S2E21: Author Anna Woods on Writing in the Dark, Discovery Drafting + Perseverance

S2E21: Author Anna Woods on Writing in the Dark, Discovery Drafting + Perseverance

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 21: Anna Woods, Author Anna Woods is an Auckland-based author whose debut literary suspense novel LIT was published by Echo Publishing in June 2026. Anna has won the Sargeson Prize and been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for her short fiction, completed a Master of Creative Writing, and spent years writing novels that didn’t get published before landing on the process and the story that finally did. This is a conversation about what that process looks like from the inside and why she has no intention of stopping. While Anna is not strictly Australian, she’s from New Zealand and has deep connections here. In this conversation, we chat about: Anna’s distinctive drafting ritual Why the liminal space between waking and sleeping is where her best writing happens How she types up her longhand the next day as a first-pass edit How she builds a reverse outline in Scrivener and uses Excel Why she came from short fiction Where the idea of LIT came from Why reading memoir author-narrated audiobooks fills her creative cup Why getting out into the world is essential Whether you are trying to find your drafting rhythm, wondering whether your process is the right one, or just needing to hear again that the writers who break through are simply the ones who did not stop, this episode will give you both the practical and the motivational. Anna is warm, precise and completely clear-eyed about what it takes to see it through. Connect with Anna Woods Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/annawoodsauthor] TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@annawoodsauthor] Website [https://www.annawoodsauthor.com/] Book: LIT [https://www.echopublishing.com.au/books/lit] Read the full interview: https://megdunley.com/2026/07/21/interviews-with-creatives-author-anna-woods/ [https://megdunley.com/2026/07/21/interviews-with-creatives-author-anna-woods/] 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/] and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/yvonne.morton/]. Get full access to Musings with Meg: 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]

S2E20: Author Trish Bolton on writing into fear + making the invisible visible

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 20: Trish Bolton, Author Trish Bolton is a Melbourne writer whose debut novel Whenever You’re Ready was published by Allen & Unwin in January 2024. Trish came to the novel after decades of writing in many other forms: garden journalism, newspaper features, political essays, academic publications, press releases and a PhD. She never called herself a writer until she had a book. In our conversation, we talk about: How Trish wrote for decades before she ever called herself a writer Why she thinks procrastination is not procrastination at all The experiment that got her first draft moving, why she had to abandon it halfway, and why she is still glad she tried it How the themes in her writing (women, gender, social justice, ageing) find their way onto the page without her setting out to put them there How visibility and voicelessness connect The two pieces of writing wisdom she still gives herself Where the real writing happens · How gardening and writing do the same thing for her Whether you are someone who has been writing for years without quite claiming the identity, someone trying to finish a first novel in a new chapter of life, or someone who needs reminding that the big ideas come away from the desk, this is the episode for you. Trish is warm, funny, searching and completely unafraid of telling the truth about where she is. Connect with Trish Bolton Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/trishboltonwriter] Website [https://www.trishboltonwriter.com/] Book: Whenever You are Ready [https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Trish-Bolton-Whenever-You're-Ready-9781761470271/] Read the full interview: 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/] and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/yvonne.morton/]. Get full access to Musings with Meg: 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]

S2E19: Author, dance teacher & choreographer Lorena Otes on writing memoir

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 19: Lorena Otes, Author & Dancer Lorena Otes is a Sydney-based author, dance teacher, choreographer and single mother by choice whose debut memoir Solo Mum by Choice was published by Hawkeye Publishing in May 2026. Her memoir traces her journey through 13 rounds of IVF as a solo mum, told with the same quality that defines her approach to life generally: curiosity, humour and a refusal to let the hard stuff go unexamined. Lorena has a degree in choreography and contemporary dance, spent 15 years working in retail and came back to writing the way she came back to dance: because it turns out you never really leave the things that are home to you. She is one of those guests who makes you feel that a creative life is not one thing but everything, all at once, and that is exactly what this conversation is about. In our conversation, we chat about: - How Lorena writes around a freelance dance-teaching schedule, and why improv movement sessions between writing stints are not procrastination but part of the process - The trick she used to keep her creative life alive during the hardest stretch of the IVF journey - Why she wrote 100 words a day for a full year and entered short story competitions monthly to keep the prose muscle sharp during launch season - What it felt like to discover partway through writing her memoir, that she was a pantser, and how craft books helped her find her footing with fiction - How dance and writing have both been constants through rejection, whether IVF or publishing submissions, and how each form does something the other cannot - What inspiration looks like when you are paying proper attention: seagulls flying low over the ocean, a child picking up stones, a woman at a bus stop with a story that changes everything Whether you are navigating a creative dry spell, looking for permission to keep writing even when your manuscript has to go on hold, or just wanting to hear from someone who genuinely lives creatively across multiple forms, this episode will give you that and more. Lorena is funny, generous and completely unafraid of the big stuff. Connect with Lorena Otes Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/lorenaotes] TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@lorena.otes] Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/lorenaotes1] Website [http://www.lorenaotes.com.au] Book: Solo Mum by Choice [https://hawkeyebooks.com.au/products/solo-mum-by-choice] Substack: Lorena Lollylegs! [https://lorenalollylegs.substack.com/] LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorena-otes-b53012a9/] Read the full interview: 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/] and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/yvonne.morton/]. Get full access to Musings with Meg: 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]

S2E18: Author Lindsay Bartels on impossible decisions, starting with a big question & holding yourself lightly

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 18: Lindsay Bartels, Author Lindsay Bartels is an American writer living on Sydney’s Northern Beaches whose debut memoir Imogen in Waiting: A Memoir of Modern Reproduction was published by Third Rail Press in June 2026. The book centres on one of the most ethically complex decisions a parent could face: Lindsay was diagnosed with breast cancer in her 20s and found she carried the BRCA1 genetic mutation. When she and her husband underwent IVF, they were left with three viable embryos, one of them a female carrying the same gene. The memoir, addressed directly to that embryo, is a meditation on agency, surrender, what makes a life worth living, and how we navigate the unknown. Small, precise and told in vignettes, it is a book that earns every word. This is a conversation about how Lindsay wrote it, what she learned about process along the way, and what she is working out now as she moves into fiction. In this conversation, we talk about:- How Lindsay wrote her memoir almost entirely by hand, across four 100-page notebooks, with a pragmatic page-count schedule that kept her moving forward- The advice from writing teacher Mary Adkins that changed everything: start with a big, thorny ethical question and follow it through, rather than trying to write ‘the whole story’- How the three-act structure gave her memoir a loose but usable shape, and why a story you already know is a very different thing to write than one you are making up- Why she now protects her early fiction from feedback, and why she sets aside workshop responses rather than acting on them immediately- The difference between the encouragement you need in the early stages and the critique you need later, and how to ask for exactly what you want from a reader- What refuels her creative life: living more, following curiosity into uncomfortable places, and doing things because she herself is excited to try them- Why home is where the books are, even when they are the wrong books in the wrong country Whether you are sitting with a story that feels too personal, too complicated or too big to write, or trying to work out how to protect a fragile early draft from well-meaning feedback, this episode will give you both the framework and the permission to keep going. Lindsay is warm, thoughtful and disarmingly honest about what she still does not know. Connect with Lindsay- Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/lindsaybartels_] - Website [https://melissasharman.com.au/] - Book: Imogen in Waiting [https://www.thirdrailpress.org/books/imogen-in-waiting] - Events [http://lindsay-bartels.com/events] - Substack publication: lettersfromlindsay.substack.com Other things mentioned in the conversation- Here After [https://www.amydawnlin.com/hereafter] by Amy Lin [https://www.amydawnlin.com/hereafter]- The First Draft Club podcast Read the full interview https://megdunley.com/2026/07/01/ [https://megdunley.com/2026/07/01/interviews-with-creatives-author-lindsay-bartels/↗]i [https://megdunley.com/2026/07/01/interviews-with-creatives-author-lindsay-bartels/↗]nterviews-with-creatives-author-lindsay-bartels/ [https://megdunley.com/2026/07/01/interviews-with-creatives-author-lindsay-bartels/↗] 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/] and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/yvonne.morton/]. Get full access to Musings with Meg: 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]

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]