Interview with Matthew Stott
I got to know Matthew Stott as editor of Tales From Between, and since then, I’ve really enjoyed reading the funny and strange speculative stories he writes.
Here is his bio:
Matthew Stott has written for BBC television & radio and has had short stories featured in places like The Ghastling, Maudlin House, Seaside Gothic, and The Other Stories podcast. He runs Tales from Between, which publishes strange stories.
He lives in London with his partner and their two children. This picture was taken before he had children, he looks even worse now.
Find him on Twitter: @MattStottWrites
I found his responses fascinating! If you have any other questions for him, leave them in the comments below.
You're a busy person, and it seems to me that you're also a curious person who likes to take on new projects. I think this is a good thing -- it means you've taken on ventures some people would be scared to try (like starting your own small press and self-publishing books). What are the pros and cons of this lifestyle for a writer?
The pros are that it’s fun. There are few things more exciting than getting a new idea and running with it. Of course, then comes the bit after that initial rush when you begin to wonder if perhaps you were a bit rash and you should just end the thing and pretend you didn’t start it in the first place. After that, you decide it probably was a good idea to give it a go, actually, so you carry on. And then you swing back and forth between these two thoughts wildly. I generally go into things assuming I can do it, and I should do it, which is the kind of dumb confidence that is handy for anyone who wants not only to write, but for other people to read their writing.
You've written some for TV and radio as well as writing prose. Do you apply the same plotting strategies to both, or are they totally different endeavors?
There is the temptation to delve much deeper into the plotting with prose, with putting more and more meat on the bones before the writing actually begins. With scripts I always had a much sparser beat sheet. Just a single line per scene. But my prose plotting is much longer, and I think about the structure much more. I am definitely a plotter in both mediums, I don’t know how anyone just starts writing without at least a basic path to follow. I almost always grind to a halt at some point if I don’t have a map.
You're a British fellow who grew up watching Dr. Who, but you also enjoy American sitcoms. You write funny stuff yourself. Do you see any major differences between British and American humor? Where do you think your writing falls on that spectrum?
I think one issue I often had when it came to writing comedy scripts, is that I was too enamored with American sitcoms. I just love a show like Seinfeld, or 30 Rock, where there is so much going on, and so much plot. Even though each episode of a British sitcom is longer than a U.S. sitcom, there is often not as much going on. Also, American comedy is interested in winners. Even if they seem like idiots and losers, they’re often still actually successful in some way. British comedies like actual losers. Coincidentally, I just read an article on a U.S. site about the American version of our sitcom ‘Ghosts’, and it stated that one of the reasons the American version is ‘better’, is that the non-ghost lead couple are successful at business. Which seems like a bonkers reason, but also very much illustrates what I just said.
We also like monstrous lead characters that the others orbit around (Partridge, Victor Meldrew, etc) and mundanity. I think my own writing, even if striving for some of that U.S. style, still reads as very British. At least, I’ve been told that by enough people that I suppose it must be true!
You've also written for a variety of age groups. What do you enjoy about writing for kids? Have you read any of your stories to your kids (I can't remember how old they are!)?
It’s odd, because I’ve never felt particularly drawn to writing for kids, but it’s happened both with script work and prose. With scripted work, it’s just an avenue in the UK that a lot of comedy writers find open to them. So you dip your toe in, find it’s pretty fun, and for some reason they’re more open to actually paying you rather than stringing you along with the distant promise of cash if you just keep on handing in that next draft, that next draft, that next draft.
I only began writing prose after years of being solely a script writer, and becoming disillusioned with that world and wanting to stretch beyond it. The problem was, I wasn’t sure I actually had the ability to write prose for adults. It was intimidating. Now this is very disrespectful to kids’ books and the writers who write them, but I thought it would be easy to write a kids book. So I wrote three middle-grade horror books. They probably stand as proof that, actually, it’s not that easy to write good books for kids. I’m too worried to actually go back and re-read them now. Hopefully I’ve improved a little. (I haven’t read any of my work to my kids, the oldest is only 3.)
You've put out a number of magazine issues with your press Tales From Between. I think they're all wonderful. What advice do you have for people thinking of starting their own magazine or small press? What have been the biggest surprises to you in this process?
I think the first thing is don’t expect to make money. In fact, assume you will lose money. Magazines and small presses are not your route to financial success. Only do it because you really want to create a place through which talented strangers can publish their stories.
The thing I’ve found hardest (and this is such a very, very stupid thing and I keep forgetting until it happens again) is be prepared to read hundreds of stories. I told you it was stupid. Even if you’re a one-person operation with no payment to offer and a potential audience of six and a half people, you will get A LOT of submissions, and it can be a slog, even if there are a lot of good stories. In fact, most will be good to some extent. Every time I have an open call I begin with the best of intentions, and then I see the inbox fill and fill and fill and I run away and it takes me months and months (just terribly long) to get through them all and respond. This makes me feel ashamed every time. I’m squatting in that awful place even as I write this!
Most people aren’t as stupid as me, however, and I’m sure will be aware that when you start a place that publishes stories, a lot of stories will come your way. Try and get some nice first readers to filter through the subs so you don’t have to literally read every single story. People have advised me to do that, it’s a very good idea. I have, of course, not done so.
The best surprise has been discovering new writers I love. People like Elin Olausson, and your good, strange self.
Has your editing gig made it easier for you to submit your own work to editors? That is to say, does seeing behind the scenes make the process less intimidating?
To be honest, I spent so many years sending out scripts and working with producers in that world, that I don’t feel all that intimidated by sending work out anymore. I’ve had enough positive reactions from script work and now prose writing that I assume I’m at least okay, so don’t take rejection personally. That’s not to say that rejection doesn’t sting, I just don’t automatically assume that I’m awful and should quit. I know that lots of good work gets rejected for any number of reasons. Rejection is very often not a comment on quality. I’ve rejected hundreds of stories that were good and will get published elsewhere.
Also, who cares really if that one person doesn’t love your work? What do they know? Move on to the next.
What is some of your writing that you're most proud of? Any special goals for future writing projects?
Prepare for me to bum you out.
I think I constantly feel that whatever I’ve written is both good enough to be liked, but not actually as good as it should be. That it should be a lot better. Ego mixed with disappointment. Do most writers feel like that? I know there are bits and pieces of lots of projects that I’ve felt a bit of pride in, but probably no project that I can point to as being entirely happy with.
One thing I was very proud of in my past career was being chosen by a big name sitcom writer to work with them as a writer on their show. That person has now turned themselves into a pariah, so I can’t even happily hold that up anymore (cue self-pitying tears).
My future writing goals are really to put myself first as a writer again. That side has been derailed over the last few years by so many different things (eg: burnout from writing purely for money, starting my little press, having kids) that I have found it a bit of a struggle to focus, to find the time and space to write, and to even know what sort of writer I want to be. What the hell is my voice anyway!? So I’ve been flailing around a bit. But my basic next goal is to actually finish a novella and have it published. I’ve started three and finished zero over the past year or two. So please future Matthew, actually finish one already, they’re only short.
What question would you like to be asked?
So are you going to finish writing one of those novellas or what? Doesn’t have to be good, just get to the end of one you lazy sod.
Bonus Question - I plan to interview Katie McIvor in a future episode. Do you have a question for her?
When are you releasing your damp collection, ‘Short Stories to Bog-le the Mind’? (Amazing pun, yes, thank you)
Thanks so much for your answers, Matt!