Anne Wilkins, London Independent Story Prize 3rd Round 2024 Finalist, 'Aroha'

London Independent Story Prize 3rd Round 2024 Finalist, 'Aroha', Anne Wilkins

- Can you please tell us about you and your daily life?

I’m a sleep-deprived primary school teacher in New Zealand. I’m married to my husband, Paul, and we have two daughters, Rebecca and Julia, who are growing up way too fast! The oldest, Rebecca, is at University, and the youngest, Julia, is now in her final year of High School.

I started teaching at a new school this year, so there have been a lot of things to learn. New Zealand has introduced a new Maths and English Curriculum, so my daily life at the moment is saturated with teaching. Any free time I can squeeze out of my existence, I try to write. This might include free writing for pleasure, writing for competitions, or with prompts or magazines in mind.

Writing feeds my soul, so I feel lost without it. I try to write on the weekends as it’s impossible during a normal school week.   

- When and how did you get into writing?

I’ve always loved writing. My mother read books to me constantly when I was young, and I became a voracious reader as a child. I remember in primary school receiving a gold star on a story I had written about the plague, and in high school I won a creative writing award. I never had a problem with ideas, only hateful commas!

I always hoped, one day, to be an author. Instead, I became a family lawyer, and wrote other people’s stories in affidavits that detailed domestic violence and parenting concerns. I heard some horrific stories and met with people from all walks of life. 

After five and a half years of being a family lawyer, I left the profession when I became pregnant with my first child. When I had children, I think I finally had the time and the head space to write creatively again. Most of my beginning stories were written for my children, stories about cats, fairies, witches. I realised how much I missed that creative side of my life — the joy you get from coming up with an idea, and transforming it into a story for someone to read.

Around 2014, I wrote a children’s novel, but wasn’t really sure what to do with it. I sent it off to a competition, and was really disheartened when it didn’t get anywhere. I also wrote a few short stories, sending them off to competitions here and there, but largely getting nowhere.

I put my writing dreams on hold (again) and retrained as a primary school teacher. Then after about two years of teaching, an ad popped up in my Facebook for Deadlines for Writers. It’s a group where you commit to writing a story every month, with a given prompt and word count. It was free. I thought, why not, and I signed up. This forced me to write regularly, and realise that I could write, work full time and be a mum all at the same time. Previously I’d just thought, “That’s too hard,” but it wasn’t.

Gradually my writing skills started to improve, and I started to search out a few competitions. A win, a placing, a highly commended, or making a shortlist or longlist was all the encouragement I needed to keep going and keep trying. I think now I’m slightly addicted to competitions— I love the “deadline” factor and being given a prompt to write to, as it forces me to sit down and write.In the last two or three years I’ve really “amped up” my writing. I now have over thirty short stories published. I’m the winner of the June 2024 Elegant Literature Prize, the 2023 Autumn Writers Battle, the 2023 Cambridge Autumn Festival Short Story Competition, and the 2022 Writers' Online Twist Short Story Competition, amongst others. I was a finalist in the 2024 Kurt Vonnegut Speculative Literary Prize, placed third in the Hammond House 2024 International Literary Prize, and one of my short stories from last year has received a nomination for the Sir Julius Vogel (SJV) Award here in New Zealand. Every acknowledgement big or small is huge to me. It puts a spring in my step and makes me feel so happy knowing that someone else resonated with my work and enjoyed reading it. But in saying all that, I still get plenty of rejections too!  

- How often do you write? Do you have a writing routine? And what inspires you to write?

I don’t have a writing routine. I write during the school holidays and on the weekends (but not every weekend). I write on my laptop, and I can write during the day or at night (it doesn’t matter). I write in my bed, the lounge, and in what we call the spare room. So yes, not a proper writing routine, just basically writing whenever, wherever, in whatever time I have managed to scrounge for myself.

I also write when I feel inspired, or if I have a deadline. There is something about deadlines that forces me to complete a piece of writing rather than procrastinating. I only write short stories at the moment, anything from 100 words to around 6000. However, I do have some middle grade novels sitting on my computer, waiting for a home.

When I can, I try to submit things during the week, but lately I’ve been a bit slack with that. The more you submit, the more chances you have of someone accepting your work. That’s just probability!

What inspires me to write is that dopamine hit when you’ve actually finished a piece, and you think “I did that.”  With writing, you effectively create something from nothing, and there is this wonderful feeling of accomplishment when you reach the end.

- How does it feel to have your work recognised?

AMAZING!! It’s just the best.

When you get rejection after rejection, self doubt can creep in, and you can start thinking that you’re rubbish and your writing’s rubbish. On the flipside when you get a win (big or small), or an acknowledgement in some way that someone, somewhere liked your writing, it just helps to build back your self confidence and belief and make you keep trying.

- What's the best and most challenging thing about writing a Story? 

The best thing is that feeling of completion —you’ve birthed a creative baby into the world! The most challenging thing without a doubt for me is time. I am very time-poor.

-  How did you develop the idea for your LISP-selected story? Is there a story behind your story? And, how long have you been working on it?

Walking along one of the beaches close to my home here in New Zealand, I was really disheartened to see all the plastic rubbish on the shore line. I also like writing stories from a child’s point of view. I wanted to take a young girl’s point of view and tie it in with an environmental and heartwarming message. As a teacher, I also think it’s important that the Māori language (Te Reo Māori) be spread naturally. We’re encouraged to use Te Reo in our classroom where we can, so it felt natural to have it here as part of the story. I consulted with one of the Kapa Haka leaders at my old school to ensure I had the ending line just right.

- Can you please give us a few tips about writing a Story?

Keep trying, read other stories, and allow others to read your stories and give you feedback. My family read everything of mine now before I send it out into the world, and it’s so helpful. They catch things that I wouldn’t have seen. They also don’t shy away from telling me when something I've written is rubbish.

Also, create an ideas document. I have one on my computer where I might have just the beginnings of an idea, but not necessarily the time to write, so I quickly jot it down before it vanishes. When I do have time I can revisit those ideas later.

And… write what you want to write. I’m writing stories that I’d want to read myself.

- What's the best thing and the most challenging thing about competitions?

Sometimes competitions give you the most ridiculous prompts that you have to use, and that can be really hard. Some competitions also cost the earth to enter.

- Lastly, do you recommend the writers submit to LISP?

Absolutely! It’s such a huge honour to be finalist. Thank you!