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