How to Stop Competing and Create a Game You Can Win 🎲♟️🃏

Published: Sat, 07/26/25

Updated: Sat, 07/26/25

Like it or not, life is a game.

Phil Knight - Shoe Dog

I used to think writing was the game. Telling big stories. Creating strange, beautiful, dangerous worlds. That was the win, right?
But then I started asking better questions.
What if the real game isn’t just getting published—or even getting read? What if it’s building a life around the creative fire? One that keeps burning when the algorithm changes, when the sales drop, when no one’s watching?

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If I play, I play to win.

That’s when I realised: I had to design a winnable game.

A game I could win. With the resources I have. With the skills I can sharpen, fueled by a fire that won’t go out.

It’s easy to inherit other people’s definitions of success, especially when you come from a culture like mine, one wired for survival. Growing up in Jamaica, I didn’t hear much about “designing a life.” It was more like: Survive what you have to. Build what you can.

🔥 Futuristic Folktales Challenge: Legends Rewired 🔥

If Anansi hacked the blockchain, or Mami Wata ruled a water planet—what stories would we tell?

In every African society, storytelling has always been the soul of culture—carried through griots, firelight circles, village elders, and drumbeats. But what happens when the fire is holographic, the drums are AI-coded, and the elders are data-preserving neural implants?

We challenge you to imagine what a folktale would sound like in a high-tech, futuristic African society. Would a talking baobab now be a sentient bio-hub? Would a shapeshifter outwit drones? What new myths will our descendants tell about identity, power, love, and survival?

Challenge Details:
Write an original Futuristic Folktale set in a far-future Africa—or a techno-African diaspora. It can be funny, scary, wise, magical, or even a parable for AI ethics. Bonus if your tale echoes the cadence or style of traditional oral storytelling!

How to Enter:

You may submit either or both:

📝 Short Story (Folktale Style) – Up to 800 words. Think like a griot from the year 2150: bold characters, deep morals, and an unforgettable setting.

🎨 Visual Companion (Optional) – Submit an original image (AI-generated, freehand, or digital art) that captures a scene, character, or symbolic element from your folktale.

Judging Criteria:

Mythic Quality: Does your story feel like it belongs to a long oral tradition—even if it’s brand new?

Afrofuturist Fusion: How well do you blend traditional African folklore with futuristic or sci-fi elements?

Creativity & Voice: Is your storytelling original, vivid, and memorable?

Visual Impact (if included): How well does your image capture the soul of the story?

Prizes:

🥇 First Place: Featured folktale + art in the next newsletter, a $50 gift card, and a professional audiobook-style reading of your story produced by our team.

🥈 Second Place: Newsletter feature + $20 gift card.

🥉 Third Place: Newsletter mention + $10 gift card.

Submission Deadline: 11th August 2025

Submit Your Story: Email your entry to marksmanstudios1@gmail.com with the subject line "Futuristic Folktales Challenge". Include your story, image (if applicable), and social handles if you'd like to be tagged in the showcase.

🪐 The stars are watching, and the ancestors are listening. Tell us the tales they’ll pass on in the year 3000.

Then I came to the UK, where opportunities were abundant but still unequal. I didn’t feel ahead of the curve—I felt behind it. Trying to catch up. Trying to be seen.
But here’s the secret: the curve is made up.
Most of us are playing games designed by other people, for goals we don’t even want. We chase prestige, attention, applause. And we burn out, wondering why we still don’t feel fulfilled.
That’s the unwinnable game.
So I flipped it. I went meta.

In the first week of August 2025, Headhunters—my electrifying new supernatural thriller will be available. Early insiders will receive a digital copy of the novel before launch, along with exclusive lore-packed extras that won’t be available anywhere else. CLICK ON THE IMAGE ABOVE & JOIN ME.

I asked, ‘What does a successful Black speculative fiction author look like to me?’ Maybe it’s not a New York Times bestseller. Maybe it’s creative autonomy. Maybe it’s making work I believe in, on my terms. Maybe it’s building a loyal readership of 1 to 1,000 who see themselves in what I write. Maybe it’s financial independence. Not fame. Just freedom.

When you design your game, you change the rules.

You stop trying to play harder. You start playing smarter.

Here’s what I’ve learned from the speculative worlds I build: the systems that win are the ones that reflect the true nature of their players. If you’re a quiet storm, don’t design a game that rewards noise. If you’re a slow builder, don’t play in arenas that prize speed. If you’re a visionary, don’t follow the blueprints of those who only replicate.

Design your life as if it were your own story. Because it is.

And make sure it’s winnable. Not easy. Not guaranteed. Just possible with the grit, gifts, and tools already in your hand.

Ask yourself:

What stirs my blood?
What would I keep doing even if no one clapped?
What do I want to be great at, not just good?

Then shape your work and your life around those answers. Choose your metrics wisely. Some people track followers. I track freedom. Some chase virality. I chase longevity. I’m building something I can still believe in when the crowd moves on. It's scary because my pedigree has always been to seek out the results, the outcomes. But what if it's not favourable?

Beating myself up over market forces I have no control over is asking for depression and burnout.

What can I control? I play with people I admire. The allies, not the gatekeepers. Those who sharpen my mind and soften my fall. Look out for those who remind you of who you are when the world forgets. If you’re lucky, they’ll walk beside you. But even if you walk alone for a while, keep moving.

The most dangerous phrase in the human vocabulary is: “not now.”

You want to write? Start scribbling. Do you want to change your health? Take the walk. Do you want to start the business, end the relationship, or reclaim your time? Do it scared. Do it messily. Do it now.

Because the game doesn’t wait for you to be ready.

You become ready by playing, by learning.

And when you design a life that aligns with who you are becoming—not who the world told you to be—you don’t just win the game.

You rewrite it.

Peace, love and power.