Being broadcast on the BBC
It’s always nice to have some writing out in public to share, so here’s an uplifting short story of mine, Pwca’s Garden, broadcast this month on BBC Radio 4 and available on the Short Works section of their website or BBC Sounds for the next 29 days. Read by BAFTA award-winning actress Sharon Morgan.
I was asked to write a story that felt hopeful, and if you’ve read any of my other short stories, you might know that this isn’t my usual style in short form. Writing with a prompt used to be something I didn’t enjoy in fiction, but I’ve learn that the constraint can generate surprising things, particularly if I let myself go with the first impulse and keep building on it.
Sometimes that specific ask can be the spark that connects to a long forgotten thought, idea or memory that wouldn’t usually come to the fore if I was in my day to day way of thinking and being.
Another short story of mine, Angel Face, published last year by Parthian and shortlisted for the 2022 Rhys Davies award, came from this prompt – two characters in a moving vehicle who stop four times but don’t get out during the story. As soon as I imagined the car – an old Ford Fiesta from the late eighties, I knew exactly who was in it and why. I wrote the first draft of that story in one sitting and a great deal of it remains the same as the original even after editing.
I was once in a London Writers’ Salon workshop with the brilliant Lindsey Trout Hughes, on personal essay writing, and she gave a series of revealing journal prompts, one being – what would you write about if no-one would see it? I’ve still got that list because it contains a precious resource of things that sit in that scary crux of authentic truth and not wanting to be seen. A place where fascinating work can emerge if set free.
Pwca’s Garden was written under the wide theme of hope. I used that as a net to catch some thoughts that had been swimming around for a while, an older character, Welsh folklore and intergenerational friendships. I can honestly say, I wouldn’t have sat down to write this specific story without the commission (and the deadline!), and I’m very thankful to both for getting the hopeful and heart-warming side of my writing out into public. It’s also a real writing ‘bucket list’ achievement to be broadcast on the BBC.
You can listen to Pwca’s Garden here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001rynz
