Meet Beth L. Thompson - SWF2023 First 5 Pages Prize Winner!

Beth L. Thompson (Strawberry Fields) - Photo Credit: Ged Thompson

You can follow Beth on her writing website: bethlthompson.com

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First of all, congratulations on your win! What an absolute thrill it was for us to see the sheer number of quality entries for the SWF23 First 5 Pages Prize, and then for us to finally get the results with the top 3 winners was incredibly exciting for us. We’re really interested to find out how it impacted you, and your writing. So, let’s start there: 

How did you feel after submitting your first five pages and officially entering into the contest?

I felt hopeful and especially excited to enter an international contest for the first time. I had no idea what to expect after clicking submit, but was proud of myself for having taken a leap of faith!

During the judging period, were you feeling confident, or were you plagued with doubts?  

I’d been working on getting my novel’s opening right for a little over a year, so I was confident I’d given my first 5 pages a lot of time and attention no matter the outcome. I believed in my work but kept an open mind as to what to expect – knowing it’d be competitive. 

What went through your mind once the long and shortlists were announced, and your entry was included?

Liverpool Skyline - Photo Credit: Beth L. Thompson

I discovered I was shortlisted while travelling home to Liverpool for Eurovision, which was being hosted there at the time. I was wearing head-to-toe sequins, and when I stepped off the train the city was awhirl with glitter and music, so it all felt very synchronous! Learning I’d been listed felt like confirmation my work had potential for readers, to make people feel something. I’d only ever shared my writing with close friends and family, or in small writing groups, so the idea of people enjoying and selecting my work out of hundreds of entries, in another country, was incredibly moving and somewhat surreal. I think that’s one of the gifts of writing – to cast our words out into the world like a boomerang and have them return in some way to our hand. 

 

Finally, when the prize winners were announced, and you were named the Grand Prize Winner, how did you learn the news, and what was your initial reaction? 

Catherine asked for a video call. I thought there was a possibility this meant my work had been listed further, but I was aware SWF has the reputation of being the friendliest festival (which I can now confirm is true) so I wondered if Catherine may just call with a polite no. Instead she told me I’d won with the biggest smile, and I spent the rest of the call beaming. After years of working hard to develop my fiction, winning a writing competition for the first time was a milestone. It was invaluable in encouraging me to feel I was on the right track with my novel. I’m in a WhatsApp group with some writer friends and I went straight to the chat, as well as social media, to share the good news before popping some champagne!

Beth L. Thompson with real Scouse Graffiti in Liverpool - Photo Credit: Ged Thompson

Your entry, Scouse Graffiti, was particularly captivating - how did you come up with the idea for the piece you submitted?


I’m interested in writing about place; how places might be characters unto themselves. And music has been the bass note of my life. I’m interested, too, in writing about the creative process, about what it means to us to make art (however that looks) and, in particular, who gets to make art. 2016 was a cataclysmic year for music and the world. The events of that year allowed for a backdrop that would speak thematically to the story I wanted to tell, and vice versa. I started writing about my home city Liverpool when I left it for the first time as a student. The writing I experimented with during my studies at once became infiltrated by the language, imagery, and character of home. My new distance from the city haunted me and consequently my writing, which coincided with wider reflections, intrinsic to being in our twenties, on my identity, roots, place in the world – feelings that plague my novel’s protagonist. So, really, the novel was born out of an original homesickness. I was a beginner then; I’d never written fiction before. But, for years after, a compulsion to write a contemporary literary novel set in the city tugged at my sleeves until I felt I could finally begin writing it 2 years ago. 

 

Liverpool Seascape - Photo Credit: Beth L. Thompson

What inspires you in your writing? 

Exploring the extraordinary within the ordinary. I wrote poetry long before I wrote fiction, and I think a poetic impulse drives all I write. Aside from an appetite for language there’s an urge to distil, in writing, my experiences of the world in a way that places them under a microscope so that we might see what it’s made up of, this being alive! I’m drawn to literature that enables me that experience, and so this is the kind of work I’m compelled to write. I also want to bring stories and voices to fiction that are underrepresented. I’ve found Liverpool – an inimitable, working-class, rock ‘n’ roll city – to be particularly absent from literature, and I’d like to change that. 

 

This competition is tough, because it comes down to grabbing the judges’ attention within those first five pages, and that means top-notch writing and editing - can you talk about your writing, editing and revision process?

It took me just under a year and a half to finish the first draft. For years I found the idea of writing a whole novel linearly, starting from a blank Word document, daunting – if not a little impossible. It didn’t seem to align with how my brain built a story, or processed impressions I wanted to write about. Story arrives to me in images and scenes. I once took a screenwriting course where I discovered I wrote more quickly when breaking a story down, scene by scene, image by image. And so I decided to make novel-writing work for my brain and used Scrivener for the first time, which allowed me to break the novel into smaller text documents for each scene. That revolutionised my ability to write at length; 17 months later I had a book. I’m not a huge plotter. I created a rough outline that listed all the scenes I could see in my head, and plot arrived through figuring how these scenes might connect. Drafting was a process of allowing myself to just get the novel out of my head, letting myself write freely and without judgement – without stopping too much to edit and perfect along the way. Learning to resist that temptation took years. Although I did find it useful to properly edit and polish the first chapter. Being happy with my opening chapter meant the rest of the novel had a benchmark – had something to aspire to. This set the tone for the book, motivating me at the start of each writing session much more than reading my rougher writing from the previous session ever could. As for editing, I’ve now extracted the novel  from Scrivener and am editing linearly within one Word document. I find this much easier now I have a first draft! 

Beth L. Thompson at the Stockholm Writers Festival 2023 - Member of the Winning Trivia Team

How has winning this prize and the recognition from the Stockholm Writers Festival influenced your writing in the following months? 

It’s been so heartening. The SWF faculty and community couldn’t have been more enthusiastic or encouraging, and they’ve kept in touch so that I feel part of the SWF community long after winning the contest. Writing is of course solitary, so this kind of support is invaluable. Memories of those sunny days spent at the festival back in August have motivated me as I’ve been editing through the colder months. It’s reassuring to know there are people out there not just interested in reading more of my work, but cheering me on through the process of creating it. 

 

We’re curious about the status of your novel now, as part of the prize, you were able to meet with an agent for a pitch session, firstly how did the agent pitch meeting go? 

I’d never pitched before, so it was a useful learning experience. Hearing the agent’s thoughts and impressions on my pitch, on my story and where she thought it might sit in the market, was so insightful – feedback like this is all-important. I’ve kept in touch with the agent since our meeting, and I’m delighted she’s requested to read my full manuscript once I’m finished editing.

We understand you’re in an intense editing phase - how is that going? 

I’m currently following a month-by-month plan, editing in chunks of a few chapters at a time, with the aim of having the manuscript completed early in the new year.

Beth L. Thompson - Reading an excerpt from Scouse Graffiti at SWF23

You were able to attend the festival itself in 2023 - what were your main take-aways and impressions of the festival? 

So many impressions and all of them good! There was such a positive, open, and friendly culture, with lots of opportunities for learning as well as socialising. I’ve never been to a writing festival like it – one dedicated purely to writers and the craft of writing as opposed to the usual, broader literary festivals I’ve attended that often focus more on established authors than emerging writers. There was so much care and attention put into every detail of the weekend – the book-page flowers decorating the walls, sweet stations and fika breaks, literary quotes pinned up in the hallways (including entrants’ work!) The faculty are so passionate; they work very hard and it shows.

Will you be returning to the festival in the future? 

Absolutely!

Liverpool by Night - Photo Credit: Beth L. Thompson

Finally, do you have any advice for aspiring writers on entering the SWF First 5 Pages Prize? 

Don’t write what you think people (or judges or agents or publishers) want to read. Don’t write something because you think it will sell, or will win. Maybe your writing will go on to do these things, but I’d say firstly and simply write what you want to write. Write about what excites you – especially in the ways, in the form and in the style, that excite you – because that passion will doubtless be felt in the work. No one else has your unique perspective and experiences, and that’s your superpower as a writer. Use it! Enter! 

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions, and to be not only be a part of our newsletter, and web news, but also a wonderful member of the Stockholm Writers Festival Community.

It was an absolute joy to meet you in Stockholm during SWF2023, and we’re so looking forward to seeing you grace our city again soon.

Needless to say, we’re also anxiously looking forward to reading Scouse Graffiti as soon as it’s published - so with that, we’ll let you get back to the editing!

Lars Nordstrom