Sylvia Leatham: 'I'm fascinated by humans and human relationships'
BY Maya Fernandes
2nd Sep 2025
Sylvia Leatham was a student on our Plot & Story – The Deep Dive course in 2022. We caught up to discuss her debut novel, Chaos Theory – out this week from Storm Publishing.
Read on to discover the inspiration behind Sylvia's debut, her top tips for aspiring novelists and what she found most valuable about studying with us.
You studied on our Plot & Story – The Deep Dive course in 2022. How did your time with us shape your approach to writing?
I learned a lot on that course – but the biggest learning came from an unexpected source. In an offline writing class, students usually offer each other in-person feedback. With the CBC online course, we uploaded our work to a forum each week, and we’d offer each other written feedback. At the outset, I assumed that I’d learn the most from critiques of my work by fellow students: They would tell me where I needed to improve. But I was so wrong!
The real learning came from my own reading of other students’ work. It’s a rare thing to experience writing ‘in the raw’. When you read a published book, you’re seeing work that has been edited multiple times. But on a beginner’s writing course, almost everything you read needs editing. As a student, my task was to identify why a piece of writing did or didn’t work, or what was missing, or what could be improved. Because I had to give written feedback, I had to carefully analyse each piece and justify my comments. This required going deep, down to a sentence level, in my analysis.
Crucially, once I’d pinpointed an issue, the key question became: “Do I do this in my own writing?” Recognising flaws in my own work was where the real learning happened.
And conversely, if a piece of writing was wonderful, I’d try to identify the reason for that and apply it to my own writing.
Chaos Theory is a romantic comedy in which the protagonist, Maeve, finds herself torn between two very different men – while she forms an unlikely friendship with Kobi, the robot assistant she’s tasked with training at work. How did you approach developing the plot for the novel?
I started with the ending – or at least what I thought was the ending – and reverse-engineered the entire plot, so that I could start the story as close to the action as possible.
One of the plot structures mentioned on the course was ‘Save the cat’, a screenwriting template that many authors have adapted for novel plotting. Around this time, I also read John Yorke’s amazing book, Into the Woods, which outlines a five-act structure that many movies use as a storytelling template.
I was already well into writing Chaos Theory when I came across these methods and decided to map my story onto these templates, to see if they fit. When I did, I realised that my intended ending was in fact an ‘all is lost’ moment – a downer moment that happens about four-fifths through many stories, just before a final triumph and/or resolution.
My natural instinct was to end my story on a downer(!), but some of my fellow CBC students had formed an attachment to my characters and they strongly encouraged me to create an uplifting ending! I’m still in touch with those people and I’m very grateful for their input at a crucial time in the story’s development.
While your debut is undeniably a fun, light-hearted romcom, it also weaves in questions about our relationship with technology. How important was it for you to explore that aspect alongside the romance?
It was hugely important, because that’s where my own interests lie. A great piece of advice for beginner writers is to write the story that you would like to read.
I'm fascinated by humans and human relationships. I studied Philosophy at university and I’ve never really lost my wonder at the human mind. One of the main reasons I included a non-human character in Chaos Theory was to allow me to explore (and poke fun at) the idiosyncrasies of human behaviour when seen from an outsider perspective. In the book, Kobi the robot questions the value of the tea break, he’s confused by small talk, he doesn’t get subtext. Things we do and say every day as humans seem strange and funny if you really step back and examine them.
Coincidentally, when I started the book, I was working in a manufacturing research centre so I was regularly exposed to cutting-edge technologies, such as 3D printing, virtual reality and collaborative robotics. A big area of interest for me is the potential impact of these technologies on the human workforce, alongside the ethical issues raised by the growing use of artificial intelligence in many areas.
I started writing Chaos Theory four and a half years ago, long before AI had become a mainstream topic of conversation. It’s only through good luck that my book now seems zeitgeisty! This is why it's important to only write about what you’re truly interested in: because books take so long to create, edit and publish, you'd never be able to anticipate what might be trending by the time your book actually reaches readers.
What advice would you give to writers working on their first novel?
- Make sure you love your story because you’ll be living in that world for a long time.
- Not all writing happens at the keyboard. Much of writing is thinking.
- If you can, think out loud – talking through your story is like brainstorming with another person. Plus – if you record your brainstorm sessions, you’ll never arrive at your laptop to a blank page. Start by listening back to your notes and go from there.
- Remember, published books have been edited multiple times. Don’t worry if your first draft is ‘bad’. Writing is rewriting (as Hemingway said). The real craft happens in the edit.
- Kurt Vonnegut said, ‘Pity the reader’. When it’s time to edit, think about your book from a reader’s perspective. What do they need in order to follow and enjoy your story?
What does a typical writing day look like for you?
I wish I had one! I have a full-time job and a daughter, so writing happens in small bursts whenever I get the chance. Perhaps because my time is so limited, I cherish the time I do get at the keyboard.
It helps enormously to try to maintain a positive attitude towards writing. Chaos Theory was my first book, and I loved writing it so much. I used to imagine that I was a seal and that writing was the sea: Sure, I could manage while on dry land, but I was always yearning to get back to ‘the sea’!
And finally, what’s next for your writing journey?
I’ve started on Book 2 – another romantic comedy that will be published by Storm Publishing in 2026. It’s set in a local community in Dublin, against the backdrop of a calamitous global event and a disintegrating media landscape. I’m excited to be working on it.
Get your hands on a copy of Chaos Theory.