Author: admin

I was lucky to sit down have a consultation with the man himself, Ben Settle.

Ben is like marmite as they say here in the UK.

You either love it or your hate it and the same goes for him.

His ways are deliberate and they all make sense.

So there’s no secret that I write short stories in a range of genres, across different pen names and it’s something I don’t usually talk about. Mainly because I was never sure where I wanted to take it.

The call I had with Ben today has straightened out where I need to be. Especially with the way the whole creative / writing industry is heading, especially with our A.I overlords…

And to sum up the call it was really like with a lot that he teaches…

You need to do more to build out your world and get the right people in while keeping the ones you don’t want at bay.

And with all the research I’ve done on my market/genre there’s a lot of lack in that industry for someone to step in and be a “guru” figure head.

So yeah. I’ve got the rest of 2025 mapped out and now I need to get to work.

I’d highly recommend checking out his stuff. Jump on his list and learn from him.

It doesn’t matter what you do. His ways make sense because they are rooted in old school principles.

Stephen Walker.

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Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

I gave myself a little talking to today.

“Sit down. Wipe the Cheeto dust off your fingers if you must. We gotta talk.”

Me to my 18yo self basically.

As much as I could go back to my younger self and instil whatever wisdom I have painfully obtained over the years.

It still leads me back to the shitshow of 2020.

Because as much as I hate to admit it. We’re still up to our eyeballs in the same entertainment hell loop we fell into when 2020 rolled around. Remember it?

The world hit pause, and we all hit play.

Streaming became a lifestyle.

TikTok became a verb.

Zoom meetings became the place where your soul goes to die, even to this day.

(I’ve got one tomorrow and it’s the only one I’m actually looking forward to haha)

And somewhere, in whatever online wreckage came about, you and I became… content consumers.

Like rats pushing the dopamine lever. It all started to become weirdly addictive.

Everything evolved. (Like COVID, but less respiratory failure and more terminal cringe)

Now, you can’t just passively scroll, doom or otherwise.

You gotta be a guru.

A Thought Leader™.

A “personal brand.”

Which, let’s be honest, is just a fancy way of saying “the internet wants you to cosplay as Tony Robbins with an Instagram filter and a newsletter.”

But why?

Because the internet is bubbling over with festering A.I. generated slop.

Articles that read like a blender full of SEO keywords and corporate word salad. Shiny LinkedIn posts with zero actual human fingerprints (or, hell, fingerprints at all. Just smooth, uncanny valley language that makes you want to delete your brain for 48 hours)

“Experts” who’ve never done anything except regurgitate ChatGPT’s last meal.

So people…

The real, squishy, flawed, eye twitching people… are hunting for something else.

You can feel it, right?

That hunger for (and as much as I am in deep pain as I type the next word…)

Authenticity…

For the kind of artist who actually gives a damn about the craft, not just the clicks. For someone who bleeds on the page, who cares about the people they influence (even if they’re just yelling into space some days, like me, like you, like all of us)

And the thing is. There’s a craving for connection.

Being a “guru” is just the latest side quest.

You don’t need to be the all knowing oracle on a mountaintop. You just have to be the least bullshitty person in the room.

And if you’ve seen what’s passing for that online. It’s a low bar. So step over it.

Share your screw ups. Your weird hobbies. Your unhealthy obsession with Inbox Zero or Days Gone.

I’m still not over that post apocalyptic video game. It’s a support group at this point…

A.I. is the new gluten.

Everyone’s either allergic to it or pretending they are.

So what do you do?

You write like a human.

You bleed, sweat, and occasionally cry into your keyboard.

You call out the fakes, the flakes, the “look at me, I’m a thought leader because my bot said so” types.

And the real sauce is:

You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to be real.

You have to give a shit about the art, the audience, and the impact.

And if you’re worried about being too much, too weird, too honest? Just lean in.

So, yeah. We’re still stuck in the entertainment era. A hamster wheel powered by memes, robots, and the occasional clown with a chainsaw, but now, if you want to survive, you have to be the human in the room.

The one who cares.

The one who creates, not just for the bots, but for the person on the other side of the screen.

Be the anti-bot.

Be the artist.

Be the kind of “guru” who admits they’re full of shit sometimes, but keeps showing up anyway.

TL;DR version:

We’re still in the content circus. Now, more than ever, being a real, messy, passionate human is your only ticket out of the A.I. funhouse. So grab your chainsaw. Let’s go cause some trouble.

Stephen Walker

https://www.facebook.com/stphnwlkr

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Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

You know the drill. You’re sitting there, staring at the blinking cursor.

The coffee’s cold, your brain feels like a sad lump of potato salad left out at a barbecue, and the only thing you’re creating is a growing sense of dread.

Then it happens. Your body betrays you.

You blink. Maybe just a little too slow. And BAM. The Sandman sucker punches you, dragging you into the abyss of an unplanned nap.

When you wake up. Disoriented, drooling, and for a minute or two you think you’re either back in 1996 or the middle of an apocalypse…

You think, “Well, that was useless.”

But oh, my sweet, groggy friend, you couldn’t be more wrong…

Nap are the secret sauce to my creativity.

I always think of naps as some sort of mental car wash.

Power washing off all the grime of overthinking. You wake up with that weird, half dream haze, where ideas start connecting in ways they wouldn’t when you’re awake.

(Why does the villain in your story suddenly need a pet ostrich? Who cares. It’s genius. I’m gonna run with it)

There’s also this post nap weirdness.

That foggy, groggy state? Pure gold. It’s like your brain hasn’t quite reloaded all its filters yet, so your thoughts are raw, unpolished, uninhibited. You’re too disoriented to judge yourself, which means you’re primed to create something unexpected.

We don’t want perfection cause that is boring. Chaos is where all the good shit lives.

You know how your computer works better after you reboot it?

Same deal with your brain. That short nap hits the reset button on your mental processes, giving you a fresh perspective. Even if you wake up feeling like you’ve been hit by a truck driven by a drowsy clown.

So keep a notebook handy. When you wake up, write down whatever weird ass thoughts are floating around in your head. Don’t worry if they make sense. “Purple cactus apocalypse” might not mean anything now, but it could be the seed of your next big idea.

People on social media are trying to tell you not to lean into the weird.

I say do the opposite.

That post nap haze is where the good stuff lives. You’d be silly to fight it…

Embrace it. Write the things, draw the things, create the things.

Keep the naps short. Preferably 30-45 minutes. You don’t wanna be dancing with Sleep Purgatory. There is no creativity there. Only grumpiness…

I guess I could say this is some sort of self care routine too.

Self deprivation does the same thing too but that is not something I’d recommend. Unless you want think up some genuine nightmare fuel for your next horror story.

Well. It’s just after 9pm here now and that nap served me well.

Stephen Walker

https://www.facebook.com/stphnwlkr

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Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

Heading into a nice little sun filled weekend.

I just wanted to take the time to say thank you and how much I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to read and reply to my shenanigans.

I’ve made people laugh, cry or irrationally angry over technology, business, psychology and even books, movies and series.

I don’t do it to be malicious. I do it because I care about all of those things that line up in the creative world and all of the shifts that are happening.

And if I can give you a little option to think differently about a topic. I’ll write about it here.

I’ll keep showing up daily as always.

I appreciate you for sticking around and I’ll catch you later.

Time to go soak up the last little bit of Sun of the day…

Stephen Walker

P.S. If you want to keep up with my random memes, shit posts and occasionally wisdom drops. Come say hello over here: https://www.facebook.com/stphnwlkr

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

Check this headline out “Netflix will show generative AI ads midway through streams in 2026”

Netflix (and every other corporate shytlord) is doubling down on ways to distract you, monetise your attention, and make “content consumption” your default state.

Meanwhile, social media feeds you carefully curated highlight reels of others…

Making it easy to feel like you, raw, real, and unpolished aren’t enough.

And the crazy thing is. The more the world tries to homogenise, commodify, and shrink you into a “target audience,” the more powerful it becomes to show up exactly as you are.

Authenticity is genuine rebellion, like going back to the punk days.

And consistency is your superpower.

Cause showing up in the way you want is what’ll set you apart.

You remember when we used to sit around the campfire when we were younger and technology wasn’t all in your face?

We’d shoot the shit, tell stories, laugh and even fall in love.

Those were the simpler times. (The better times imho)

And the thing is. People are now slowly looking for it in the online space too.

Blogs, forums and shitty sites built by solo folks and yes…

Email too.

There is a shift happening and when it takes off. If you’re showing up as your weird self every day. People we see you as the “campfire” they want to hang around.

So if you haven’t written that blog post, email or built a terribly shitty site to sell your warez…

Get to it.

Stephen Walker

Obnoxiously super long hyperlink to the article that did this write up if you’re curious to read it…

P.S. The next time Netflix tries to sell you a mid roll ad for something you don’t need, remember this… Your attention is valuable. Spend it on things (and people) that deserve it. Starting with you.

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

So a few days ago I wrote about watching some of the classic Final Destination movies.

And tonight I thought I’d treat myself by taking myself on a date to watch the new Final Destination Bloodlines…

Let me tell you. It was equal bits cheesy and great all wrapped into one.

The thing with these types of movies is that yes they may be predictable and the characters easily guessed in terms of the roles they play…

But there is equally a reason behind why such cult fanbases emerge for the genre of these types of films.

Yeah it’s B rated horror thriller trash. But it’s my kind of trash and to be honest it’s a treasure in and of itself…

They’re easily predictible.

They always show up and are consistent throughout their genre and they always keep you guessing.

That is why from a writers POV – I love these films.

If you can show up every day.

Show your imperfections.

And show your audience your true character.

You will always win.

And so it is with these types of films and how it should be with your work.

That is it.

Follow this “pattern” and your audience will love you for it.

Stephen Walker

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom

So we all get caught chasing micro hits of dopamine while doomscrolling our way through another social media hellscape of the day…

Similar to how a rat would inside of a Skinner box except the box is your phone, and the cheese is that glorious, glowing red notification.

And so this whole “you gotta do a dopamine detox” thing pops up every now and then.

No, not the kind where you go live in a cave and eat moss until you hallucinate a spirit animal.

I mean the kind where you pry your eyeballs off whatever internet hamster wheel we’ve created since the 90s and try to…

Wait for it… (In my best Barney Stinson impression)

…be a person again.

The internet is broken. No, not like “404 error” broken.

Like “Twitter is now X, Elon is cosplaying as Emperor Palpatine, and everyone is arguing about whether pineapple belongs on pizza while Rome burns” broken.

Also just a sidenote: Pineapple belongs wherever the hell you want it. Also, stop fighting about it, you beautiful weirdos.

But why you might ask?

Well sometimes your brain resembles a microwave burrito left on high for too long.

Every dumb argument you avoid = one more neuron that survives the gladiator pit of internet discourse.

You might just maybe remember what it’s like to enjoy things without needing 12 strangers to validate you with heart emojis or that obnoxious little fucker cry face emoji.

You get to watch your sanity crawl back from the abyss, middle finger raised at all of those politically bent algorithms trying to mainline outrage straight into your cortex.

Generally speaking. Social media is a dumpster fire, and you’re the raccoon poking around for scraps of validation and memes. (No shame. We all love a good meme. But raccoons get rabies)

You don’t want rabies, right?

You don’t have to quit everything. (cue dramatic Hans Zimmer score)

Because the only thing you’re not allowed by law, by blood oath, by whatever eldritch contract you signed when you landed here…

Is to quit is these emails. My emails. The ones you’re reading right now.

Because unlike the endless scroll of “who wore it better” and “your uncle Gary’s political meltdown,” this is the good stuff. The dopamine you want. Not the kind that makes you want to bleach your brain with off brand tequila.

Stay subscribed, and I’ll keep showing up in your inbox like a friendly poltergeist with stories, rants, the occasional existential crisis, and zero pineapple on pizza debates. (Unless I’m feeling spicy. Then all bets are off)

Unsubscribe? That’s banishment, friend.

Exile. You’ll be cast into the outer darkness, where there is only weeping, gnashing of teeth, and endless TikToks about air fryers.

So again your prescription for today:

Detox from the social media platforms you dont need to be on.

Take a walk. Eat some real pizza. Hug a tree. Scream into the void or whatever.

But keep these emails. This is your lifeline. Your golden ticket. Your permission slip to sanity.

Stephen Walker

Thibaut Meurisse has a slew of productivity books and his dopamine detox book is spot on.

P.S. The unsubscribe button is a trap. Don’t touch it.

If you’re not diggin’ these tasty little emails anymore you can hit the unsubscribe button right here >>> unsubscribe

Stephen Walker
Unit 146317
PO Box 7169
Poole
BH15 9EL
United Kingdom