S2E17: Writer Melissa Sharman on writing the book you needed

S2E17: Writer Melissa Sharman on writing the book you needed

Season 2: The Home Season The second season of Creative Momentum with Meg, The Home Season, features interviews with Australian writers and artists where I explore how and why people do their creative work. Episode 17: Melissa Sharman, Writer Melissa Sharman is a Gold Coast-based writer, domestic and family violence specialist, and founder of Egg Donation Australia, who recently released her debut memoir The Beauty of Broken Things (Hawkeye Publishing, May 2026). The book is an unflinching and ultimately hopeful account of leaving a violent marriage, finding resilience and discovering that the worst things that happen to us can become our greatest offering. Melissa is someone who writes because she has to, fitting it in at night and on weekend writing sprints around a full-time job. She came to this memoir the hard way, starting over more than once until she found the version she was willing to be honest in. In this episode we chat about: How writing evenings and weekend Pomodoro sprints at Queensland Writers Centre events became the backbone of her creative routine Why she stopped writing for an audience and wrote something ‘completely raw, for no one’ and how that changed everything about the memoir The difference between having a good story and having the voice to tell it, and what she learned reading hundreds of memoirs in her own genre How she navigated the legal and ethical complexities of memoir, from a lawyer’s review to changing names and writing from her own experience rather than declaring facts Why she thinks the writing process is not just the time you sit with a pen, but everything you observe, read, and absorb in between The advice that unlocked her: ‘don’t be afraid to write crap’ Whether you are sitting on a personal story you haven’t yet found the courage to tell, trying to work out how to structure a memoir, or simply looking for permission to start badly and improve, this episode will give you both the practical tools and the genuine encouragement to begin. Melissa is warm, direct and completely unafraid of talking about the hard parts. Connect with Melissa Melissa on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/melissa_sharman_] https://www.instagram.com/melissa_sharman_ Melissa’s website [https://melissasharman.com.au/] https://melissasharman.com.au/ Melissa’s book: The Beauty of Broken Things [https://hawkeyebooks.com.au/products/the-beauty-of-broken-things] https://hawkeyebooks.com.au/collections/melissa-sharman/products/the-beauty-of-broken-things Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes [https://megdunley.substack.com/s/creative-momentum-with-meg-dunley] and interviews: https://megdunley.substack.com/s/creative-momentum-with-meg-dunley [https://megdunley.substack.com/s/creative-momentum-with-meg-dunley] A special thanks to Yvonne Morton for the music accompanying this episode. You can find Yvonne on Bandcamp [https://yvonnemorton.bandcamp.com/] (https://yvonnemorton.bandcamp.com/ [https://yvonnemorton.bandcamp.com/]) and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/yvonne.morton/].(https://www.instagram.com/yvonne.morton/ [https://www.instagram.com/yvonne.morton/]) Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe [http://megdunley.substack.com/subscribe] Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe [https://megdunley.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

S2E16: Author Cassie Stroud on making things out of nothing, one row at a time

Season 2: The Home Season The second season of Creative Momentum with Meg, The Home Season, features interviews with Australian writers and artists where I explore how and why people do their creative work. Episode 16: Cassie Stroud, Author Cassie Stroud is a Sydney writer, editor and bookseller whose debut novel Iluka was published by HQ Fiction Australia in February 2026. A family drama set on the south coast of NSW, Iluka centres on three siblings who reunite after their grandfather’s death and discover their mother, long presumed dead, may still be alive. The manuscript was written over many years, mostly in snatches and longhand around freelance editorial work and raising a small child. Cassie has been writing all her life not because she was chasing publication but because creativity, in all its forms, is simply how she lives. This is a conversation about what it means to make things for the love of making them, and why that might be the most important creative disposition of all. In this interview, we talk about: How Cassie writes in short bursts of longhand to delineate it from her paid work Why she thinks of creativity as the whole point of living and the alarm bell when she’s consuming more than creating How knitting taught her the single most useful thing she knows about writing a novel What ‘done is better than perfect’ really means in practice The freedom of making work that has no purpose or audience Whether you are trying to find your way into a longer project, wondering whether you are a creative person or just needing to be reminded that a little bit, done consistently, is enough, this episode will settle something in you. Cassie is wise, warm and very funny, and she makes creativity feel like what it actually is: the best bit of being human. Connect with Cassie Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/cassie.stroud/] - https://www.instagram.com/cassie.stroud/ [https://www.instagram.com/cassie.stroud/] Website [http://cassiestroud.com/]: http://cassiestroud.com [http://cassiestroud.com/] Book: [https://harpercollins.com.au/products/9781038933652]Iluka [https://harpercollins.com.au/products/9781038933652] https://harpercollins.com.au/products/9781038933652 https://harpercollins.com.au/products/9781038933652 [https://harpercollins.com.au/products/9781038933652] Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes [https://megdunley.substack.com/s/creative-momentum-with-meg-dunley] and interviews: https://megdunley.substack.com/s/creative-momentum-with-meg-dunley [https://megdunley.substack.com/s/creative-momentum-with-meg-dunley] A special thanks to Yvonne Morton for the music accompanying this episode. You can find Yvonne on Bandcamp [https://yvonnemorton.bandcamp.com/] (https://yvonnemorton.bandcamp.com/ [https://yvonnemorton.bandcamp.com/]) and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/yvonne.morton/].(https://www.instagram.com/yvonne.morton/ [https://www.instagram.com/yvonne.morton/]) Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe [http://megdunley.substack.com/subscribe] Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe [https://megdunley.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

S2E15: Author Sophie Stern on debut novels, pantsing it and making time for writing when life says otherwise

Season 2: The Home Season The second season of Creative Momentum with Meg, The Home Season, features interviews with Australian writers and artists where I explore how and why people do their creative work. Episode 15: Sophie Stern, Author Sophie Stern is a Sydney-based author whose debut novel What Is Left For Us (Penguin Random House, March 2026) centres on two estranged sisters forced to reunite when they jointly inherit their grandmother’s clifftop house in Bondi. Her manuscript was shortlisted for the Penguin Literary Prize in 2024 and subsequently published this year. Sophie has spent the years since writing while working four days a week in a corporate job and raising a young son. This is a conversation about how to get a novel written when life only gives you one day a week, and what happens when you try to do it differently the second time around. In this episode, we cover: How Sophie built her writing life around one sacred Friday a week The difference between pantsing her first novel and plotting her second How she uses spreadsheets to plan backwards and leave a trail of breadcrumbs Why she stopped feeling like her corporate job and her creative life were in conflict Where her inspiration comes from How growing up in a musical family shaped her relationship with structure, rhythm and creative playlists Whether you are trying to finish a first novel around a full-time job and a small child, wondering whether pantsing or plotting is your thing or just looking for the permission slip to write the way that actually works for you, this episode is full of it. Sophie is thoughtful, funny and completely honest about the messiness of the process, and she makes writing feel possible. Connect with Sophie Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/sophie.e.stern/] - https://www.instagram.com/sophie.e.stern/ [https://www.instagram.com/sophie.e.stern/] Substack: Creative Practice [https://creativepracticenewsletter.substack.com] Website [http://sophiestern.com.au/]: http://sophiestern.com.au [http://sophiestern.com.au/] Book: What is Left For Us [https://www.penguin.com.au/books/what-is-left-for-us-9781761354441] https://www.penguin.com.au/books/what-is-left-for-us-9781761354441 Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes [https://megdunley.substack.com/s/creative-momentum-with-meg-dunley] and interviews: https://megdunley.substack.com/s/creative-momentum-with-meg-dunley [https://megdunley.substack.com/s/creative-momentum-with-meg-dunley] A special thanks to Yvonne Morton for the music accompanying this episode. You can find Yvonne on Bandcamp [https://yvonnemorton.bandcamp.com/] (https://yvonnemorton.bandcamp.com/ [https://yvonnemorton.bandcamp.com/]) and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/yvonne.morton/].(https://www.instagram.com/yvonne.morton/ [https://www.instagram.com/yvonne.morton/]) Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe [http://megdunley.substack.com/subscribe] Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe [https://megdunley.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

S2E14: Author Lauren Novak on mum rage, debut books + journalism instincts that shape her writing

Season 2: The Home Season The second season of Creative Momentum with Meg, The Home Season, features interviews with Australian writers and artists where I explore how and why people do their creative work. Episode 14: Lauren Novak, Author Lauren Novak is an award-winning journalist at The Advertiser in Adelaide and the debut author of Meltdown: Why Motherhood Makes Us Angry and What to Do About It, published by HarperCollins in 2026. Having spent more than two decades covering family violence, child safety and education, Lauren turned her professional skills inward when she found herself experiencing mum rage and couldn’t find a single book about it. What she built instead was part personal reckoning, part research project, part narrative journalism and all deeply readable. This is a conversation about what it takes to go from journalist to book author, and how the skills that serve in one world can both help and hinder in the other. We chat about: - How surveying 200 mothers from around the world became the foundation of Meltdown - How Lauren used her journalism training to structure a book - The writing routine she built around a four-year-old and a two-year-old - Why she had to unlearn the journalist’s habit of ‘finishing things nicely’ - Why she thinks curiosity, not English skills, is the real key to writing Whether you are working on your first big non-fiction project, wondering how to translate professional writing skills into a book, or trying to find any time at all to write around small children, this episode will give you both practical grounding and genuine reassurance. Lauren is warm, funny and very honest about where she is in her creative life right now, including the parts that are not working yet. Connect with Lauren Lauren on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/laurennovakwrites/] (https://www.instagram.com/laurennovakwrites/) Website with survey links [https://laurennovak.com.au/] (https://laurennovak.com.au/) Meltdown [https://laurennovak.com.au/meltdown/] (https://laurennovak.com.au/meltdown/) Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes [https://megdunley.substack.com/s/creative-momentum-with-meg-dunley] and interviews: https://megdunley.substack.com/s/creative-momentum-with-meg-dunley [https://megdunley.substack.com/s/creative-momentum-with-meg-dunley] A special thanks to Yvonne Morton for the music accompanying this episode. You can find Yvonne on Bandcamp [https://yvonnemorton.bandcamp.com/] (https://yvonnemorton.bandcamp.com/ [https://yvonnemorton.bandcamp.com/]) and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/yvonne.morton/].(https://www.instagram.com/yvonne.morton/ [https://www.instagram.com/yvonne.morton/]) Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe [http://megdunley.substack.com/subscribe] Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe [https://megdunley.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

S2E13: Linda Atkins on writing the novel that was always waiting

Season 2: The Home Season The second season of Creative Momentum with Meg, The Home Season, features interviews with Australian writers and artists where I explore how and why people do their creative work. Episode 13: Linda Atkins, Author Linda Atkins is a women’s health physician and writer based in Western Sydney who came back to writing in her fifties after stopping as a teenager, and has since written four manuscripts, scored a literary agent, and landed a book deal for her debut crime novel What We Left Behind, due out in November. She started writing again not from ambition but from necessity, sitting down to release a long-held family secret into an essay she sent off to the Calibre Essay Prize, then promptly forgot about. It was longlisted, then shortlisted, and she has not stopped writing since. She is funny, forthright, and completely unromantic about the craft. In this episode, we talk about: - Why doctors end up as writers, and what happens when the science-rewarded part of yourself suppresses the artistic part for 30 years - The essay that started it all: writing a family secret out of her body and sending it off to a prize she then hoped she would not win - What it felt like to pull the plug after 30 years of stored-up words, and why having no craft was part of the deal - Learning to write entirely on the run: reading a bazillion books, sending out short stories, and reaching the critical mass of small wins that made her believe she could do it - How a comment from Candace Fox at a State Library panel became the challenge that sparked her crime novel - Her transition from pantser to plotter, and why crime fiction eventually demands you sort out your plot holes, whether you like it or not - Why the best novel to work with is a finished one, and why writing forward rather than backwards is the only advice that matters - Flash fiction as a craft tool, and short stories as palate cleansers between novels - Why she writes because she cannot not, and her greatest fear that she will not live long enough to say everything she wants to say - What home means to someone who grew up in an immigrant family selected for ambition and dissatisfaction, and how finding safety finally unlocked her creative life Whether you are a writer who came to it late, a creative person who buried their art under decades of other life, or someone who keeps rewriting Chapter 1 instead of getting to Chapter 30, this episode is for you. Linda is practical, warm and clear-eyed about what it takes, and her story is a good reminder that 30 years of unwritten words do not disappear. They just wait. And when you finally sit down, they come gurgling out all at once. Connect with Linda Linda on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/atkinsaudacity/] ‘After’, Linda’s KYD Flash Fiction prize [https://www.killyourdarlings.com.au/article/flash-fiction-prize-2025-after/] Shouting Abortion: A doctor reflects on the politics and economics of terminations [https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/2022/june-2022-no-443/shouting-abortion-a-doctor-reflects-on-the-politics-and-economics-of-terminations-by-linda-atkins] Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes [https://megdunley.substack.com/s/creative-momentum-with-meg-dunley] and interviews: https://megdunley.substack.com/s/creative-momentum-with-meg-dunley [https://megdunley.substack.com/s/creative-momentum-with-meg-dunley] A special thanks to Yvonne Morton for the music accompanying this episode. You can find Yvonne on Bandcamp [https://yvonnemorton.bandcamp.com/] (https://yvonnemorton.bandcamp.com/ [https://yvonnemorton.bandcamp.com/]) and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/yvonne.morton/].(https://www.instagram.com/yvonne.morton/ [https://www.instagram.com/yvonne.morton/]) Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe [http://megdunley.substack.com/subscribe] Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe [https://megdunley.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]