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

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]

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]