Jaime Gill, London Independent Story Prize 2024 2nd Competition Flash Fiction Finalist 'Cathy's Theory Of Happiness'

London Independent Story Prize 2024 2nd Competition Flash Fiction Finalist 'Cathy's Theory Of Happiness' by Jaime Gill

- Can you please tell us about you and your daily life?

I grew up in Northumberland, mostly in former mining towns, and then spent most of my professional life as a journalist and communications manager in London, before having a fruitful midlife crisis at the age of 36. I stopped drinking and crossed the world from England to Australia without flying, a thrilling adventure that left me hopelessly in love with Asia, where I now live.

My daily life is something like 90% writing and 10% socialising/relaxing, which probably isn’t recommended by self help books. I returned to writing late, so I’m in a fever to make up for lost time. If I’m not writing for my day job—as an in-house writer for development organisations in Asia—I’m writing stories, scripts and a novel. I have a small desk in my apartment overlooking the Mekong, a source of continual inspiration. I’m single and have no pets or children, which helps with concentration.

- When and how did you get into writing?

I was a writer and reader from a young age, and tried writing a novel at age nine. I didn’t get far, since even at that age I realised it was a hopelessly derivative imitation of Tolkien. I then went on to become a teenage poet and won some awards, before getting sidetracked by two decades of fun-until-it-wasn’t alcoholism. I continued writing music journalism and writing was always core to my day job, but my efforts to write fiction were fitful at best. I started writing seriously again in my forties, once I’d rebuilt my life after the hedonistic years, and began writing short stories two years ago. I’ve been fortunate to get some recognition in the last year. I came second in the Bridport Prize and won the Honeybee Literature Prize for Fiction in 2024, and just found out I have been nominated for a Pushcart. I’m also proud to have had my stories appear in some really fine publications, like Litro, Underscore, The Phare, Stanchion, Scribes, Good Life Review, and Voidspace.

- How often do you write? Do you have a writing routine? And what inspires you to write?

Because of the inconvenience of having to earn money in my day job—even worse, one I care about—my fiction writing is fitful, but I do try and do some every day, and there are weekends where I do nothing but. There’s very little routine involved, unfortunately, I write whenever I can. My inspiration comes from all over the place. I’m a curious person—I’m not sure anyone who isn’t could really be a writer. I find ideas in newspaper headlines, strange things I see in the street, anecdotes my friend tells me, song lyrics or a million other places. The trick is to notice that they are all the kernels of story ideas, and write them down before they escape my swiss cheese brain forever.

- How does it feel to have your work recognised?

Some people say they write only for themselves, but that’s not the case for me—or I wouldn’t worry about proofreading or polishing. I want to find readers, and when I win an award or get published I am grateful for the opportunity to reach new people. There’s nothing more exhilarating than getting a message about your story from a total stranger and finding out what it means to them.

The other beautiful thing about recognition is that it provides you with a little bit of armour to help you endure the rejection that will always follow. Rejection in writing is relentless: for every publication that embraces one of your stories there are ten others who run screaming in the opposite direction. Writers are by their nature sensitive and I know many who don’t send their stories out into the world because they find rejection too difficult. In the first eight months where I was sending stories out to mostly deafening silence, being longlisted by the Masters Review kept me going when I was beginning to think I was a talentless hack.

- What's the best and most challenging thing about writing a story? 

The single best thing about writing a story are the two moments that bookend the process: the joy of discovering an idea, and the delight at finally finishing (although I do also subscribe to the maxim that “stories are never finished, only abandoned”). The most challenging stuff is everything in between. Where does your story start? Who is your main character and what is the voice that will reveal them to the reader? There’s also the Lupe Fiasco test, from his song Superstar: “did you improve on the formula or did you do something new?”

But I think every writer has their own unique challenges. One of mine is that I live in Asia, consider myself as one of Theresa May’s “citizens of nowhere”, and for that reason sometimes write about characters who have very different backgrounds and perspectives than mine, often from other countries and cultures. This is something that can only be done with quite a lot of care and questioning, always wondering whether I know enough or can at least make very educated guesses in order to tell that story. If I do write from another cultural perspective, I get friends from that culture to read the story and tell me if what I write feels fair and honest, and warn me if I am committing any awful blunders.

-  How did you develop the idea for your LISP-selected story? Is there a story behind your story? And, how long have you been working on it?

The story was prodded into being at the start of 2024 by a prompt—I was challenged to write a story about something being overheard. I spent a while thinking about all the things a person might overhear, and then thought about the fact that there must be some people in the world who would overhear a terrible, dark truth and convince themselves they hadn’t. But who? And why? With that, my main character—the Cathy of “Cathy’s Theory Of Happiness”—arrived fully formed into my head.

I’ve worked on the story obsessively throughout the year because it is so short. Only a non-writer would ever think that the shorter a story is the easier it must be to write. In fact, really short stories require a maniacal attention to detail, stress-testing of every sentence and verb. Most importantly, in a story which is a psychological study, I had to make sure that every single sentence was true to Cathy’s perception of the world.

- Can you please give us a few tips about writing a story?

Read and write, read and write, read and write. Those are the only absolutely non-negotiable pre-conditions to getting any good at writing a story. Read other stories, try to absorb how they work their magic tricks on you. Some people are able to deconstruct those tricks and work out how they’re done, but it’s more likely you will absorb them on a sub-conscious level and then deploy them in your own stories without fully understanding what you are doing. And you will only ever improve at writing by churning out a lot of words, and working out what you are good at, and what you aren’t.

Finally, remember that very little of the beauty you see on any published page is the result of an inspired, exquisite first draft. Most writers churn out unlovely mud on their first attempt at a story, and then slowly sculpt it into shape through the editing process. That's certainly true for me. I'd also say you have to try and fall into love with your characters or—at the very least—fall into empathy. I’ve written stories from the perspectives of some terrible people, including abusers, bigots and murderers, but while I wrote their story I had to be on their side in order to tell it properly. And then I got the hell out of their heads and was relieved.

- What's the best thing and the most challenging thing about competitions? 

The best thing about competitions is that some of them are prompted or themed, and that might push you to write a story you wouldn’t have considered before. For those that are open or unthemed, deadlines can really aid with the act of creation. And if you are lucky enough to win a competition, that can help you reach new readers and assemble the rejection armour I mentioned before. The most challenging thing is always the same: how do you summon up something entirely new, and how can you then sculpt it to be as good and as true as you can possibly make it?

- Lastly, do you recommend that writers submit to LISP?

I’d say that any hopeful writer should try to welcome any opportunity to challenge themselves to write and just maybe get their story recognised and out in the world. What I like best about the LISP contests are that they work hard to give writers a platform to talk about their work, even if they don’t win a contest outright. I’m talking about myself, obviously, and this whole Q and A. So yes I do recommend that writers take part, and I also recommend that any readers check out my website to read more of my stories. It’s www.jaimegill.com.