For renowned Irish author and short story writer Claire Keegan, it was a “delight” to learn that her novella Small Things Like These had been added to the Leaving Certificate English curriculum last year.
Speaking at a live event for The Irish Times Women’s Podcast book club earlier this month, Keegan recalled “the pleasure in being told [her book was on the syllabus]”, especially since she had “failed English in the Leaving Cert”.
The writer was quick to clarify that she had not failed any other subjects in her final exams but stressed that success in the English exam is about being able to analyse and explain written text. “And I’m not able to explain it. I can write it, but I can’t explain it,” she told an audience of podcast listeners.
During the audience Q&A, the author also discussed her writing process, from paragraph structure to character development, making sure to sprinkle writing advice from her literary heroes throughout.
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Answering a question about how she knows when a book is finished, Keegan said that a writer should “not be excited when sending out a manuscript”. She believes that as an author approaches the end of a story, they should be tired, not of the story, but feel rather as if they have “emptied it”, and ultimately the text should begin to “evict you and say you are meddling with me now”.
[ Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These is Ireland’s bestselling book of 2024Opens in new window ]
While discussing how she creates her characters, the storyteller urged writers to “follow their characters’ feet: If you can follow somebody’s feet, it will take you to their object of desire”.
Perhaps Keegan’s most powerful wisdom for aspiring authors was to write what matters rather than what might sell. “Everything that became hugely successful probably wasn’t fashionable at all ... you’re writing about what matters to you, and that the material is saying something about what it means to be human, what it means to be alive.”
You can listen back to this Q&A bonus episode in the player above or search The Women’s Podcast wherever you get your podcasts
