Creator Spotlight - Oleg Volkov

The writer of Fictitious answers a few questions for us

Oleg Volkov is a member of the Soaring Twenties Social Club and the writer/published of the Fictitious newsletter (see

Fictitious

) . Oleg and I have been publishing our newsletters for a similar length of time and I admire the quality of his writing and his taste. I was very happy that he agreed to answer a few questions for our readers.

Oleg Volkov

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1. When you were a kid what did you want to be when you grew up?

My dream profession ranged from doctor to polar explorer. It would change based on the books I was reading and the shows I was watching, and I don’t think I ever settled on one. At some point, I definitely wanted to be a sci-fi writer and earn TEN THOUSAND LITAS (we had a different currency back then) per book. Come to think of it, most of my dreams were rather impractical. I then got a degree in Turkish studies (not really vocational, as you might imagine) and spend my 20s working as translator, editor, language instructor, and Comms specialist.

2. I believe that you grew up in Lithuania and you still live there.  Is there something about Lithuania that you wish more people knew?

I hope my answer doesn’t sound too marketing-y (I did work as a Press Officer for the national tourism board). For a small country, Lithuania is pretty diverse, with beautiful national parks, little sleepy towns, haunted manors, and great beer. Will you be blown away by anything? Perhaps not. But it’s a great destination for reflection and soul searching. 

3. How long have you been writing (as a hobby, not necessarily as a career)?

I wrote a lot of pretty rubbish stuff in my teens, mostly sci-fi. Robots going rogue, anarchists going on adventures in dystopian landscapes, and so on. My magnum opus was a 150-page spoof of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It had a character who enjoyed the occasional scotch soda (something my teenage self had no experience of). And some sort of unsolvable mathematical paradox (just like the question to life, the universe and everything else). I'm kind of sad nothing of that period survived.

I definitely wrote some pretty cringe poetry in high school and I'm more than glad nothing of that period survived.

4. What is the ideal writing environment for you?

These days, it’s my commute. I can easily block everything out and focus on my writing. I do it on my phone, which means I don’t have 30+ tabs to jump through. I can’t type too quickly, which adds to the focused writing experience. With this setup, it’s easier to let go of caring about typos and nonsensical turns of phrase. There's also a set time limit, as my commute takes roughly the same time every day. I usually work on first drafts this way, and then sit down to do a final edit on my computer, when I have enough stuff.

5. Do you prefer writing with pen and paper or do you prefer the keyboard?

I’m quite a messy scribbler, so I prefer typing things up. 

6. Do you maintain notebooks (paper) and for what purposes?

I’m a lifelong language learner, so most of my notebooks are dedicated to writing up new words, conjugating verbs, and taking notes. My favourite method is watching a movie and writing down interesting phrases. 

7. Could you describe your current Ray Bradbury challenge and how that is going?

I stumbled upon it reading Frank's post  The gist of the challenge (not sure if Bradbury would use this word, though) is reading 1 poem, 1 short story, 1 essay a day for 1000 days. It sounded close to my heart and looked similar to the original idea behind Fictitious.

The challenge is tougher than I imagined. While I always read a lot, I do notice now in retrospect how low-quality most of it was. I’m talking /r/AskReddit threads and gossip columns level. The challenge pushes me to find stuff not only worth reading, but also worth sharing with others.

Through the challenge I’ve I discovered new authors (like Deborah Eisenberg), geeked out on linguistics (your Canadian readers might enjoy the fact that some of the First Nations had adapted a Basque-based pidgin) and delved into genres I was quick to overlook before, like flash fiction and horror. No intentions to stop!

8. How long have you been publishing on Substack?  Any particular likes or dislikes?

My first post dates May 2022. At some point this year, I felt the need for a creative outlet. I work with texts creatively and professionally (copy, content, branding and everything in between), but I’m rarely that into the subjects I work with. And even when I was, none of the things I wrote were… mine. 

Paradoxically, I thought of myself as a writer but all the writing I did was for someone else. So I decided to start a newsletter/blog. The initial idea was just to review stuff I enjoy reading (as an encouragement to read more good stuff), but after probably volume 2 I started sharing more things. First came short essays and rants, then movie reviews, and then my attempts at writing poems and short stories.

At first, checking stats and chasing dopamine hits (A new comment! A new subscriber!) was quite a problem. So was uncertainty about the direction the newsletter was taking. But I think I manage to develop a healthy relationship with it all now.

9. I see that you have been offering paid subscriptions for your Substack newsletter.  How is that going?

I turned it on fairly recently, and I’ve already got one annual subscriber, which is cool! Paywalling stuff isn’t in the books, as the main reason behind my newsletter is to connect and share. The expectations I have are quite modest, but I do hope, as the overall readership grows, more people will be inclined to support Fictitious, giving me some additional motivation.

10. Pretend you wake up one morning and you learn that the Internet has been destroyed.  What's the first thing you do?

Blame myself for not hoarding enough MP3s.

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Thanks to Oleg and remember to check out Fictitious!