Finish This Book

Hi.

The lovely Nicolette Koh has kindly gifted me with Finish This Book by Keri Smith, and I just wanted to share a post I have completed from the book.

I sit in Starbucks as I wait for visual prey, sipping a grande peppermint mocha, listening to Ed Sheeran romanticize the most basic form of human interaction. I watch the baristas in their natural habitat, frothing coffee and pumping syrups like they have been doing it their whole lives, and I look at my handwriting with great disdain, disappointed at its quality despite having nineteen years of experience of holding a pen and scribbling it on paper.

There is something about Starbucks that makes people feel the need to be pretentious. I see teenage girls giggling with their friends, taking photos with their drinks, an act I can totally imagine my mother doing. I see a guy in chinos and Doc Marten boots, use his pens as drum sticks, playing a pattern so weird, you just know he is not a real drummer. And then you have this girl wearing a sweater over a collared shirt, quietly judging everyone from a corner of the room and record it down on a completely unsuspicious book.

Whenever I read a sentence I had just written, I instantly like myself ten percent less, seeing the incredibly long sentences that are probably worth only a few words, yet I can't stop writing this way. There is something very comfortable about attempting to sound like a great indie writer despite knowing you actually end up sounding like a douchebag And it doesn't take a sleuth to figure that out.

I hope you have a pleasant week.

Good day.