S2E16: Author Cassie Stroud on making things out of nothing, one row at a time

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 16: Cassie Stroud, AuthorCassie Stroud is a Sydney writer, editor and bookseller whose debut novel Iluka was published by HQ Fiction Australia in February 2026. A family drama set on the south coast of NSW, Iluka centres on three siblings who reunite after their grandfather’s death and discover their mother, long presumed dead, may still be alive. The manuscript was written over many years, mostly in snatches and longhand around freelance editorial work and raising a small child. Cassie has been writing all her life not because she was chasing publication but because creativity, in all its forms, is simply how she lives. This is a conversation about what it means to make things for the love of making them, and why that might be the most important creative disposition of all.In this interview, we talk about:How Cassie writes in short bursts of longhand to delineate it from her paid workWhy she thinks of creativity as the whole point of living and the alarm bell when she’s consuming more than creatingHow knitting taught her the single most useful thing she knows about writing a novelWhat ‘done is better than perfect’ really means in practiceThe freedom of making work that has no purpose or audienceWhether you are trying to find your way into a longer project, wondering whether you are a creative person or just needing to be reminded that a little bit, done consistently, is enough, this episode will settle something in you.Cassie is wise, warm and very funny, and she makes creativity feel like what it actually is: the best bit of being human.Connect with CassieInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/cassie.stroud/Website: http://cassiestroud.comBook: Iluka https://harpercollins.com.au/products/9781038933652Find 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