Notes From Labor of Love: Christina Consolino

A Reflection on “Mother, Defined”

Writing on demand isn’t something I normally do. Not because I don’t find ideas easily—those pop into my head almost every day, often when I don’t have time to do anything about them!—but because my writing process includes an enormous amount of sitting. That is to say, when I write something—an essay, an article, a short story, or a novel—I begin with a kernel of an idea, write a few words or short sentences, and then let the words sit on the page. Sometimes for days, sometimes for months. In the case of a few novels, it took me years to go back to those first words and begin the actual writing process. Would I be able to write, revise, and submit a finished piece in a relatively short amount of time for the Literary Mama anthology? Moreover, after having lost my mother the October before, could I craft a piece that approached motherhood in all its forms, or would it be too arduous a task for my psyche?

Let me be honest and tell you the first thought that crossed my mind after considering the anthology: This is a low-stakes situation. If you rise to the challenge, wonderful; if you do not, life will go on. The second thought? Mom would want you to at least try.

So I did, but instead of letting my words sit on the page and marinate, I put in more effort up front. I reviewed published Literary Mama stories, columns, book reviews, and profiles from years before (an abundance of excellent writing), reading each intently and asking myself questions. Would fiction or nonfiction be the best option for me? What theme, besides mothering/motherhood, did I want to focus on? What style would showcase my abilities best? How long did I want the piece to be?

That’s when my mind jumped to Ben Berman, a former Literary Mama contributor and profile
subject, and his collection of short prose pieces, Then Again.

Each selection is grounded in a word, and the definitions of that word are explored in the narrative. In this case, I chose to use the word mother (hence the title, “Mother, Defined”), then tucked into my dictionary, hoping more inspiration would hit.

I can’t remember exactly how the main character, Annie, arrived in my mind, but parts of me, my mother, and every mother I know are in her story. Parts of my children, my students, my classmates, and my friends also contribute to her story. Annie’s thoughts, feelings, hopes, and dreams do not represent those of every mother—an impossible task—but I hope that each reader can find at least an echo of themselves in Annie and her experience. I hope, too, that just like Annie, each reader finds the confidence to settle into whatever life they choose, whether that includes motherhood or not.

As I was thinking about how to wrap up this post—again, a challenge due to the lack of time to allow my words to sit—my thoughts settled on the idea that while the title of my piece includes the word defined, we can never truly limit mother to a list of definitions, can we? I don’t know about you, but I find a deep beauty in the infinite ways we can view mother, motherhood, mothering, and more, and the Labor of Love anthology reflects that.

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Labor of Love: A Literary Mama Staff Anthology was released on January 26th, 2024. Edited by Amanda Jaros, this collaboration with Small Harbor Publishing celebrates Literary Mama‘s twenty years of publishing the best writing for and by mothers. We asked the contributors, all Literary Mama staffers from across the years, to share thoughts about their writing process, their inspiration, or their work in the book. We’ll share those musings here on the Literary Mama blog.

Read Christina’s story by purchasing Labor of Love, now available on Amazon.