Summer General Issue – 1st Anniversary

Following the launch of each of our issues, we cajole one or more of the contributors into a mini interview with the Trash Cat.
Here they will reveal some writing wisdom and tell you what trash critter they identify with most. Important stuff like that.

Today, we have Jude Potts. You can read her powerful flash fiction, Things My Mama Taught Me HERE

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Q: What piece of writing advice/ crafting rule would you trash?

A: Honestly, I’m not good at following rules. If it feels right, I’ll break or bend any and all of them. I’ll use the same word a few times, I’ll confound the ‘rule of three’, make up words. I feel you have to find your own rules – otherwise, everyone’s writing would start to feel the same. Now I’ve established what writing ‘pickled-plum’ style is, I can find the advice to elevate my writing without losing myself. 

Q: Which writers and magazines do you go to to find treasure to read?

A: I love Punk Noir, McSweeney’s, Split Lip (Trash Cat Lit, obviously)… and so many more.

As for writers? I love anyone who makes me laugh and I’m partial to detective and mystery stories. So Will Carver, Chris Brookmyre, Joseph Knox & John Niven are all favourites – but I want to be Angela Carter when I grow up.

Q: What trash animal do you most identify with?

A: Goats – slightly manic, unpredictable, obstinate and yet oddly endearing. Although, hopefully, I’m a lot less whiffy. I’ve a real kinship with the Pallas Cat, and their furious, fucked-off expressions. But as they’re already ‘cats’ (but not trash), I’ll stick with the manic pixie energy of the goat.

Q: When your writing mojo is trashed, how do you recharge?

A: Walking is my go-to thing. Ideally walking by the sea – whether it’s extra oxygen from the ozone, the open horizon letting my creativity free, or just my brain monkeys like paddling – but it unlocks something in me pretty much every time.

I also love nosying in on people’s conversations on the bus or at the station. Just the odd little snippet, there’s always some little treasure that gets my brain itching. 

Q: If you could offer three tips to writing short treasures, what would they be?

A:  
1 – Be brave. Make yourself feel uncomfortable with your choices, whether its ideas, structure, language. The thing that makes you a bit clammy, makes your top lip tingle, feels a bit more risky? Always go with that. Even if you don’t pull it off, pushing outside your comfort zone is the best way to learn. When I was joint editor at Neither Fish Nor Foul, there were so many stories with one or two brilliant elements, where if the writer had  pushed a little further, they could have taken a story that nearly made it into the magazine, and turned it into my favourite story in that issue (ssshh, I never had favourites)

2 – Sometimes what you’re looking for isn’t one brilliant idea – it’s a mix of two or three ideas. Look at your list of ideas (go on, we all have them) and imagine how you might combine them. And play with the form, braid them, knot them, turn them inside out. 

3 – Play with language, use rhyme, rhythm, and unexpected combinations. You don’t have to use fancy, complicated language (unless you want to) but use your words precisely, imaginatively – surprise people with your metaphors.

4 – (told you I hate sticking to rules…) Put a little bit of you into your story – a little personal easter egg. Not in the tried and trusted ‘nugget of human truth’ way (although yes, do that too) but if your superhero fighting intergalactic vampires has a tea break, make the cup they drink out of the odd, rose-print cup with the coiled handle your nan always gave you to drink out of, weave your first serious boyfriend and his dodgy perm into your apocalyptic hell bunny story. It somehow brings your story alive for you…and the reader will pick up that energy.

Q: What is one thing, if spotted in a crowded charity shop/thrift store, you would just have to buy

A: The one thing that makes me go ‘what in the name of gremlins is that?’. Maybe a taxidermied monkey riding a unicycle, maybe a really ugly painting of a murderous child, maybe a lamp that looks like Audrey from Little Shop Of Horrors. The weirdest thing in the shop belongs to me. Something like this:

Lover of whimsy and the ridiculous, and the dark compelling shadows. Doesn’t believe in the ghosts of people, but believes in the ghosts of places. Can’t bear Santa. Addicted to tea (mine’s black, no sugar, touch of cold water at the end). Talks to every cat she meets, even the really rude ones. Swears in vivid technicolour. More charming than she looks. Has said she will create a website for herself if she gets one more thing published.