Tears of a clown

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Humour can be very personal. What makes one person cry with laughter can leave another person bemused or baffled. Hidden camera shows that made many of us chuckle in the eighties and nineties are a prime example, unless we were the recipient of course. 

When pranks go wrong they can have devastating consequences, which is the theme of a novel that I've recently finished, and I loved. It’s called The Prank, and it's the astonishing debut by L.V Matthews. A fantastic thriller with a tremendous heart. 

Liv is a good friend from the vss365 writing community on Twitter. I’ve known her since July 2019, when she was the prompt host for July – now the host only gets two weeks! She gave us wonderful words like fury, unfurl and equanimity – which though at first baffled by, I used to write one of my favourite very short stories (vss). 

Prompted by Georgie’s brilliant post last month on small beginnings, I was intrigued as to how you go from a vss to a full length novel, so I decided to interview Liv to find out. 

 Tell us a little bit about yourself, Liv, and your debut novel.

Obviously you know me, but for those who don't, my name is Liv Matthews and I've just published my first psychological thriller novel called, The Prank.

The book is about a young woman, Eleanor, who has been grieving the loss of her dad for over a decade. She waitresses in London and keeps a very low profile but one night she has a chance encounter with a man called Jim Valente. Jim is a powerful and charismatic CEO of a production company behind a reality TV show called Pranksters and El discovers a link between this show and her dad's death. El turns her back on her old life to infiltrate Jim’s company and take her revenge...

How long have you been writing very short stories and how did you start? 

I started #vss365 when I joined Twitter – properly in 2018. I saw people posting with this strange little hashtag and I just LOVED the writings. When I understood the concept of it, I was absolutely hooked. It's a wonderful way to meet like-minded people (because I've found that's genuinely hard in real life, isn't it, to find writers to talk to and appreciate writing!) I've found that vss really does inspire creativity. I love that with every word comes a plethora of short stories, different genres, different meanings, poetry, haiku.

What do you feel is the essence of a vss?

To me, the essence of a vss is to have a complete mini-story, or at least, a hook to what may come. It needs a great opening line to make people sit up and pay attention and then a sentence of intrigue or hone in on a setting or a feeling. If you're a thriller / horror writer, it's the killer end or the cliffhanger. If it's a literary piece, it's the description. It's a real art, I think, to be able to write like that in such a small amount of words. The good thing is that you can practice – every day!

I know it took you four years to write the Prank, but how did you get there? Did you write short stories first, do writing courses, etc?

I’ve always written stories - and when I was super young, they were, of course, short stories! But as I got older, I was only ever interested in writing novels - I don’t know if there were many short story anthologies when I was growing up and indeed, they’re only just coming back into fashion now (which is great!) I wrote 2 books of a fantasy trilogy when I was 17 and then a novel at 21 which is my ‘manuscript in a drawer’! I think writing short stories is such an art - the efficiency of words allows no room for meandering which in novels, you can get away with! 

I’ve gone to literary festivals before, and some of them had brilliant workshops attached and I’ve learnt the craft from reading LOADS and also talking to fellow writers, and obviously - years of practice!! 

What advice would you give to fellow writers?

My advice to fellow writers is in bullet form because there are so many points (and things I wish I'd known too!)

Read lots, both in and out of the genre that you want to write.

Learn what a narrative arc is and what the 'internal and external conflicts' really mean (see above about John Yorke!)

Write for yourself first of all and not 'the market', so you can develop your own style and voice.

Kill your darlings! The delete button is your friend. No, really.

When you have written a draft, invite constructive criticism - your book might be your baby and you might feel protective over it, but if you want to sell it commercially, you have let others in to help you make it better.

There will be rejection. Lots of it. If writing is your passion, don't be discouraged. Fail and then fail better and then... who knows where your dogged determination will lead you!

Who knows indeed! Fantastic advice, and if you are seeking out a thriller, then do read The Prank, you will not regret it!

I'm off to write with Jane Austen! More will be revealed in my next blog post... 

Until then, hoping your words flow. 

Martin is a writer, baker, photographer and storyteller. He's been published in the ACW Christmas anthology and Lent devotional. He's currently honing his craft at flash fiction and you can find him on Twitter here.