines. But also like, if it’s not an imposing deadline, I take a break and just read a hive or I read for hours straight. Just do something that’s outside the norm
I also stay away from Twitter. Twitter has this thing that’s waiting for you. As long as they see matchstick, they’re waiting for you to light it under your bum bum. I stay away from Twitter and I just get lost in something else then I just go back. If I still have writer’s block, I imagine the end. If it’s an article, what would be the concluding statement? And if I’m able to write that paragraph, then usually I’m able to start, or I’m able to get the middle or something
Sometimes what I do is, let’s say you’re a lazy person and you’re going to plagiarise; how are you going to plagiarise?
What I do is I go around reading articles, and I cut words that I think that if I were going to plagiarise and I wanted to keep everybody from knowing, this is how I would fix all these things together. In trying to fix all those things together, maybe I’ll take like the sentence that sounds like the starter of the paragraph, and then maybe from another journal or article, I see this sentence where If I just find the right conjunction for it, they can tie together.
In trying to form a new sentence, I now realised that this is no longer plagiarising. It’s already your work. Then I’d just backspace and be like, let me try my hand at writing this thing and then I do that. And sometimes I just cry and listen to Stay Alive by Jungkook of BTS, lol. The gods will answer me and unblock my brain
That’s actually pretty valid. You have been mentioning a lot of BTS. What impact does music and by extension, BTS, have on your writing?
Milo: Music has a very big impact. First of all, I don’t write with music. I can’t be listening to music and writing. It doesn’t work that way for me. I can listen to music before, to just kind of set the mood and I’m just like, oh okay put me in a great mood and if there’s a song that has been itching me in the back of my head, I just listen to it a couple of times just to put myself into whatever mood it is. And I’m either trying to get into or out of a mood, and I’m just like, okay. And because BTS has a very diverse range of music, I am always able to find at least one song from them that would help.
And also, sometimes it may be something other than music. It may be a live from them or a BTS member that I’ve been meaning to watch so my brain just puts it on and there’s this thing that it’s called where you put on a video or audio of somebody talking so that it feels like that person is relating to you. So yeah, music is a very big part of my life. If I’m not listening to music, depression and everything is on the curb, about to happen. Or it has already happened, or it’s happening, and I’ve just not realised.
Yeah, I get that. So you said you write for work, so what does that mean? Do you freelance on Fiver or Upwork? Give me a bit of context
Milo: Sometime back in 2019, there was a time when I was designing CVs for people but then I wasn’t rewriting them for people. You’d just give me your page and I’d design it for you but in trying to design the one page, like the OCD-influenced person that I am, when you use some words, I’m just like, “No you can’t be saying that, what do you mean?”. So, I end up having to rewrite it
And then someone asked me, “Oh do you also write CVs?” and before then, even the CV I was using, it was a friend that wrote it for me and then I was like, “Not really, I don’t really write CVs, but outside of CVs I write.”
She was like, she’ll pay me the same amount for designing her CV, but she just wants me to go in and check if her grammar was correct, the structure was correct, the format was correct and all that. She then recommended me to someone who recommended me to someone who recommended me to two other people and then I found myself with like 10 people who wanted me to write CVs for them, and I had to share them with this other dude that I chanced upon.
I started thinking to myself that if people did not like what I’m writing, they would not be telling other people. Or if they’re even telling other people and the other people saw their CVs, they would not collect and they wouldn’t come to me. It was a game changer because I was like, okay, I’ll try this.
I just told my friends “I’m writing CVs, this is my price.” And I told my cousin and my cousin was like, “Oh do you also write articles?” And then I was like, it depends on the article. Like what do you want the article for? Like if you could give me a bunch of topics. And then she was like, I should write it and she’ll see whether or not she’ll submit it on my behalf.
I did and she asked if I wanted my name on the website and I said no. She wanted to know why but I told her I didn’t know but I just don’t want my name. As long as you’re paying me, I don’t want my name on your website. Not for any reason, but I just did not want my name.
And yeah, I have not been able to sign up for Upwork or Fiver. Fiver did not sign me up because of one random reason they gave me last year. Upwork, I was not going to sign up and so now it’s just a bunch of referrals and daily scenes on my status that I write CVs, I write articles. And then they’ll tell me they gave my contact to so and so and I’ll be like, oh, that makes sense
Okay then. So outside of work, do you write fiction too? Because I know you’re always talking about it
Milo: Yes, I do. I do, actually. In fact, now that I think about it, I also have a Wattpad account. I’m never going back to Wattpad though. I don’t even care if my stories there are doing great or not, nobody can pay me to go back there but yeah, I have an account where I write BTS fiction and sometimes, I read some parts and I feel like I sound so cringe then I take it down and I’m just like, I’m posting it back and it doesn’t matter
So yeah, I write fiction. I’m also in charge of a zine, I’m the editor in charge of design.
Seeing as you write for both work and pleasure, how do you separate the two? Do you feel like writing for work affects the quality of your writing for yourself and vice versa?
Milo: No, it doesn’t. I would even say my writing for work is much better because then there is structure. Like when you tell me that there is a deadline, it’ll be ready. And there’s a particular fiction that I’ve been writing since 2019 and not for any other reason than there is just a scene I need to fix in the second to the last scene and I’m like, “oh it has to go right” and because there is no structure, nobody cares whether it goes or I post, I can post anyhow. So I tend to relax and should I say post anyhow?
But then, writing for work, there’s a structure and I have to tell myself that this is the value of work they are expecting from me, I cannot go below that and I should get my wits about me. Write your stuff, be sure that it makes sense, submit, get your feedback and finish up before the deadline and get your money. Even now, I’m supposed to fill in for someone in the zine that I’m managing and before I fill in, I have to pick the prompt and write out an outline and I have just been trying to find the right line to paste. I mean, because there’s a deadline to that but it’s not a rigid deadline, so it’s like, when I want when I can and other things like that
So yeah, neither affects either. So far, I haven’t had the displeasure of creativity hitting me for my personal work while I have to do work work. It’s been a parallel line that’s not meeting each other but going in very similar, along sideways.
That’s nice. So despite the fact that you write for work and you write for fun and all that, what’s your signature that’s consistent whether you’re writing for work or for fun or you’re just writing. What’s that one thing that’s consistent in all your work?
Milo: Well, consistency, if it’s a word that always occurs in all my works, it has to be “However”. It’s always that. It got to the point where I had to sit down and download a Thesaurus to learn new words in place of “However” because of the way I was always using it, lol.
That’s so cool. As you’ve grown and evolved, how has your writing grown and evolved with you?
Milo: Well, apart from the usual, grammar and structure improvement, I think one thing that has really improved as I grew older was my introduction. I never used to know how to introduce whatever it is I was writing. One more thing is that I’ve stopped using magnanimous words, I used magnanimous so you could see how it sounded. I’ve realised that I don’t need to use big words to sound smart because I’m not even smart in the first place and people should know that from the jump.
You’re hilarious. Thank you for doing this with me.
