For as long as he can remember, Daragh Fleming has been enamoured with the written word.

“I was always making things up and writing them down as a child,” Fleming – appropriately enough – shares via email. “I loved writing short stories in English class; it felt like a reprieve from the monotony of the rest of my schoolwork. It feels like I haven’t completed my day if I haven’t written something down, like an itch I can’t reach.

“I write because I can’t imagine not writing. I don’t know what that life would look like.”

The Cork-born wordsmith hasn’t needed to worry about what a writing-free life would look like, as he’s made a steady career out of putting pen to paper.

“I started taking writing seriously when I was 21. There’s no real why; it’s just something that has always made sense to me.”

Fleming has several literary works to his name to his name. He’s dabbled in everything from short stories (both fiction and non-fiction) to poetry and collected essays. He’s won several literary awards, and has been nominated for even more.

“I used to hate writing essays,” he admits. “Now I love it. And my fiction has become more grounded. In the early days, all my stories were completely surreal. As you grow older, you tend to write about whatever’s happening around you, so I suppose as we grow up, our writing grows up with us.

“I’ve gotten more selective. When I was younger, I’d have an idea and I’d just write about it, without giving much consideration. These days, I think a lot more about what I’m trying to say before I start writing. I love the challenge of making the everyday interesting for people, for them to see themselves in the writing.”

Fleming is also a passionate mental health advocate, with a BA in applied psychology alongside his MA in linguistics. His first published non-fiction title, Lonely Boy: Musings on Death, Mental Health and Relationships, is a collection of essays; he’s the communications lead for A Lust For Life, an Irish mental health charity; and he holds ambassadorial positions with other organizations like See Change Ireland and Movember Ireland. He’s even given a TEDx Talk, Creativity: the answer to crafting hope.

Arguably, Fleming’s biggest claim to fame is his mental health blog, Thoughts Too Big. He started the blog to help people overcome daily mental health issues, and to destigmatize mental health care.

“From a community level, I think the people of Ireland are doing as much as they can to support mental health here, and that’s really encouraging to see,” he says. “But from a government perspective, there’s not nearly enough being done. There’s this rift between what the people want and what our government actually does. That extends far beyond just mental health. There’s a very evident atmosphere of dissatisfaction in Ireland, and rightly so.

“The government needs to actually listen to the people who gave them power – serve the people, not NGOs that come into Ireland and make it completely unaffordable to live in Ireland.”

Fleming says being able to put his writing voice to work to help people heal has been the highlight of his career.

“My favourite feedback is when a reader tells me that I’ve captured how they feel – that they could never articulate it themselves, and I have somehow managed to. That’s massive. It feels like you’re creating real value for people then, like you’re helping them. If I could live on that, I wouldn’t want for much else.”

More recently, Fleming decided – albeit a bit hesitantly at first – to add his actual voice in service of this mission with the launch of the podcast version of his blog, The Thoughts Too Loud Podcast.

“Podcasting was honestly a reluctant endeavour. I’ve been guesting on podcasts for years, so I knew how much work goes into making one. For a long time, people were asking for a podcast version of my blog, which I resisted for about four years before I accepted that it was something I had to do.

“Now I love it. It’s a really great way to touch base with people and connect beyond the written word. People find the podcast comforting, I think, because it’s just me talking about anything and everything. It’s been described as ‘a long voice-note from a friend,’ and I think that’s nice.

“I’m so grateful for every listener, every reader; they’re so supportive.”

www.thoughtstoobig.ie
@daraghfleming