Meg Keneally and Fugue Writing State - Part 1
What a joy to interview Meg Keneally for the Art of Writing TIME TO WRITE sessions! Meg gave us such encouragement. At the end of our weekly writer Sunday interview, I pulled out my new manuscript and wrote all day. Chatting to Meg about the highs and lows of her writing life uplifted me and the Art of Writing gang. And that’s exactly why I run the Sunday TIME TO WRITE sessions so that we know we are not alone. Writing is solitary. Writing can be lonely. But if we gather with wonderfully giving writers, like Meg Keneally, we don’t feel as though we are by ourselves, pushing the proverbial uphill.
Meg is the author of Fled (2019), based on the escape of First Fleet convict Mary Bryant, and of The Wreck (2020).
She is co-author with Tom Keneally of The Soldier’s Curse (2016), The Unmourned (2017), The Power Game (2018) and The Ink Stain (2019).
Meg and I talked a lot about character. With Meg’s decision to write historical non-fiction came her fascination with the untold stories of women in Australian history. Strong women of conviction. Meg has found herself in awe of their level of resourcefulness.
‘I chose historical fiction as my genre partly because I am fascinated by the strength and resilience of Australia’s first colonial women. They had to fight to survive. They had to change their worlds and fought hard to do that. Their stories are enormously uplifting.’
‘How do you know when you’ve nailed that character? Are there any signs that indicate your character is now fully formed?’ I asked Meg.
‘I know I’ve successfully built a character when they begin to act on their own agency. They start to direct the action. The characters are so well formed they are away…they can take over.’
‘Can you give an example?’ (I always love a bit of an example).
‘I had an experience once when I went into some kind of fugue writing state and can’t remember what happened,’ said Meg. ‘All I know is that I wrote for one and a half hours. I was so very deeply into my story world that one character took over and revealed himself to be a psychopath.’
‘Wow! Did you go with that? Did that fugue state writing make it into the book?’
‘Oh yes! I had to go back to earlier chapters and sprinkle a bit of psychopath dust on him so that his behavior wasn’t a complete surprise, but I definitely went with what happened. It was fantastic!’
‘So you couldn’t have reached this state without knowing your characters intimately?’
‘Exactly. I go down wormholes when I write. I know the characters so well they can take over.’
I love this fugue state information! I’ve felt the same thing. When I know my characters deeply, they lead the story. They do things. Like in Death in the Mountains when Mario cut Maria’s finger off. Halfway through writing that book, I knew I needed something big to happen. In an almost altered state of writing, Mario committed that heinous act. And the story needed it!
More next week as we continue to talk to Meg about her writing process. In Part 2 we will look at how having a famous father writer impacted Meg. Her dad, Booker Prize winner, Thomas Keneally, wrote Schindler’s Arc, which ultimately became the movie Schindler’s List.
I will add now the Time to Write sessions will go public. Friends and family are now welcome to our Art of Writing TIME TO WRITE SESSIONS and can access our special Zoom interviews with writers. Write to me if you’d like to be on our Zoom TIME TO WRITE Zoom invitation list. lisacliffordwriter@gmail.com
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2023 Art of Writing Dates
Sunday, May 7th to Thursday, May 11th, 2023, Florence
Sunday, June 4th to Thursday, June 8th, 2023, Florence
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If you’d like to share any comments or thoughts, I’d be happy to hear from you. Email me directly at lisacliffordwriter@gmail.com.
