Searching Through the Long Grass
The first in a triplet of posts, flash fiction writer and former Dialect mentee Keely O’Shaughnessy guides us through the birth of her debut collection, Baby is a Thing Best Whispered.
“The sensation of writing a book is the sensation of spinning, blinded by love and daring. It is the sensation of rearing and peering from the bent tip of a grass blade, looking for a route.”
— Janet Burroway (Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft)
When I think about my writing journey it’s this quotation from Janet Burroway that comes to mind. Building a collection certainly begins with spinning. Wildly spinning. Leaping from idea to idea, story to story until a pathway begins to form and you creep tentatively forward.
Publishing a collection is something I’ve dreamed of since I started writing years ago, but it wasn’t until I had a good number of pieces published in magazines and anthologies that I was able to beat down the imposter syndrome enough to even consider putting something together. Being honest, as I write this post, I’m still having to stave of that little voice telling me I haven’t got any wisdom worth sharing.
My thoughts and words have worth.
My thoughts and words have worth, as do yours.
This is one of the most important and challenging concepts I’ve grappled with on my creative path- seeing and appreciating the value in my own writing just as I do in others. When setting out to create a collection it’s easy to become blinded by the idea of being published and lose sight of crafting a book as an artistic endeavour. For a collection to click, you need to truly believe in what you’re creating.
For me, that’s the “love” that Burroway mentions. That urge and need to tell a story. And the “daring” is the drive to see it through. To be bold in constructing a body of writing that is unique to you.
I started by listing all the stories I had ever written by title and noting their theme. There were some themes I expected to see, water is an element that I’m drawn too- the mystical power of the sea, but slowly other patterns began to emerge. Looking at the myriad of post-it notes laid out on my living room floor, I noticed the words motherhood, daughter, sister, and birth repeated. I’m an only child and I’ve never been pregnant but, somewhat consciously or unconsciously, these topics had seeped into my writing.
The next stage was the “peering” stage. Taking time to examine what you write and strengthening those connections. Whether to have children or not is something my husband and I discuss at length. Can I see myself as a mother, giving my all to my child? Is my womanhood only valid if I’ve given birth? How has my ever-delicate relationship with my mother impacted me? Would my life be different with the sister I longed for?
It was as these questions swirled, I allowed myself to embrace these themes in term of what they meant to me, and I realised that I had found the story I wanted to tell. I needed to write about womanhood and the relationships that define us. There were many more words to write, but the route for Baby is a Thing Best Whispered had been charted and I promised to lean into each, and every sensation along the way.
Baby is a Thing Best Whispered cover
KEELY O’SHAUGHNESSY is a writer with Cerebral Palsy, who lives in Gloucestershire. Her micro-chapbook, The Swell of Seafoam, was published as part of Ghost City Press’ Summer Series 2022 and her debut collection, Baby is a Thing Best Whispered will be published with Alien Buddha Press in August 2022. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions as well as the Wigleaf Top 50. She is Managing Editor at Flash Fiction Magazine. Find her at keelyoshaughnessy.com or Twitter: @KeelyO_writer
