[Joanne McNeil, inner stuff]: Owning your outsider status + “doing what I can do with with the tools that I have” Ep 1069

Finding the Throughline with Kate Hanley

In this episode I'm talking with Joanne McNeil, author of Wrong Way (a novel set in the near future at a company that manages driverless cars) and Lurking (a non-fiction look at the history of the internet from a user’s perspective), about the inner workings of creativity–the thoughts, ideas, and beliefs that either help you do your work, or get in the way.

Warning, there’s a tiny bit of cursing and a mention of sexual harassment in the workplace–not a specific story, but just the topic in general, so take care while listening.

We talked about:

The thrill of writing an op ed and indulging that desire to be right…

…. compared to writing something more personal (fiction or nonfiction) and being more reflective and offering more of yourself

Reckoning with the fact that since her novel, Wrong Way, happens at work and the main character is female, she’d need to include scenes of sexual harassment in order for it be authentic–and really not wanting to go there (“I kind of wrote them in a flurry”)

Resisting the urge to overcompensate for the fact that she doesn’t have the ‘right’ writer’s resume

Why she still considers herself to be an emerging writer

How having writers who come from outside the traditional writing pipeline is so important for the future of writing…

…and how those writers will naturally take longer to develop (so please don’t tell yourself it’s ‘too late’ or ‘taking too long’!)

A mini rant about the use of AI to create art, and being the cheesy romantic who says “humanity is important”

Joanne’s website: https://www.joannemcneil.com/

For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.

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