Ken Cohen, LISP 2025 Short Story Finalist, 'Party Peace'

Tell us about yourself and your daily routine

I’m retired and live on the south coast of Dorset with views of the sea!  Those views themselves can be inspiring.  Whether it’s summer, when the sky is blue and the sea is calm and the beaches are packed with holiday-makers, or it’s grey and stormy, the sea is rough and the place is deserted, it’s there to stir the emotions.

I read, write, participate in my local writing circle as well as a Zoom-based writing group and I’m a member of a local drama group.  I enjoy foreign travel and I’m also a bit of a foodie!

As for routine, I can’t say there is one – certainly not a daily one.  I like the novelty and excitement that comes from every day being different!

When and how did you start writing?

I had written some unpublished short stories as a student but then didn’t write again until I retired.  I completed a very enjoyable distance learning course with the Norwich Centre for Writing (in conjunction with the University of East Anglia), which, as well as involving critical review of well-known published works, an introduction to a range of technical and creative skills, completion of a variety of exercises and review of peers’ writing, (and theirs of mine), gave me the confidence I needed to write. 

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

I tend not to have any particular writing routine, though I know I’m more creative in the mornings, with sometimes a ‘second wind’ late afternoon.  Neither do I set myself a daily word count – that just feels, for me, like setting myself up for failure!  After all, writing is a pleasure.  As soon as it becomes ‘forced’ it becomes a chore.  I’ll write wherever I am and if something pops into my head, I’ll write it down.  I’ve even been known to leave myself a voicemail, just so that a thought, whatever it is, isn’t lost!

I’m fortunate in that I’m inspired by anything and everything!  An overheard conversation, or even just a comment; an incident in a restaurant; a memory; someone else’s memory; an image; a concept; a historical event; or even just an object. 

It’s important to me that my characters drive the plot, not the other way around.  And what I really love is when my characters speak to me; when their words come tumbling out of their mouths on to the page; when they form lives of their own, almost independent of me; and when I feel an emotional connection to them.  That’s when I know there’s a story to tell.   It doesn’t happen as often as I’d like, but when it does?  Well, there’s nothing like it!

How does it feel to have your work acknowledged, whether through being a finalist in a competition or having it published?

When I started writing, I wrote only for me.  A number of years ago, I joined the local writing circle, a really supportive group of like-minded friends.  We read our work aloud and provide each other with constructive feedback.  Initially, I was initially nervous about reading to an audience.  But stories are meant to be told and it really helps when those you read to are there to encourage. 

Writing is such a solitary occupation, so when it’s acknowledged, either through winning a competition, being longlisted, shortlisted, being a finalist, or having a story accepted for publication, it’s heartening.  It’s testament to the story being of some merit!

Whilst that acknowledgement is heart-warming, winning, or being placed in a competition is not my primary reason for writing!  For me, it is the intrinsic pleasure that comes from the creation of characters and their unfolding stories.  Having a story like ‘Party Peace’ acknowledged means there is a chance other readers might make an emotional connection to my characters and their stories too!  That feels like a real privilege!

I’ve been lucky.  Amongst the scores of rejections, I won the Autumn Voices Spring Short Story Competition in 2021, was longlisted for the Scottish Arts Trust Short Story Competition in 2022, the Yeovil Literary Prize in 2024, and the Anthology Short Story Competition in 2024.  I was shortlisted for the Crowvus Ghost Story Competition in 2024, and am proud to have been a finalist in the London Independent Story Prize, and a semi-finalist in Tulip Tree Publishing’s ‘Stories that Need to be Told’ competition, both in 2025.  I have also had short stories published by Pure Slush Books and Truth Serum Press.

But I don’t delude myself - the rejections will keep on rolling in!

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

There’s a fragment of a memory behind the story.  I wrote the very first draft around three years ago.  Something - I don’t know what - triggered a memory of my late father telling me years earlier how, at the age of around seven, (so in the early 1920s), he’d stood on a chair in front of the family and recited a poem.  My father was a social animal, though of course I have no idea what he was like as a child.  But his snapshot of that memory made me wonder; how would a shy youngster cope with such an event?  How much of an ordeal might it have been?  What would have gone through his mind?  I brought my story forward in time to the late 1950s / early 1960s and had my character, a pathologically shy boy, sing ‘Old MacDonald had a Farm!’  Just imagine having to make those animal noises!  When his ordeal was over and he was consoled by his mother, I started to wonder how he would grow up and what would become of him in later life.  And so, the story developed.  My father was never an actor, and I grew up in a very close family, so the story is entirely a work of fiction which went through several re-writes before I submitted it to LISP.  I really wanted my protagonist to speak to me.  I hope he will now have a chance to speak to a wider audience! 

Please share a few tips on writing stories.

I’m a firm believer in the notion that we all have a story in us that is crying out to be told!  When I first started writing, I would find myself sitting in front of my laptop, writing the first paragraph, or even the first page.  Then I’d get stuck.  And what do you do when you get stuck?  You revisit the first paragraph, or the first page.  You edit it again, and again.  But in the end, all you have is a revised first paragraph or first page!  You never get to the end!

It took me years to break that habit.  What really changed my approach was NaNoWriMo.  Not being a writer of novels, I set myself a challenge to write a different short story every day that November, and mostly I did just that!  By the end of the month, I had very rough first drafts of twenty-three short stories (and didn’t beat myself up for not having thirty)!  The experience instilled in me what is now so blindingly obvious.  You can’t edit an empty page.  You have to get the first draft down on paper.  I’m neither a ‘plotter’ nor a ‘pantser,’  rather, perhaps somewhere between the two.  I like to know where I’m going, but I’m happy to see where my characters take me.  Which is fun, because I can end up surprising myself!

What is the best aspect and the most challenging aspect of competitions?

Focus and discipline.  If there’s a theme to the competition, or a genre, you have a clue as to how to proceed.  You need to be disciplined when entering competitions; you have to comply with the rules, stick to the word count and submit before the deadline.

But there is a third aspect to competitions which is worth considering.  You have to have courage!  There is so much pleasure in writing for yourself, but when your story is read by a wider audience?  Well, that’s thrilling! 

So why do you need courage?  Because you are putting your creativity out there for others to judge.  You’re putting yourself on the line.  It leaves you vulnerable.  Exposed.  Open to criticism.  By the law of averages, you’re likely to be unplaced, and that can feel like failure.   But if you don’t submit to competitions, or to publishers, or magazines or journals, you’ll never know!  Expect lots of rejections – it’s just part of the way things work!  But when you’re longlisted, shortlisted, published?  There’s no feeling like it! 

Finally, would you recommend that the writers consider submitting to LISP?

Of course!  You have nothing to lose, and if you don’t try ……?