Megan Nicol Reed is no newcomer to writing and the discipline required to get words on the page – a journalist turned newspaper columnist, deadlines don't faze her. That said, Megan is new to writing novels, but her answers to our compulsory questions suggest it's not such a different challenge really.
Megan's columns and her novel, One of Those Mothers, have much in common – they are fearlessly provocative, skewering the petty concerns of suburbia and taking no prisoners when it comes to hypocrisy. She's been described as Aotearoa’s answer to Liane Moriarty, the Australian author whose bestselling novels (Big Little Lies, Apples Never Fall, Nine Perfect Strangers) also show no mercy when it comes to the middle class.
1. What is your favourite writing snack?
I never eat while I’m writing, instead I use food as a reward to spur myself on, eg: “Just another 500 words and then you can stop for lunch.”
2. When do your best ideas come?
Argh… I’ve never been an ideas machine. When I worked as a journalist I was always intrigued in news meetings how most of my colleagues would fire off these endless ideas whereas I might only have one. I used to console myself that I would make up for it with really great execution of said idea. Now that I write novels (well, I have one under my belt and another underway) I would say my best ideas tend to strike when I’m with other people – either through observing their way of being in the world, or, more directly, through their take on something when I tell them what I’m writing about.
3. What is your best trick for overcoming writer's block?
In my experience the best thing you can do for writer’s block is to soldier on. A pile of crappy writing is much less daunting than a blank page. Working as a journalist with tight deadlines I learnt you can’t indulge yourself waiting for inspiration to strike, you just have to get going and then keep going.
4. What are you reading at the moment?
I’m currently reading Barbara Else’s wonderful memoir, Laughing at the Dark, which I will be interviewing her about at the festival. In terms of fiction, which is my usual preference, I have just finished My Dark Vanessa, by Kate Elizabeth Russell. It is a deeply disturbing book but it really blew my mind.
5. Which writers would you take on an epic road trip?
I don’t enjoy long car trips, however I’m thinking if I took along the authors of my two favourite books in the whole wide world – Hanya Yanagihara (A Little Life) and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Half of a Yellow Sun) – for the journey, then they might distract me from any nausea, discomfort or lethargy. I imagine I would be so in thrall to them that I could just sit there quietly and soak up their brilliance.
6. Who would play you in the movie of your life?
Hmm, maybe Susan Sarandon. I’ve always just thought she was so right on! Otherwise people sometimes tell me I remind them of Sarah Jessica Parker. I don’t think we look alike per se, but as she has aged I have come to admire the way she presents herself and that she isn’t afraid to push the boat out when it comes to fashion.
7. What are you looking forward to most in Queenstown?
I’m really looking forward to interviewing Barbara, partly because her fabulous daughter, Emma Neale, was my editor for One of Those Mothers so there’s a nice little connection there. But also because when I worked as a journalist profiles were one of the things I was best at, so I’m hoping I can emulate that on the stage.
– Join us for Megan Nicol Reed's conversation with Queenstown writer Jane Bloomfield on Sunday 12 November at 10am at Te Atamira.