Welcome to my podcast Creative Momentum with Meg Dunley where I interview creatives about their process, routines and inspiration.
Season 1: The Chateau Season
This first season of the podcast, The Chateau Season features creatives I interviewed during my writing residency the Chateau d’Orquevaux Artist and Writers Residency in France. The episodes feature writers, filmmakers, visual artists, verbatim storytellers and more. Each episode gives you insight into the creative mind, taking you behind the studio doors to hear about process, routine, inspiration and wisdom. These pocket-sized episodes are to encourage you on your creative pathway.
Episode 7: Emily Collins, Writer
This episode features fiction writer Emily Collins, a Houston native currently based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Emily writes across multiple genres, short stories, novels, essays and poetry, though fiction is her true love. She is currently working on revising her first novel and her story collection that’s a finalist in a contest in America, and under serious consideration at various outlets. During our conversation, Emily shares how she evolved from only writing when inspired, to maintaining a disciplined practice of writing six days a week while juggling a nine-to-five job.
She opens up in the interview about what she looks for in literature, that magical intersection where the unusual meets the universal, and why clarity is that superpower that every writer should chase. I really hope you enjoy this episode. I loved having my chat with her and it was really great to meet her at the residency. In the background of the recording you can see the beautiful artwork of Sam Moe.
Interview transcript
MD: Hi Emily. Do you just want to introduce yourself, your name and where you’re from?
EC: My name is Emily Collins. I’m from Houston, Texas originally, but I live with my partner in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
MD: Excellent. And can you tell me a little bit about what your creative discipline or disciplines are?
EC: I would just say all writing, mostly fiction. I write short stories and I just finished a novel draft, but I also write essays too and articles, book reviews, and sometimes poetry as well.
I think I would mostly categorise myself as a fiction writer, but I certainly explore all genres too, just kind of whatever it is I have to say sometimes takes a unique approach or discipline. So yeah, certainly I’d say just writing in all caps with fiction as a preference.
MD: What is your creative process?
EC: Yeah, it’s definitely changed over the years. I used to only write when I felt a surge of inspiration and I always love when that happens, but the older I got the more mundane my life got. So I sort of had to cultivate inspiration, which I do six days a week. I write every day, usually Monday through Saturday. I try to do at least 1,000 words a day. Sometimes that’ll increase if I’m more in the flow of a project. At this residency it’s been a lot different where I’ve been writing more in the afternoon and late into the night, but whenever I’m in my work mode because I work a nine to five job, it’s typically in the mornings. Yeah, and I think it’s overall a good practice even when I don’t want to, I still show up and do it. Yeah, that’s pretty much how I got my first book finished.
MD: Yeah, and you’ve got something coming in?
EC: Hopefully. I had a story collection that was a finalist in a contest and is under serious consideration at other outlets, so hopefully that comes through but I did finish a novel draft and will be revising and querying in the next several months.
MD: Excellent, excellent. Who or what gives you your creative inspiration?
EC: Probably a lot. I think the who definitely just writers. I just grew up, like a lot of writers, I grew up being a voracious reader and sort of read everything that I could get my hands on.
Now I find that…I think my taste has changed just a little bit. I really I have this nervous system I think that’s wired for novelty and I really look for that in syntax and voice and I really love when the unusual meets the universal and I think writers are able to do that whether they’re writing classic realism or speculative horror. I really, I kind of love all of it and I’m really interested in the stories that only that person could tell at the right time and you can’t measure that, you can’t predict that but I think those kind of little miracles find their ways into the world and that’s really what I love to read.
I love everything from Tolstoy to this memoirist named Lydia Yukonovich. I think there’s just strangeness in what they do and what they observe but it’s also just incredibly important and really kind of touches on something buried in my heart and I’m just so grateful for that.
Definitely nature and travel too, I always get more ideas just from being in the outside world away from technology and disconnecting. I love being in nature with people and also by myself I used to do long distance backpacking and I really miss it, I don’t get to do that as much with my corporate job but it is something that I think probably helped me write a book, it is just being on those adventures and being tested in that way.
MD: I love that, I really love that. I think you’ve already spoken about your creative regime, is there anything else that you would want to add in about what makes a good creative regime for you?
EC: I think just kind of in general I don’t think there’s a set formula or word count, I kind of wish there were because then I think everybody would do it and everybody would be writing great books but I do think persistence is key and I think persistence looks different based on each person and their own life and their own demands and everything that they’re juggling but I think whether persistence is writing once a week or once a month or every day I do think that is critical because I do, I have noticed even when I feel like I’m in this creative slump, there is this increased fidelity that comes between you showing up for your work, you tend to trust the work a little more and more importantly it feels like the work kind of trusts you back and gives you more than you would have imagined had you spent all your time avoiding the work, which is natural to the creative process too because nobody wants to sit down and write, just the thought of that I find terrible but once when I jump in, everything’s fine and I don’t want to leave.
So yeah, I think just whatever persistence looks like to someone’s life, they should do that, give themselves permission and fight for it.
MD: What is the piece of wisdom, the pearl or pearls that you would give to someone who is in the early stages of their writing or creativity?
EC: I love this question mostly because I always feel like I’m in the early stages because I’m always starting something new and I’ve talked to other writers about this and they say it never gets any less scary, like every time you start a new book, even if you’ve written ten, you’re like how am I going to do this because every piece of project is really humbling but I would say just spend time by yourself discovering who you are getting lots of worldly experiences, like if you can travel or if you can do the things that you’ve always wanted to do, go for it and learn about yourself and just spend time alone writing or creating whatever it is that you do to kind of discover your voice and also your obsessions. I think writers especially will be writing about the same things over and over again but in different ways, that is a good thing people might tell you it isn’t but I wholeheartedly disagree and yeah, I think one piece of advice that I always return to is just you can do whatever you want as long as you’re clear and I think it’s something that sounds so simple but it’s also incredibly difficult because clarity is really the thing that writers are after with every single draft so I would say do whatever you want, be experimental but find those trusted readers or friends to kind of give you feedback on your work and to let you know where certain areas are not clear or what can be developed further. I think that’s a very different kind of reader than someone saying none of this is working, I want the plot to be different or I think this should be a poem or whatever, just find those people who really support and understand what you’re trying to say and kind of help you get there and you’ll get there too, you do learn to become your own editor after a while but yeah, I think clarity is a superpower and it’s also a gift to the world too because ultimately you are giving a gift to somebody who really needs it and yeah, I think that’s just something I try to chase in my daily life every day and always try to cultivate.
MD: I love that, thank you so much.
EC: Thank you! This is such a great series, I’m excited to see everybody’s.
Connect with the writer
Emily Collins, Writer
* Website
* Substack
Artwork behind Emily in the interview: Sam Moe
Catch up on past episodes
Upcoming events
* Retreat with Meg October 2025
Five days of writing bliss in Kinglake, Victoria – more info
* Retreat with Meg November 2025
Four days of writing bliss in Kinglake, Victoria – more info
