Ben Branscombe

I'm a 24-year-old writer for the online lifestyle and leisure magazine called Art De Vivre. I just recently finished my Master's degree at SOAS University in London where I studied Comparative Literature. I'm based in London now and love to write short fiction in my spare time. Have had previous work published for my old University.

Other passions include travelling (currently backpacking across Europe as well as lived in Tokyo Japan for a year), yoga, fashion, meditation and of course reading.

You describe your narratives as "weird" and "strange", what draws you to these areas?

To start with, my fascination with the weird is something I often ask myself. But if I was to hazard a guess. It might come from how I see much of the world. My mother would often tell me not to take things to seriously, otherwise the world would bring you down. I never really realised what she meant until I reached my late teens, experienced life as well as reading a lot of Albert Camus. It's a very bizarre and absurd world we find ourselves in. Sometimes it doesn't make a lot of sense and sometimes you won't get an answer to everything in life. But that's kind of the fascinating part I find about life. It's weird and crazy and we build all these structures that in themselves are strange if you break them down. It inspires me in a sense that it's unpredictable.

Where do you get your ideas?

This would lead perfectly onto what inspires me. And that's life. As simple as. I have found that sometimes fact is stranger than fiction. Sometimes I find myself meeting interesting characters or in odd circumstances that they sometimes feel they belong in a work of fiction. Doesn't even need to bedroom my own point of view. I really like YouTube channels like Channel 5 news with Andrew Callaghan or travel vloggers like Bald and Bankrupt and Indigo traveller. They simply just showcase lives that might be so drastically different from our own. You might not even agree with some of these people or even like them. But in just showing often eccentric or normal people living their lives. That's interesting. And I often try to write from an objective view based on boots on the ground Gonzo journalism. I often take inspiration from either myself or others I've met or heard about but twist them into something different but still maintaining an element of the real world I borrowed it from. Whether this be a quirk, an action they've done or an element of their past. Then I put them into a scenario where these elements would react best to in terms of how interesting their reactions will be. But I do not try to judge these characters. There are a lot of characters I've written that I would find deplorable in real life, but I try to be as objective as possible in showcasing them. Not forcing my own opinion but the opinion of the character. It's much more interesting I find to have a morally grey character whom you may not like in person, but you see that they are still human after all. Authors like Yukio Mishima, Yasunari Kawabata, Woolfe and Chinua Achebe Ifield are great at this. Just showing flawed human beings interact with the world.

Which of your stories on Novellea did you enjoy writing most?

My favourite story so far published on Novella is probably Neurotic. Simply because it was the most fun to write. Not that the others weren't but this was just my attempt at a pure dark comedy. Whilst others have comedic elements to them, some more than others. This one was just quite morbidly funny to work on. It was inspired by my fascination with True Crime as well as other people's interest in that sort of thing. It originally started as a joke I thought to myself about all the people I've met or read one from like Reddit or YouTube comments about how they watch enough True Crime documentaries and now they know how commit the perfect crime. They seem confident yet I'm sure that when it gets down to getting their hands dirty, they'd most likely get caught. So, it was just a concept I played around with during the writing process, and it was very fun to do.

Do you have a favourite character from your stories?

As for my favourite character. That's a hard one to answer. Though if I had to choose it might be the narrator in Shading. I ended up putting a lot of myself into them, from their pet hamster to their passion for the arts. Also adding in the mixture my own snobby attitude to art. The story is kind of a dark comedy based on artists who put themselves into their art until they become their art. Not saying that's good or bad as I do it too, which is why I probably say they are my favourite character. They perfectly encapsulate the story's theme about artists.

What influenced you to start writing?

From an early age I loved telling stories. Like I would draw story boards as a child in this book I got given for my birthday. I also loved making stories up with toys and engaging myself with all types of fiction growing up. It wasn't until I was in my late teens, I transferred my love of storytelling to writing short fiction. They were quite embarrassing as I'm told many other writers are, but I enjoyed writing them. They were fun to do in my spare time but now writing has become part of what I do now. I did try my hand in other forms of storytelling like film and music. But writing was always my key strength and it's what gives me the most joy. For me there is no better feeling (besides maybe visiting another country) then finishing something you've been working on for a while.

What do you think makes a good story?

What makes a good story I'd hard to say. Sometimes the greatest stories can have not alone going on at a surface level, such as Ulysses or Waiting for Godot but there is a lot more under the surface. So,q I guess for me, a great story can come from anything buy it has to connect to reality. This doesn't remove fantasy or Science Fiction as one of my favourite novels is Solaris. That's such a powerful work of Science Fiction because it taps into very human emotions. Feelings of loss, grief and regret are very human emotions that it explores so well behind this backdrop of interesting Science Fiction world. So, for me to really love and engage myself in a story, there must be something real behind it. Something that makes me feel there is a human being writing this and not a machine.

What's your favourite book and why?

My favourite book of all time is The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I was always a huge fan of her poetry, (in fact Lady Lazarus is probably my favourite poem of all time) so I was always excited to read ger one and only novel. And it did not disappoint. I really admire her brutal honesty that is in all ger work but especially here. You can tell all the emotions such as rage, despair and emotional numbness were all real and that carries through to the reader. Even if you've never experienced anything quite like what Plath details in the novel, you still understand the emotions and connect to them because they are so real and very human. A very hard read I find for those reasons. But it is the very best read for me. It's so honest about how she feels mentally but also of how women's roles often make them feel trapped in this Bell jar. I greatly admire her for exposing herself like that in what must have been one of her most vulnerable moments in her life. I believe she was the author that really got me into reading and shaped the literature I read and write. Even though my style is quite different from hers, I still try to harness that same emotive connection and honesty. Without the Bell Jar I believe reading No Longer Human (my second favourite novel) by Osamu Dazai wouldn't have had the same impact. Nor might I even have any desire to read another brutally honest work. But yes, The Bell Jar is my favourite novel.

Where is your favourite place to write?

My favourite place to write is honestly quite difficult. I like to write anywhere where no people are going to come up and distract me and preferably with a nice warm cup of coffee. So, my pick would either be my bedroom or a park in a more natural environment. Unfortunately, my laptops battery will run out eventually. But I'm comfortable writing anywhere I feel like. But if I had to pick then probably my bedroom. Simply because there are chargers present.

What advice would you give to aspiring short story authors?

Advice I would give a young aspiring author would probably, have a willingness to learn and change your writing style. For me when I was younger a lot of my work was far more shocking and transgressive. But that was most likely due to my tastes being quite dark back then. And not a lot of my earlier work I would consider good at all. But I've since grown as a person, and you experience new things in life. Whether that be through reading, travelling or just living your life. You're always going to change and that's a beautiful thing. You're not going to be the same person you were 5 years ago and that's OK. Life happens and this change should be reflected in your work. You should always be looking to grow, develop and learn new things. Experiment and work on what you feel is right for you currently. Keep an open mind as there have been many times I'm halfway through writing something or have come back to something I wrote years ago and gone ahead and made changes that suit how I've developed as a person and how I want my writing to reflect that. So always be willing to grow and allow change to flourish within you. Trust me, I haven't even fully developed and I'm still learning new things every day.

What made you take a chance on Novellea?

I took a chance with Novella because it was a great place to develop my skills. I learned about it through an online writing group I was in and thought it would be ideal for me to further along my passion for writing. I had many short stories already and wanted to test different styles and narratives out and see which one worked. The Like feature on Novella gives me a small but helpful understanding on which ideas, themes and styles work and which not do much. Plus, it grants me a great opportunity to get some of my work out there for others to read. Which is something I believe most writers yearn for.