Seeing my story, The Running Ones, in the magazine was surreal. I saw people reading it on the Tube, strangers shared it online, editors started slipping into my DMs – and it was the boost I needed to finish my novel, even if that meant missing every night out and waking at 5am.

A year later I was stunned when seven publishers bid for my book, which allowed me to quit my office job. Soon after The Water Cure was published, it was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2018, I appeared on the front of The New York Times, did events all over the country, and even Margaret Atwood read it. I was completely shocked as had no idea my book was on her radar – to know that she had both read it and enjoyed it was incredibly exciting. She described The Water Cure as a “gripping, sinister fable”. Writing had become my job – the thing I’d dreamed of – and every frazzled second was worth it.

Sophie Mackintosh on how Stylist changed her life