Darragh Ó Bradáin

Powered by
WordPress

  • Creating an unplanned character; earned moments

    One of the things I’ve loved so far in the process of writing “Lessons in Absence” is when a new character comes to me. Before I started, I had the bones of the story. I knew the beginning, middle, and end. I had imagined what the main character, Seán, would have to deal with and…

  • Working on other projects

    I took a break from Lessons in Absence for about ten days. During this time, I didn’t step back from writing, I was working on two other projects. One of them was the now-completed manuscript for The One-Legged Head, a children’s book. The other was a short story for entry to the Frazzled Lit Short…

  • Taking the next step

    Yesterday, I submitted the completed manuscript of “The One-Legged Head” to O’Brien Press. It was one of those moments where I hovered over the ‘send’ button for a while before I clicked it. It was a welcome feeling of accomplishment, regardless of the outcome. Today, I took it a step further and submitted the manuscript…

  • Moving from idea to submission

    I took my idea for The One-Legged Head and went from a character I had created at the age of seven, to a fully fleshed out story, with a town, supporting characters, and something interesting happening to the people he encountered. As I wrote the story, I could see the pictures perfectly in my head.…

  • Revisiting a character I created at 7 years old

    When I was in First Class, I remember my teacher asking us to put together a story using the pages in our copies. The top half was blank and the bottom half contained those lines with large spaces between them. Somehow (don’t ask me how) I came up with the idea of a character who…

  • Turning my dad/teacher joke into a book idea

    I took great pride in telling the kids in my school how they were all going to the broccoli factory on their school tour. This amazing joke also got great use at home, with my kids. When I caught the writing bug properly earlier this year, I figured that if I was trying out two…

  • When philosophy leads to writing a book

    One evening back in November 2025, I felt bored. So bored, in fact, that I searched for a list of philosophy questions for me to ponder. As I thought about and wrote my answers to them, it occurred to me that I had a lot to say on certain topics! This may not come as…

  • Beginning the journey

    I had the idea for this novel over ten years ago. I put together the rough idea, wrote a prologue, and promptly forgot about it until I did a routine clear-out of old computers files. I read everything I had written and thought to myself this could actually become something, so I downloaded Scrivener and…