Reading allowed.
Not that you need my permission, obv.
What’s new with you?
Hi!
It’s Mat here. I hope all’s well with you and yours.
This month, I was lucky enough to be part of a live reading event run by the lovely folks at Writers’ HQ. They organise weekly flash-fiction writing prompts that culminate in a monthly online reading. Oh, and it’s completely free to take part. You get to write a lot, read a lot, and immerse yourself in some incredible stories. If you want to develop your writing habit, you could do a lot worse than getting involved.
But I digress. This month, the WHQ team allowed my buddy JP Relph to hijack the reading event, hosting a launch party for Trash Cat Lit — her exciting new online mag.
I’m lucky enough to be part of the editorial team and so I had the chance to read at the event. Rather than sharing our own pieces, we wanted to read the kind of flash fiction we admire, the sort of pieces we’d love people to submit to Trash Cat Lit — stories that shine with deft, focused writing, fizzy language, well-drawn characters, and emotional truth.
This meant that I had the privilege of reading a brilliant story by Martha Lane, called Cut Cherries. It’s a fab piece, full of relatable emotion and action, that delivers a powerful final image which stays with you long after reading. [Seriously, take a couple of minutes to read it now, over on Idle Ink.]
Reading a well-crafted story like Cut Cherries aloud is a joy. It’s a lot like watching those #OddlySatisfying videos on Youtube. The words flow just right. There are no snags. Every element feels intentional. And each phrase leads seamlessly to the next, drawing irresistibly you through the story. By giving it voice, you uncover rhythms and music, the emotions hidden in sentence length, in the order of words.
I could be wrong, but I feel like I can tell when a writer hasn’t spent time reading the piece aloud. The story seems to lose dimensions, for me at least, if the author doesn’t consider how their words interact with the reader’s breath.
Reading out loud is a BIG part of my creative process. I can often be found pacing around like an eejit, speaking my words at the walls. It’s one of the ways I discover my characters’ voices. It allows me to explore the musicality and the pulse of my sentences. It also helps me spot repeated words, clunky phrasings, and other pitfalls that would make my writing catch unpleasantly in the mind’s ear of the reader.
Heck, I even read these newsletters aloud, in a bid to catch any duff wordage.
So that’s my thought for today — read stories out loud. Your own. Other people’s. You never know what you’ll discover.
Top tip: Get your words out!
I wrote an article at the start of the year for the Wrong Publishing blog, encouraging everyone to embrace the multitude of opportunities we have to get our stories published. At its core was a call to literary polyamory. Submit to a magazine. Submit to three magazines. Submit to nine magazines, all at once. Nobody is there to judge you. They don’t even need to know about each other — not until you get an acceptance, at least. So, what have you got to lose?
I like to think of it as slutty subbing. Or slubbing.
You should try it. Live shamelessly.
And while you’re frenziedly smashing that SUBMIT button, you should definitely pay a visit to Trash Cat Lit. The mag’s first submission window opens June 1 and we’re looking for well-crafted stories in any genre or style. Send us something surprising. Something beautiful or funny, scary or bleak, whimsical or furious. But do send us something.
What am I writing?
I’ve been leaning into my weird this month, writing strange stories of unsettling bodily transformation — plenty of gelatinous tendrils, mutated flesh, oozing secretions, insectoid mandibles in human mouths. That sort of thing. It’s fun trying to freak myself out, finding the images and ideas that make my toes curl and hoping it hits other people in the same way.
I also wrote a tiny tale for a Voidspace pop-up call themed on museum/gallery description cards. My piece will be included in an exhibition they’re running as part of the forthcoming Voidspace Live interactive arts event.
The call is open for another couple of days (at time of writing), so if that sounds like your kinda thang, then why not get involved?
What am I reading?
I read a really good collection of short horror stories by Gemma Amor this month. All Who Wander Are Lost delivers a wide range of tones, voices and textures in varied and alluring locations. So we have expertly-rendered Lovecraftian pastiche in Egypt, alongside psychological twists and turns in a French chateau. Elder gods rub shoulders with werewolves, freaky naked cryptids, and ghosts, as we tour the Antarctic, the British Isles, the United States, and beyond, finding terror at every turn.
You can read my full review over on the Ginger Nuts of Horror blog.
All Who Wander Are Lost by Gemma Amor
Thinking about reading stories aloud (yes, we were, pay attention!), here’s a perfect example from the always-wonderful Roi Fainéant. The sense of voice and vernacular language in this piece is so delightful and the occasional breathless sentence-lengths lend the story such emotion, energy, and life.
Skinnymalink Melodeonlegs Big Banana Feet by Sophie Thompson
I want to share one more story I loved this month. It’s a superb slice of sci-fi that achieves something that only the very best speculative fiction can — making us look at our own lives in a new, transcendent way. I’ve recently become a huge fan of Elena Sichrovsky, and this story is a perfect illustration of why their writing is so great.
Tonight We're Wearing Waste Bags by Elena Sichrovsky
Open calls
Querencia is open for submissions of poetry and prose for a charity anthology raising funds for Palestinian refugees. They say: “Submissions are open to all, but we are especially interested in amplifying Palestinian voices. We are also interested in anti-war protest pieces, and in pieces acknowledging the longstanding history of the oppression of the Palestinian people.”
Bleach! is a really great web mag, run by a teenage team, publishing poetry, prose and art. Send them something edgy, something that resonates, something with some bounce, and texture, and life.
Writing Prompt
Memorable, inspirational quotes are a bit of a clunky cliché at this point. “Be the change you want to see in the world.” “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Sing along if you know the words.
But what if you could turn that trash into treasure?
There are loads of sites where you can find piles of memorable things that clever (and not-so-clever) people have said. And the great part is that any one of them could become the basis for a story.
I stumbled on a quote this week that said: “To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone”. It’s sort of trite, sort of clever, sort of true, sort of naff. But it immediately started me thinking about a story with triptych structure — a three-part tale of yearning, courage and humour, perhaps looking at three pivotal developmental moments in a person’s life.
Or how about restaurant critic AA Gill, who said: “I’ll eat anything that doesn’t involve a bet, a dare, or an initiation ceremony”. Now, that has me imagining a secret society with a a bizarre gastronomic initiation ritual, leaving everyone who partakes irreversibly changed. Or a kids’ game of dares that escalates until somebody eats something dangerous, or hilarious, or priceless.
And you can do that with any quote. Just grab those wise words, explode the ideas, and see where they lead!
Signing off
That’s probably enough from me for now. Next month, I’ll be back with more thoughts, tips, prompts and other groovy things.
Until then, take care and enjoy your writing.
Best wishes,
Mat