The Grand Writing Adventures of Victor Chang

The Third Roommate was a play I cranked out in a short time frame. And honestly, I think it’s great.

I had really developed a strong bond with my friends at Gotham Writers from 2016-2020. We always did the Write In most Fridays (boy, do I miss those because they haven’t been back in person since 2020) and we would hang out afterwards to get drinks.

Through the Write In, I learned that I was really good at writing dialogue so I decided to just forgo anything else and write only dialogue. Thus, The Third Roommate was born.

I had initially intended this to be read by some friends. It was supposed to be like a fun bonding thing. I sent it in late February 2020 and got some feedback, mostly positive. People really embraced the characters I had assigned them. But then, the pandemic happened so we never got to do it.

This story is very sad. I honestly don’t know where my headspace was but the main character is very heartbroken but it’s not like I was going through anything bad. I just really embodied sad boy energy. I also am very proud of how relatively fleshed out all the characters in the story feel.

(spoilers)

This play was very obviously written with the reveals in mind. I always intended Damien to be suicidal because of something he was haunted by in the past. The whole family dying was super dark, and then how he keeps trying to kill himself came about… Honestly, I don’t know. I definitely don’t have suicidal thoughts but the play might make you think I do.

I also made Olivia a therapist because of course I did. Olivia was the more organized, by the books, “type A” (which my friend described her as, which I didn’t think but which I definitely see now later) business lady. Emma was the more free spirited artist lady with a terrible past too, since her mom killed herself. That was very important because it drove her need to really sit Damien down and tell him to take care of himself. I also think their backgrounds as a lesbian couple and them having a kid that Olivia didn’t even care about was good background. Meanwhile Damien was just broken, not wanting help, and not accepting it until the end. The shelf metaphor was kind of meh though.

All the other characters were decent. Liv was just a gossipy friend. April, Damien’s sister, brought tough love and empathy. Charlie brought bitterness tempered with reluctant acceptance of Damien’s situation.

(spoiler end)

This was a fast and addicting read. I kind of love this.

Also, bonus points to you if you realized that all the main characters are named after characters in the video game Dreamfall. But you probably didn’t know that.