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

Season 2: The Home SeasonThe 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 BuistGraeme 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 & AnneAnne on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/anneebuist/ )& Website https://annebuist.com/Graeme on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/gcsimsion/ ) & Website http://www.graemesimsion.comBuy 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-novelThe 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-dunleyA 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