sophie thompson and a taste for words

In this conversation, Sophie Thompson shares her journey of independent publishing with her debut chapbook, Maybe Just One Bite. Eager to get her stories out into the world, she decided to start her own press, not just for her work but to help other writers find their voices too.

Your debut chapbook, Maybe Just One Bite, explores themes of appetite—both literal and metaphorical. Can you discuss how you came to choose these themes and what they mean to you personally?

I didn’t consciously choose those themes necessarily, they’ve come out in my writing almost spontaneously. I got back into writing towards the end of last year (2023) while I was on maternity leave, mainly through participating in the Flash Face Off prompts that are released by Writers’ HQ every week. I ended up writing a piece pretty much every week, so once I had a fair few under my belt I decided to pull them into a collection. Looking across my work to draw out the themes, I found food and appetite came up consistently without me necessarily intending to include them. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but it’s still quite striking when you think you’ve been writing about lots of different things yet somehow there’s always a meal or an element of hunger in there.

Personally, my relationship to food has always been an obsessive one (much to my partner’s disbelief and amusement – he says he’s never met anyone else who thinks about their stomach so much). I really love my grub; I love cooking, baking, looking through cookbooks and of course eating. I think appetite touches on so many parts of us. For me, it’s in how I move through the day if I’m fixating on what to eat at the next meal or those little snacks to get through the workday. It’s deeply emotional; I turn to food as a reward, a celebration, a comfort, a way of connecting with people or showing them I love them. We meal plan for the week in our house, and if I don’t have something “tasty” to look forward to at the weekend (think a roast instead of vegetable soup), I genuinely get quite miffed. It’s ridiculous. Then on the more serious side, it shapes so much of my self-image. If I indulge too much, I get into a spiral of feeling fat and disgusting and ashamed. This itself has its roots in teasing I received about my weight as a child but also in a society that has more often than not put a lot of emphasis on women looking their slimmest. I didn’t really realise until putting the collection together how often these things bubble into my line of thought.

Your stories feature characters with complex desires and motivations. Can you share your process for developing these characters? Do they draw from real-life experiences or people you’ve encountered?

In terms of developing characters, I don’t think there’s as much background that tends to be needed for characters in flash fiction compared to longer formats. However, I still like to sketch out the idea of the piece and the character’s place within it before starting, jotting down any lines of dialogue or internal monologue that spontaneously come to me in their ‘voice’ during the process too. I’ll also ask myself “What’s the point I’m trying to get across with this piece? What’s the truth it’s telling?”. I’ll then think about how the character is placed within that or reacts to that idea.

I do more extensive character sketching for longer pieces though. I’ve been working on a novella recently; I’ve always tended towards shorter forms hence my love affair with flash, so a novella is all I feel I can stretch to right now. I’ve sat down with each of the main or more prominent characters and done a thorough sketch of them in terms of their appearance, their background, their psychology etc. I’ve found the Reedsy character profile approach really helpful for this. It gets me to think about characters in more depth, rather than launching into writing when they aren’t fully formed in my mind. That makes them more effective I believe, as I can better think about how they might react in interesting or consistent ways within the story. 

I think every character a writer brings to life is drawn from their experience of themselves or other people. As mentioned, a lot of kernels from my own personality and psychology are written into the characters within Maybe Just One Bite. There are also elements of people I know in there. I won’t say exactly who and in which stories because the real-life people are all lovely and I don’t think the characters in any of the pieces in the chapbook are particularly likeable! What I would stress is that these characters are only ever drawn from little snippets – the particular way someone has reacted to something or a phrase someone has said once – that I’ve then spun out in dramatic ways.

For example, If you sow all your wild oats, what’s left for breakfast? came to me the first day back at home after visiting family in Northern Ireland over the festive period. My partner had made some porridge for breakfast that got me thinking about cooking and acts of love and the saying ‘back to porridge’ (which felt fitting given the time of year). I then spun that into a story about a relationship in difficulty. A lot of the porridge recipes in that piece are actual ones we’ve made for each other, or my dad has made for me at some point. So when I finally let my partner read that one, I had to really emphasise the fact that this was not at all a commentary on our relationship, as you can imagine!  

How do you balance humour and darker themes in your writing, especially given the content warnings for Maybe Just One Bite?

I think in part, it’s just the way we tell stories back home on the island of Ireland (north, south, whichever background you come from). We blend humour and darkness together out of habit. It just comes quite naturally to us and it’s not really a good story unless it has light and shade, silliness and drama. For me, I can be a bit sarcastic and tend to try and find the funny thing to say in a conversation (not always to great effect, it must be said). So to that extent, it’s my tendency to inject a bit of (at times dark) humour where I can.

It’s about keeping the reader in mind as well. If you’re battering them with wave upon wave of difficult topics, I believe that is going to take its toll and make the whole experience of reading a piece or a collection less enjoyable for them. You have to bring relief to those darker moments and themes. That could be through beautiful language, a small moment of softness or humour. It makes the story more effective, in my opinion. In those instances, the humour should not be irreverent or disrespectful, but it should remind people “Look, this is pretty awful but there is light in the world too.”. So if I have got a piece that I’ve not envisaged as being a properly dark piece I will usually try to draw some laughs out of it.

As a publisher, you choose to handmake your books. How does it connect to the themes of individuality and imperfection in your writing?

I set up the Press to do two things. First, to print and release Maybe Just One Bite because I’m impatient. At the time when I felt the manuscript was ready, I saw that the other indie publishers who I thought might take the collection were closed to submissions. Plus there’d be a waiting period of several months to hear back from them and no guarantee that would turn into an acceptance. I was too excited so thought “Hey, I could just do this myself.”. Second is that I want to do more to help bring the voices of writers to their readers and hope the Press can be a vehicle for that. Maybe Just One Bite is also a bit of a test run, to try the whole thing out without risking doing another writer’s hard work a disservice if it all went to hell in a handcart. I really loved the idea of small-scale publishing and making the books by hand, as I’ve always enjoyed crafting.

Other micropresses like If A Leaf Falls Press and Porkbelly Press were a big inspiration to me when thinking about what Tom Thumb Press would do. It also seemed more feasible and manageable for one woman, especially given I want to keep up my own writing alongside having my day-job and raising a family. As far as I’m aware, we’re one of the few (possibly the only) micropresses in Essex, so I’d love for the Press to become more embedded into and amplify the voices of our local writing community as it keeps going. Anyone reading in Essex or the East of England, do get in touch with us if you want to!

So to get back to your question, the handmade nature of the chapbook is part practicality and part a choice about the identity of the Press, rather than being driven by themes or my preferences as a writer. I hadn’t really reflected on how that links into themes of individuality and imperfection before. But I suppose it does come together quite nicely. In that there’s charm to be found in the flaws in our work as writers (since we’re only human), and the uniqueness of our voices. I feel publishing in a handmade medium amplifies that down to every single copy.

What does a typical writing day look like for you, especially while balancing family life and other responsibilities? Do you have any rituals or routines that help you focus?

There isn’t really a typical writing day for me, because as you mention there are lots of competing demands on my time. As much as I’d love to be a full-time writer, I do have a day job as a social researcher. Then there’s raising a young child and spending time with my partner and keeping three chickens alive plus all the life admin that comes along with it. So I suppose a ‘typical’ writing day is basically snatching time wherever I can! Usually that’s in the evening once my son has gone to bed; I find that’s when my brain comes alive for writing (less good for sleep). I do also try to set aside a half an hour in the morning at my desk before the workday starts to do something writing-related, whether that’s jotting a few sentences down or ideas or subbing to lit mags or whatever. That way if I don’t quite get writing in the evening, I’ll not feel too bad because I’ve at least done something writing-related that day or week.

The only other thing I can think of in terms of rituals is switching up the tools I use for writing. I used to try and force myself to write first drafts in my notebook so I could always access it and scribble ideas, later drafts on the computer. But I found that to be such a block because sometimes I’d not want to mess up my pretty notebook or the aggressive blankness of a Word Document was not helping the narrative flow. The notes app on my phone is just a junkyard of half-started things and little ideas and fully-formed pieces. So before I write I stop and think “OK, I’m itching to write, which way am I feeling today?” to tap into the best way to get the words to come.

How has your upbringing in Northern Ireland influenced your writing, and what aspects of your current life in Essex do you find inspiring or challenging in your creative process?

I love Northern Ireland, it’s such a beautiful and interesting place (plus I miss my potato bread and soda bread living in England). But I’ve been running from it in my writing up until recently. I think the familiar can be a great place of inspiration but also a great deterrent. I always hated stories or media from home partly because of the accent; as a teenager living in Northern Ireland, hearing our voices against Scottish or Welsh or English voices on TV or radio or film just made me cringe. Also – and I’m loathe to be that person – The Troubles and the relationship between our two communities at home looms large even still and it’s almost impossible to write a story set at home without it creeping in in some way. As someone who grew up immersed in that history and its aftermath, I always found those stories incredibly dull. I wanted something different!

However, a bit of distance has been a wonderful thing and I’ve increasingly found myself wanting to write in our dialect and bring our stories to a wider audience. For example, Giz a piece in the chapbook is written in a Belfast voice, as is Skinnymalink Melodeonlegs Big Banana Feet which appeared in Roi Fainéant in June. I’m at pains to try and keep my accent without it softening too much living in England.

I’ve found the landscape in Essex to be a great inspiration in my writing too. I’m based in Colchester and we’re not far from the estuaries and marshlands around Maldon, Mersea and so on. That landscape is fantastic fodder for the imagination, particularly darker pieces such as The Rowan and I Saw Meg on Eld Lane that Day, both of which have featured in episodes of the wonderful Three Ravens Podcast. I think living somewhere different from where I grew up has been positive for my writing. It’s helped me appreciate where I’ve come from and seek new inspiration and stories to tell.

Are there specific authors or books that have significantly influenced your writing style or themes? How do these influences manifest in your work?

The Great Gatsby was the first book I ever fell in love with after reading it for my English A Level. To my great shame, I did confuse it with Moby-Dick at the time (somehow, don’t ask me how my brain works!) so was wondering when the whale would show up in the Hudson for a few chapters. F Scott Fitzgerald’s style of writing is so rich and descriptive and laden with imagery and I tend more towards that poetic style myself. Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea is another book that’s very dear to my heart, again because I aspire to being able to create such striking, vibrant images the way she does. I’d say another influence, in terms of my tendency at times towards the dark and macabre, is Edgar Allen Poe. I could re-read The Masque of the Red Death, Berenice or The Fall of the House of Usher endlessly.

How has being part of writing communities or competitions, like the Farnham Flash Fiction Competition, impacted your development as a writer? What do you believe is the value of such interactions?

I’ve found a very supportive and friendly writing community through Writers’ HQ, particularly with their Flash Face Off prompts that I mentioned. Each week they release a new prompt and you can submit a piece for others to give constructive feedback on, or just provide feedback on pieces yourself if you struggle with the prompt that week or don’t have the headspace to write. Everyone has been so welcoming and provided really insightful feedback. It’s helped me gain confidence to submit my writing to lit mags and competitions, something I never previously would have even considered. They also have space on the forum for celebrating success and commiserating with each other’s rejections. When you see writers whose work you think is amazing still getting rejections, it helps you remember that a rejection isn’t necessarily a commentary on the quality of your work. Sometimes it’s literally a numbers game or a matter of taste. I’ve made some really good writer friends and connections through there.

Competitions are a funny one; I was saying to another writer recently that I don’t put in for loads of competitions because I still see them as quite daunting (maybe I’ve more chance of success with a lit mag as it’s a case of being in an editor’s top 10 or 12 rather than 2 or 3). That said, the Farnham Flash Fiction Competition is a wonderful competition (run by Sally Dickson) that I really enjoyed entering. They have a workshop at the end where they announce the winner and runner-up, but everyone who’s been longlisted is invited to come and read their piece if they’d like and the judge for that round mentions what they liked about it. I entered quite early on after getting back into writing and am very glad I did. I learned so much from the wealth of stories entered into the competition and it was a great confidence boost too. Being introduced to new stories, new ways of telling stories and having a sense of belonging to something bigger than yourself is invaluable.

After the success of your debut chapbook, what are you working on next? Are there new themes or forms you’re eager to explore in your future writing?

I’m always working away on bits of flash; I had a slump in the summer so am trying to get back on the writing and subbing horse again with those. I’ve also been working on a novella. I’m on the fifth draft of that now and am revising that as part of the Indie Novella Writing Course. Hopefully that will be ready to query in the new year. Subject-wise it’s quite different to the chapbook. I’ve recently discovered it’s a contemporary fantasy story (after me previously telling people I don’t write or read much fantasy) but it still has those humorous elements that come through in the chapbook. I’ve been toying with the idea for another longer folk horror piece too, which might be the next project I embark on once I feel this novella is ready for the world. You may not know it from some of my writing, but I’m a huge cardy-custard and can’t hack a horror film. I can just about read scary stories but have enjoyed trying to write in the horror space. I’m currently following Kayla Kumari’s course on the Forever Workshop this October on horror writing and it’s got me excited for trying to get into that folk horror piece.

And then there’s the Press! We’re planning to open to submissions for another 1-2 titles in January and we’ll see where that takes us. Given it’s just me and I’m still learning the ropes, I’m planning to take my time with that. The hope is to release the new additions to our line-up next Autumn, so watch this space...

What advice would you give to writers who are just starting out, particularly those interested in exploring complex themes like those found in your work?

I think for any writer – regardless of topic or theme – I’d recommend getting involved in some form of writers’ group. That might be a local, in-person one or an online one. Personally I found the latter more manageable having just had a baby and less daunting than potentially receiving critical feedback in person. Just find some bunch of fellow writers in whose company you feel comfortable and whose feedback you can come to trust and value. You don’t have to share your own writing straight away, you can just go and observe or give your own view on their work first. But that process of gathering feedback and building up a community where you can all share in each other’s disappointments and successes is so important.

I’d also nick the advice my A Level English teacher gave me on sixth form leaving day – just keep writing. Even if you think it’s a bit rubbish or not quite right, the act of getting words out on the page will make it easier as time goes on and you will get better. That includes for exploring complex themes. I find sometimes I need to write through and around those for a bit to land on the right phrasing or the right way of conveying what I meant or felt about that topic. Of course, before you put a piece out on a sensitive or difficult topic, always read and re-read it to make sure you’re telling your story in a respectful way. That’s another reason why it’s important to build a community as a sounding board, particularly for those more challenging pieces. But don’t let fear get in the way of writing about complex or difficult themes. 

Sophie Thompson is a writer originally hailing from Northern Ireland, now living in Essex with her partner, son and three chickens. She was the runner up in the Farnham Flash Fiction Competition February 2024 and her work has appeared in publications such as Funny Pearls, Roi Fainéant, Ink Sweat and Tears and the Hooghly Review’s Weekly Features. Her debut chapbook Maybe Just One Bite is out now with Tom Thumb Press.

You can find her at www.sophie-thompson.com or on Instagram as @sophietwrites