I gave a talk at my local library last week and a reading from my short story collection, Hearts and Bones. I hadn’t thought about that book in a while and the story I read was one I hadn’t thought about for ages either. And I had that thing I think a lot of writers encounter when they return to older work – a feeling of, did I really write that?

(I think it happens because when you get into a state of creating something, you enter a different type of consciousness, one that is led more by instinct and intuition than logic. When you get out of it, it’s hard to fully remember it, the way it’s hard to fully remember a dream, or childhood. But when it was happening, it was pretty all consuming and so its mark on the page feels very real).

Anyway, this amnesia of mine made it a more enjoyable event because there was something for me to discover too. It made me think again of that point I wrote about last time, about how there is something magic in just turning up and going with what you have. If I had re-read the story and prepared more properly, if I’d been more rehearsed, I do think something would have been lost. As I do more events and get more used to the element of performance in them, it’s useful to remember responding to the material – that you yourself wrote – as something of a stranger can be good! If only because it kind of levels you, as the writer, in relation to the work – which is the thing that matters, if anything about all of this matters.

Present and Noticing

Tickets to my new and somewhat experimental writing class are selling! It starts next Tuesday evening and I’m very much looking forward to it. The idea is that you just turn up and engage with the prompts and don’t worry. There is so much anxiety around writing, around creativity. I’m trying to help people break through that. Bring wine, bring a friend, bring a notebook and a pen. (use discount code ERASURE to get tickets for all six classes for only €50).

The Amendments

My publisher has released the cover and details for my novel, The Amendments, which is coming out next April. If you’d like to support me or my work, please consider pre-ordering from Dubray Books in Ireland or from anywhere you like in the UK.