Skip to content
Sign in
Artwork for Creative Momentum with Meg
ArtsEducationSelf-Improvement

Creative Momentum with Meg

Meg Dunley

Creative conversations and mindset coaching. Creative Momentum with Meg is a podcast featuring thoughtful conversations with writers, artists, musicians and performers about creative practice, process, and what it takes to keep going. Hosted by Meg Dunley, a creativity coach, each episode explores the rhythms of creative life—routine, doubt, momentum, rest, and persistence—with people making work across different disciplines and stages of practice. These are conversations about how creative work actually happens: not just the finished outcomes, but the habits, tensions, and questions that shape the work over time. Some episodes are short and focused, others more expansive. All are grounded in curiosity, honesty, and a belief that creative momentum is something that can be nurtured, not forced. Episodes are released weekly and are available in both audio and video formats. Show notes: megdunley.substack.com

megdunley.substack.com
Play
Open in
  • 21 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 35 min
  • English

Episodes 21

NewestOldestLongest
All20Unplayed20In progress0Played0
Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.
  • S2 · E26
    Wednesday · 28 min

    S2E26: Elizabeth Barnett on painting, writing and finding home in creative work

    Season 2: The Home Season Episode 26: Elizabeth Barnett: painter, printmaker and multidisciplinary artist In this episode of Creative Momentum with Meg, I talk with Victorian artist Elizabeth Barnett about building a creative life around family, the seasons and the everyday things that inspire her. Elizabeth works from a studio in her home in the Macedon Ranges, where still life paintings are shaped by collected objects, flowers, branches and the changing landscape around her. We talk about protecting creative time, the Bridge Letters she writes with artist Stacey McCall, Elizabeth's lifelong journalling practice, her recent decision to begin writing a novel, and why knitting has become part of her creative process. We discuss · Creative routines and parenting · Making time for art · The Bridge Letters · Journalling and drawing · Painting from the landscape and seasons · Beginning a novel · Knitting and creative flow · Finding home in creative work Guest links Elizabeth Barnett: www.elizabethbarnett.com Instagram: @elizabethbarnett The Bridge Letters Creative Practice blog by Elizabeth Barnett and Stacey McCall: www.thebridgeletters.com.au Flinders Lane Gallery: https://flg.com.au/pages/artists/elizabeth-barnett Youtube video about her practice Read the full interview https://megdunley.com/2026/08/26/interviews-with-creatives-elizabeth-barnett/ Listen to Creative Momentum with Meg: https://megdunley.substack.com/s/creative-momentum-with-meg-dunley Subscribe If you enjoy conversations about creativity, writing and the many ways people make things, subscribe to Creative Momentum with Meg so you don't miss future episodes. Music Music for Creative Momentum with Meg by Yvonne Morton. Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

  • S2 · E25
    August 19 · 49 min

    S2E25: Tim Pilgrim on gardens, creativity and learning to work with what you can't control

    Season 2: The Home Season Episode 25: Tim Pilgrim, Gardener Tim Pilgrim is a gardener and garden designer based in Castlemaine, central Victoria. His work focuses on naturalistic, plant-led gardens designed for their particular site and climate. In this conversation, Tim talks about finding his way into horticulture, working at Wimbledon, developing his own garden maintenance business and eventually moving into garden design. But this is also a conversation about creativity. Tim describes gardens as works that are designed through time. Unlike a painting or a piece of writing, a garden continues to change after the designer has finished working on it. Plants grow, seasons change, weather intervenes and unexpected things happen. We talk about why observation matters, how Tim works with clients, why he prefers focused blocks of time, and what gardening has taught him about adapting rather than trying to control every outcome. We talk about - Finding a career in horticulture - Working at Wimbledon - Moving from gardening into garden design - Gardening as an artistic practice - Creating focused blocks of time - Designing a garden from a client's brief - Working with plants and climate - The role of observation - Designing gardens through time - Learning from happy accidents - Australian garden design and native plants - What fills Tim's creative cup - Finding your own voice - Why you should garden before you design Who should listen This conversation is for gardeners, designers and anyone interested in the creative process. You don't need to be a gardener to enjoy Tim's ideas about observation, experimentation, adaptation and allowing creative work to evolve. Guest links Tim Pilgrim: https://www.tpgardens.com.au/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/t.p_gardens/ Book 'Wild by Design': https://www.murdochbooks.com/browse/book/Tim-Pilgrim-Wild-by-Design-9781761500411 Read the full interview https://megdunley.com/2026/08/18/interviews-with-creatives-tim-pilgrim-gardener/ Listen to Creative Momentum with Meg: https://megdunley.substack.com/s/creative-momentum-with-meg-dunley Subscribe If you enjoy conversations about creativity, writing and the many ways people make things, subscribe to Creative Momentum with Meg so you don't miss future episodes. Music Music for Creative Momentum with Meg by Yvonne Morton. Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

  • S2 · E24
    August 11 · 27 min

    S2E24: Megan Dalla-Camina on creativity, truth and making space for what wants to come through

    Season 2: The Home Season Episode 24: Megan Dalla-Camina Megan Dalla-Camina is an author of four books, a PhD researcher in women's spirituality and feminine wisdom, and the founder of Women Rising. Her creative life began with dance, acting, poetry and writing, was interrupted by 18 years in corporate America, and later flourished through writing books and creating work that supports women. In this conversation, Megan talks about the relationship between creativity and stillness, why she doesn't follow a fixed creative routine, and how her spiritual practice has changed the way she works. In this interview we talk about - Creativity as something deeper than productivity - Why Megan allows ideas to gestate before turning them into projects - Her process for writing four books - How her creative process has changed over time - The connection between dance, acting and writing - Where she finds creative inspiration - The inner critic and the difficulty of beginning - Finding the next right action when you're stuck - Why Megan believes we need to trust and protect our creative ideas - Meditation, walking, reading and stillness as part of creative practice - Why she says truth feels like home Who should listen This episode is for writers and creatives who: - Feel pressure to be more productive - Struggle with the inner critic before beginning - Have an idea but aren't sure what to do with it - Feel stuck in the middle of a creative project - Want to develop greater trust in their creative process - Are curious about the relationship between creativity, stillness and inner listening Connect with Megan Dalla-Camina Megan Dalla-Camina's website https://megandallacamina.com/ Women Rising: https://megandallacamina.com/women-rising/ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/megandallacamina/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/megandallacamina/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/megandallacamina/ Read the full interview: https://megdunley.com/2026/08/11/interviews-with-creatives-megan-dalla-camina/ Find Creative Momentum with Meg: https://megdunley.substack.com/s/creative-momentum-with-meg-dunley Subscribe to Musings with Meg: https://megdunley.substack.com/ A special thanks to Yvonne Morton for the music accompanying this episode. You can find Yvonne on Bandcamp and Instagram. Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

  • S2 · E23
    August 5 · 29 min

    S2E23: Samantha WL Lee on Building a 5am Writing Practice, Curiosity and Writing Bound

    Season 2: The Home Season Episode 23: Samantha WL Lee, Author Samantha Lee is the author of the historical novel Bound, as well as a poet, essayist and former English teacher. In this conversation she shares how a decade of waking before sunrise became the foundation of her writing life, why curiosity drives every story she tells, and what she's learned about trusting both the creative process and her own brain. Meg and Samantha talk about: Building a 5am writing practice around work and motherhood Why consistency matters more than waiting for inspiration Beginning with curiosity rather than plot The joys and frustrations of being a "pantser" What teaching English revealed about creativity and audience Trusting your subconscious to solve story problems Filling your creative cup through galleries, books and journalling The rituals that tell her brain it's time to write Whether you're trying to build a sustainable creative practice, write around a busy life, or simply keep showing up to the page, this conversation is full of practical wisdom and quiet encouragement. Connect with Samantha W.L. Lee Instagram https://www.instagram.com/samanthawllee TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@samanthawllee Website https://www.samanthawllee.com.au/ Book: Bound https://www.westwords.com.au/product/bound/ Essay ‘How it feels when someone scrunches up their face at Chinese food’ https://www.sbs.com.au/voices/article/how-it-feels-when-someone-scrunches-up-their-face-at-chinese-food/mq53dll4i Poems: ‘China Doll White’ https://femasiamagazine.com/china-doll-white/ ‘Neiman Marcus Cookies’ https://femasiamagazine.com/neiman-marcus-cookies/ Read the full interview: https://megdunley.com/2026/08/05/interviews-with-creatives-samantha-wl-lee-bound/ Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviews: 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 and Instagram. Get full access to Musings with Meg: megdunley.substack.com/subscribe Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

  • S2 · E22
    July 28 · 29 min

    S2E22: Author Lynsey McDonnell on magic, momentum & writing Bailey Street in the spaces between

    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 22: Lynsey McDonnell, Author Lynsey McDonnell is a Perth-based CFO, mother of teenagers and debut author whose novel Bailey Street was published by Hawkeye Publishing on 23 July 2026. Born in the UK to Irish parents and raised above a pub in northern England before emigrating to Western Australia, she wrote every word of this novel in the stolen spaces of a life that already had a full-time job and two teenagers in it. This is a conversation about how she did it, and why she is completely certain that when the story is right, the magic finds a way. In this interview Meg and Lynsey talk about: – Writing retreats with two trusted friends, and why they gave her half the book and months of momentum each time – Why she never had writer’s block, only a block on her time – Two years of research and craft study before a single word went on the page – The notebook scene that arrived fully formed years before she started, and still exists near the end of the published book – The mid-draft realisation she was telling the wrong character’s story – What the Curtis Brown Write Your Novel course gave her, and why she kept polishing through every rejection – Why home is wherever her people are, and how that became the quiet theme of both her novels without her ever planning it – Whether you are writing in the cracks of a very full life, wondering how long to sit with an idea before you start, or trying to understand why some stories feel like magic and others don’t, this episode will speak directly to you. This conversation with Lynsey is a completely honest look at what it takes to write a novel around a full life. Connect with Lynsey McDonnell Instagram Website Book: Bailey Street Read the full interview: https://megdunley.com/2026/07/28/interviews-with-creatives-author-lynsey-mcdonnell/ Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviews: 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 and Instagram. Get full access to Musings with Meg: megdunley.substack.com/subscribe Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

  • S2 · E21
    July 21 · 27 min

    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 TikTok Website Book: LIT Read the full interview: https://megdunley.com/2026/07/21/interviews-with-creatives-author-anna-woods/ Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviews: 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 and Instagram. Get full access to Musings with Meg: megdunley.substack.com/subscribe Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

  • S2 · E20
    July 15 · 36 min

    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 Website Book: Whenever You are Ready Read the full interview: Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviews: 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 and Instagram. Get full access to Musings with Meg: megdunley.substack.com/subscribe Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

  • S2 · E19
    July 8 · 37 min

    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 TikTok Facebook Website Book: Solo Mum by Choice Substack: Lorena Lollylegs! LinkedIn Read the full interview: Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviews: 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 and Instagram. Get full access to Musings with Meg: megdunley.substack.com/subscribe Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

  • S2 · E18
    July 1 · 28 min

    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 - Website - Book: Imogen in Waiting - Events - Substack publication: lettersfromlindsay.substack.com Other things mentioned in the conversation- Here After by Amy Lin- The First Draft Club podcast Read the full interview https://megdunley.com/2026/07/01/interviews-with-creatives-author-lindsay-bartels/ Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviews: 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 and Instagram. Get full access to Musings with Meg: megdunley.substack.com/subscribe Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

  • S2 · E17
    June 24 · 30 min

    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_ Melissa’s website https://melissasharman.com.au/ Melissa’s book: 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 and interviews: 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 at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

  • S2 · E16
    June 17 · 24 min

    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/ Website: http://cassiestroud.com Book: Iluka https://harpercollins.com.au/products/9781038933652 Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviews: 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 at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

  • S2 · E15
    June 10 · 26 min

    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/ Substack: Creative Practice Website: http://sophiestern.com.au Book: What is Left For Us https://www.penguin.com.au/books/what-is-left-for-us-9781761354441 Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviews: 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 at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

  • S2 · E14
    June 3 · 33 min

    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/) Website with survey links (https://laurennovak.com.au/) Meltdown (https://laurennovak.com.au/meltdown/) Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviews: 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 at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

  • S2 · E13
    May 27 · 31 min

    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 ‘After’, Linda’s KYD Flash Fiction prize Shouting Abortion: A doctor reflects on the politics and economics of terminations Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviews: 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 at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

  • S2 · E12
    May 20 · 51 min

    S2E12: Author Susan Green on finishing the crap first draft

    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 12: Susan Green, Author Susan Green is a children's and adult fiction writer with a career spanning nearly four decades. Best known for the Verity Sparks series, which began with The Truth About Verity Sparks (a CBCA Awards runner-up in 2011), she has also written picture storybooks, non-fiction, one adult novel, and five teenage romances under the name Susan Lennox. After nearly a decade away from completing projects, the writing bug has returned, and Susan is now deep in a 1950s espionage novel and preparing a submission for a Varuna residency. In this episode, we talk about: - How a walk through Melbourne’s grand Victorian architecture sparked the first Verity Sparks novel - Why having a contract focused her writing life, and what happened to her routine without one - Her pantser approach: starting with a character, worrying at a first sentence, and trusting the story to find itself - The breakthrough she had in her 20s for dealing with the voice that says this is crap - What a great editor taught her about killing your darlings - The Little Bo Peep theory of creative problems, and why she no longer worries too much - Why she stopped thinking about publishers and markets, and what that freedom has meant for the book she is writing now - The grief that comes when your characters stop speaking to you Whether you are a writer finding your way back after a long break, stuck in the middle of a draft, or wondering what the point is without a contract or a deadline, this episode is for you. Susan is funny, generous and disarmingly honest about the messiness of creative life, and her story is a good reminder that beingness, including creative beingness, is enough, and that the characters always come back wagging their tails. Connect with Susan * Susan’s website * How Bright Are All Things Here Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviews: 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 at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

  • S2 · E11
    May 12 · 44 min

    S2E11: Debut author Kerry Jewell on writing dark humour

    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 11: Debut Author Kerry Jewell Kerry Jewell is a nuclear medicine physician and writer based in Melbourne whose debut novel, A Little Unwell, is a darkly funny look at life inside the Australian hospital system. Kerry began the book in 2015 during a night shift, venting a bureaucratic frustration into a Word document she almost never opened again, and finished the first complete draft seven years later. Her first three chapters were shortlisted for the Richell Prize in 2020, and the book is published by Hachette. She is also, it turns out, a genuinely funny person to talk to at an early hour of the morning. In our chat, we discuss - Why so many doctors end up as writers, and what medicine and creative work have in common - Dark humour in medicine: why healthcare workers rely on it, and why Kerry was surprised to learn hers was dark - Kerry’s deliberately routineless approach to writing and why attempting a routine makes things worse - The car as creative space and how a one-hour commute does more for plot and character than sitting at a desk - How the book moved from vignettes and loose notes to a complete manuscript across seven years - Why Kerry chose fiction over non-fiction to tell these stories, and what fiction allows that non-fiction does not - The connection between creative practice and showing up well at work and for patients Whether you are a writer who has been sitting on a half-finished manuscript for years, a creative person trying to balance a demanding day job with the work that feeds your soul, or someone who simply needs permission to stop trying to have a routine, this conversation is for you. Kerry is warm, funny, and bracingly honest about the messiness of the creative process, and her story is a good reminder that the gap between venting into a Word document at 2am and holding a published novel is mostly just time, stubbornness and a willingness to let the work find its shape. Connect with Kerry A Little Unwell https://www.hachette.com.au/kerry-jewell/a-little-unwell Website https://www.kerryjewell.com/ Substack https://substack.com/@drkerryjewell/notes Instagram https://www.instagram.com/drkerryjewell/ Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/drkerryjewell.bsky.social Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviews: 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 at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

  • S2 · E10
    May 6 · 45 min

    S2E10: Co-Authors Graeme Simsion & Anne Buist on a shared writing life

    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 10: Co-Authors Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist have been creative collaborators for their entire relationship. They have now written five books together, including the Menzies Mental Health series, which follows trainee psychiatrist Hannah through the sometimes brutal world of public hospital medicine. The third book in that series, The General Hospital, is out now. In this conversation, they talk about what it actually looks like to write a book together, from brainstorming scenes on cards thrown into an ice cream container, to sitting side by side for eight hours a day during first draft, to the rule that Anne does not give Graeme her first draft because it is too sloppy and he will feel disrespected. They talk about why Graeme believes pantsing is a choice not an identity, why screenwriting training produces better novelists than prose courses, and the mash-up method he uses to find original ideas. Graeme’s advice for anyone starting out is blunt: know why you are writing, follow a process and understand that there are two kinds of people who say they sit in front of a blank screen and wait for drops of blood to form. One group are geniuses. The other are liars. Connect with Graeme & Anne Anne on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/anneebuist/ )& Website https://annebuist.com/ Graeme on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/gcsimsion/ ) & Website http://www.graemesimsion.com Buy The General Hospital, the third book in the Menzies Mental Health Series: https://www.hachette.com.au/anne-buist-graeme-simsion/the-general-hospital-a-menzies-mental-health-novel The Novel Project by Graeme Simsion (https://www.amazon.com.au/Novel-Project-Step-Step-Biography/dp/1922458384/) Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviews: 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 at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

  • S2 · E9
    April 29 · 45 min

    S2E9: Author Emma Hardy 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 9: Emma Hardy, Author Emma Hardy is a writer who works across fiction and non-fiction. Her debut book Periodic B***h is a literary memoir of menstruation, madness, and monsters. It is a hybrid non-fiction work that weaves her own experience of PMDD during Melbourne’s lockdowns with archival research and a sweeping look at how women’s illnesses have been treated throughout history. It is also, as the title suggests, not shy about being angry. In this conversation, Emma and I cover a lot of ground. We talk about improv and how it helps or hinders writing, what it means to craft a curated version of yourself in memoir, and Jane Alison’s book on story structure that made everything click. We talk about body doubling, dead cow narrators, and why workshop can sometimes edit out the good bits. And we talk about Melbourne as home for Emma and her writing. Connect with Emma Hardy Instagram Website Buy Periodic B***h book Emma’s Substack ‘Hot Mess’ See Emma at Melbourne Writers Festival Join Emma at her book launch at Readings on 14 May 2026 Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviews A special thanks to Yvonne Morton for the music accompanying this episode. You can find Yvonne on Bandcamp and Instagram. Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

  • S2 · E8
    April 21 · 30 min

    S2E8: Author Toni Jordan on the importance of training the mind

    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 8: Toni Jordan Toni Jordan is the author of several much-loved novels including Addition, Tenderfoot, and The Fragments, and was my first writing teacher at RMIT. In this conversation, Toni is as funny, sharp and generous as you would hope. Toni is a devoted pantser who runs her writing life with military precision. Word counts on whiteboards. Breakfasts and lunches made on Sunday night. A strict desk-by-11 rule. And a story about sitting at her desk until 4 in the morning to prove to her unconscious mind that she meant business, which she only had to do once. She talks about matching what she reads to the tense and point of view of what she is writing, why writer’s block is often just losing the rhythm of a sentence, and the two books she recommends every writer keep on their desk. One you think is a masterpiece. One you think is terrible. And somewhere in between those two is you. Her advice for anyone at an early stage or a wobbly moment is simple and beautiful: fall in love with the process. The rest takes care of itself. Connect with Toni Jordan Instagram Website Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviews A special thanks to Yvonne Morton for the music accompanying this episode. You can find Yvonne on Bandcamp and Instagram. Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

  • S2 · E7
    April 14 · 31 min

    S2E7: Painter Stacey McCall on a creative life

    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 7: Stacey McCall, Painter Stacey McCall studied gold and silversmithing at RMIT, raised five daughters, and somewhere in between all of that, discovered that the things sitting around her house were the most meaningful subject matter she could paint. These days she works full-time from a tiny studio in her backyard, shows regularly with Boom Gallery in Geelong and Michael Reid Galleries, and is about to head to London and Berlin, where she has an exhibition opening. In this conversation, Stacey talks about the rituals that get her into flow each morning, the bridge painting that connects one body of work to the next, and what four weeks in a Montmartre Airbnb with a fellow painter gave her that a regular studio day simply cannot. She talks about knitting as thinking time, afternoon naps as creative problem solving, and why she always goes back to the sketchbook when confidence runs low. And she shares something that will resonate with anyone whose creative life has had to wait: she didn’t really start until her youngest started school. And then she found her thing. Connect with Stacey McCall Instagram Website The Bridge Letters: letters between artists Stacey and Elizabeth Barnett Galleries & exhibitions Michael Reid Berlin exhibition (14 May to 6 June 2026) Boom Gallery in Geelong Michael Reid Murrurundi Links to things mentioned in the interview Fitzroy Painting Amber Creswell Still Life book Find all Creative Momentum with Meg show notes and interviews A special thanks to Yvonne Morton for the music accompanying this episode. You can find Yvonne on Bandcamp and Instagram. Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Showing 1–20 of 21 episodes