Callum McSorley
Who are your favourite Scottish writers?
From the world of crime, my favourites are Denise Mina, Lousie Welsh, and Chris Brookmyre – absolute legends of tartan noir. Mina’s The Long Drop is a masterpiece.
More broadly, I’m a huge fan of adopted Scots authors Elle Nash and Heather Parry who are both writing incredible stuff and having a huge impact on the Scottish literary scene beyond contributing their own fiction work.
(Honestly there’s such a wealth of talent in Scottish writing it’s difficult to choose. I could easily add Chris Kelso, Chris McQueer, and Cailean Steed here and that’s just the authors whose names begin with ‘C’.)
What is your favourite Scottish novel or short story and why?
This is a sick question. What’s wrong with you?
I’m gonna skew this slightly towards what book has been really important to my own writing, and I’m also gonna make it two books:
The Cutting Room by Louise Welsh, which showed me the amazing possibilities of a grubby and glamorous hardboiled Glasgow. And How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman – another important Glasgow novel which captures the voice and attitude of the city in a way that’s never been bettered.
What piece of writing of yours are you most proud of?
My debut novel Squeaky Clean won the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year in 2023 and I doubt my sense of pride in my work will ever reach such a peak again. That said, I have something new – a small change in direction – scheduled to come out in 2027 that I’ve been working on for a long time and I’m really excited about. Could be the best thing I’ve done.
What is your 274 Miles story about?
‘When you comin back?’ is trying to describe the feeling of being left behind by someone who’s off elsewhere, the mix of loneliness and jealousy it can cause. Wanting to say, ‘You think you’re better than me? I’m not good enough for you?’ but knowing you’d be afraid to go too, even if you were invited. Which you’re not.
Tell us about your writing process.
My process changes depending on what I’m working on. With short stories, I sometimes just come up with a sentence that intrigues me and work from there, developing a story as I go (a hit and miss approach, as you can imagine).
With a novel I like to be more prepared. I get the index cards out and scribble down all my plot ideas, arrange and re-arrange them on the floor until I have something like an outline. The trick with this method is not being so attached to your plan that you ignore fresh ideas that come along as you’re drafting. Leave room for change, for surprises.
Also, I find ideas percolate best when I’m doing the dishes.
If you have one piece of writing advice, what would it be?
This is a simple thing but often overlooked: make sure you’re actually enjoying what you’re writing. Not every day is going to be a winner, but more often than not you should be having fun working on your story. If you hate it and it’s a slog, chances are it will be the same for the reader. Try another idea.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m at the editing stage with a couple of books just now, including the 2027 one I teased already – I can’t say much more about those the moment – and I’m also getting back into writing some short stories after a long time away from them, which has been a nice change.
How can readers connect with you and read your work?
Readers can find me on social media (Insta: @callumrmcsorley) and any info about me and my work and upcoming events is on my website, which is mostly up to date.