Creative Momentum with Meg

Season 2: The Home Season
Welcome to the second season of Creative Momentum with Meg. This season is features interviews with Australian writers and artists where Meg Dunley talks to them about their processes, routines, inspiration and more to explore how and why people do their creative work.
Episode 5: Melissa Manning, Author
Melissa Manning has been writing for close to 18 years, and her practice looks nothing like it did when she started. These days she is up before dawn, moving her body before she sits down at the desk, keeping her brain free of noise until she opens the laptop and sees what comes.
Her debut short story collection Smokehouse won the 2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. Her novel Frogsong, published by UQP, launches in April. And she still has a folder on her laptop called S**t Poetry.
In this conversation, Melissa talks about writing from a spark rather than an idea, why she never plans her work, and what happens to the words on the page when she tries. She talks about the studio she has filled with twigs and leaves and art and a wearable minotaur’s head her daughter made for a university theatre production. She talks about the questions her fiction keeps returning to: who are we, how do we become the people we become, and is any of that fixed?
She also shares something that will resonate with anyone who has been waiting for the right idea before they start. She waited until she was 40. And then she realised it was never about the idea.
Connect with Melissa Manning
- Publisher’s author page
- Instagram
- Books: Frogsong (2026), Smokehouse (2022)
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.Episode 5: Melissa Manning, Author


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Season 2: The Home Season
Welcome to the second season of Creative Momentum with Meg. This season is features interviews with Australian writers and artists where I talk to them about their processes, routines, inspiration and more to explore how and why people do their creative work.
Episode 4: Amanda Hewitt, Debut Author
What does it look like to write a debut novel while working three days a week, raising three boys and fitting in words wherever you can snatch them? On the lounge, in the kitchen, on post-it notes stuck to the back of your phone?
This week’s get is Amanda Hewitt. Amanda is an Australian romance author whose debut novel The Last Resort, an over-40s romance with baggage, was released in February this year. In this conversation, Amanda shares what it means to be a pantser, why her best writing happens between 5 and 7 in the morning with just her and the dog and how a holiday in Fiji reminded her that love stories are absolutely everywhere if you know how to look.
She talks about the book that started as a spy drama and became a romance, the magpie out the back that sings for its food, and why writing in the chaos of family life isn’t a workaround. It’s just how it works.
And her piece of wisdom for anyone sitting on a notebook full of ideas? Stop taking the ideas down. Start writing the book. Because unless you have something tangible, you don’t really have anything at all.
Connect with Amanda Hewitt
Website
Instagram
Facebook
Book The Last Resort
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

Season 2: The Home Season
Welcome to the second season of Creative Momentum with Meg. This season is features interviews with Australian writers and artists where I talk to them about their processes, routines, inspiration and more to explore how and why people do their creative work.
Episode 3: Sally Darlison, Multidisciplinary Artist
What does it really mean to treat art-making like a job? How do you balance the spreadsheets and applications with the actual making? And what happens when you finally make the leap from teaching to pursuing your art full time?
Sally Darlison is a multidisciplinary artist who shows up to her studio every day, working in collage, fabric, machine embroidery, and print to explore connection to place. In this conversation, my sister Sally shares what changed when she left her teaching career, why she loves maps (hint: it involves childhood bushwalking trips and beautiful patterns), and how her series on food and hospitality connects to the welcoming table we grew up with.
She reveals the question her art tries to answer, why looking carefully is what being an artist is all about, and her essential wisdom for anyone frozen by their ideas: just start, it doesn’t have to be perfect, and if it doesn’t work, the bin is okay too.
Whether you’re considering leaving your day job for creativity, struggling with where to begin, or curious about how artists work towards collections, this conversation offers grounded insights into making art part of real life – spreadsheets and all.
Connect with Sally Darlison
Website
Instagram
Shop
Classes & Shows
Links
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

Season 2: The Home Season
Welcome to the second season of Creative Momentum with Meg. This season is features interviews with Australian writers and artists where I talk to them about their processes, routines, inspiration and more. I will be talking with established authors, artists, debut writers and people who create for themselves to explore how and why people do their creative work.
Episode 2: Claire Mosley, Artist
Claire Mosley is an artist living along the Merri Creek in Melbourne, working primarily in watercolour to illustrate the Australian plants and animals she loves. In this conversation, Claire shares how creativity became her way of understanding the world, though it took a while to realise that’s who she is.
Discover what Claire does when she has space and time on holidays – what this reveals about her creative priorities might surprise you. She walks us through her process from deep Google dives for birds (try drawing a platypus from real life!) to painting wattle from actual sprigs brought by friends after surgery, and why working on A1 sheets allows for the kind of detail photographs can’t teach.
Claire traces her creative inspiration from childhood walks with her 93-year-old grandfather to the crafty women of Kensington who were always sewing, knitting, or op-shopping, revealing how these layers built her current watercolour practice.
Her biggest pearl of wisdom? Two quick exercises you can do right now to silence that critical voice that says I can’t draw, including one that guarantees you’ll draw something wonky, and why that’s exactly the point. Claire’s philosophy is simple: keep it light, paint what excites you, and remember it’s a process, not perfection.
She also shares what home means for her creativity – the tangled eucalyptus and tea tree of the Merri Creek, the scent of lemon-scented gum after rain, and why she’s comfortable sitting near ant nests. Whether you’re stuck with your creativity or intimidated by a blank page, Claire’s generous insights will inspire you to pick up a pencil – maybe even with your non-dominant hand.

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Connect with Claire Mosley
* Website
* Instagram
* Shop
Find the show notes on megdunley.substack.com/


Get full access to Musings with Meg at megdunley.substack.com/subscribe

Season 2: The Home Season
Welcome to the second season of Creative Momentum with Meg. This season is features interviews with Australian writers and artists where I talk to them about their processes, routines, inspiration and more. I will be talking with established authors, artists, debut writers and people who create for themselves to explore how and why people do their creative work.
Episode 1: Helen Garner, Author
I’m kicking off this season with an interview with Helen Garner.
Helen Garner is one of Australia’s most celebrated writers, known for her court reporting books like This House of Grief and The Spare Room, as well as her groundbreaking novel Monkey Grip. In this deeply insightful conversation, Helen opens up about her writing process, from sitting in courtrooms paying witness to people’s worst days to the terror of facing page one of every new book.
What does Helen do when she walks into a courtroom? She’s not taking notes on what’s being said – she can get transcripts for that. Instead, she’s watching and listening for something far more subtle. Discover what that is and how it becomes the spine of her books.
After decades and twelve published books, does the fear ever go away? Helen reveals a startling truth about starting each new project – why accumulated competence doesn’t help, and the feeling of helplessness that comes with every blank page. But she also shares the specific moments when everything shifts, when she finds that place to stand from which to tell the story.
Why did Helen stop attending court trials after years of this work she loved? The answer is both practical and poignant, revealing the physical and emotional toll of bearing witness.
What happened when Helen encountered a young woman in court who refused to stand for the judge? This moment shook Helen to her core and made her realise something essential about the work she does – and when she’s not fit to do it.
Helen also shares her controversial views on what’s missing from writing education today, why she was shocked by what university writing students told her about their reading habits, and the grammar knowledge that’s been lost. Plus, she explains her definition of a short story that’s both simple and profound, and reveals what judges taught her about fear and writing.
Whether you’re a writer struggling with fear, wondering about routine and discipline, or simply curious about one of Australia’s finest literary minds, this conversation offers rare insights into the craft and courage required to write truly.
Find more in the show notes
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