#08: Lorena Otes's Creative Practice
On smashing deadlines, showing up when you're stuck, and dancing while writing.
Welcome to the eighth issue of Creative Practice. This week, we’re hearing from Lorena Otes, a dancer, writer, mother, and Bonnie Tyler’s number one fan. Lorena’s memoir came out in May and details her journey to becoming a solo mum by choice. I loved Lorena’s advice on just showing up when you are stuck, and for having multiple projects on the go to fuel her creativity. And who doesn’t love the idea of pirouetting mid-writing session?
A few things from me:
Since launching my book in March, I’ve been reconsidering how I use social media. Unsurprisingly, promoting my book meant a huge increase in my use of Instagram. While I’ve found community and opportunities as a result, I have come to the realisation that I never leave Instagram feeling better about myself. I know this is not particularly new or interesting, but it has prompted me to look for alternative ways to connect online. This newsletter is one of them, but after falling down a few internet rabbit holes I’ve been drawn into the world of personal websites and blogs, and I’m refreshing my own website as a result. If you have a personal website (or one you’d recommend), please let me know in the comments! This is one of my favourites so far.
As part of Melbourne Jewish Book Week, I’ll be on a panel on Sunday 2 August with a musicologist and a journalist to explore how physical remnants ‘speak’ from the past. I’m really looking forward to the events lined up for the rest of 2026, which are mainly panels with other authors; it’s much more interesting to be in conversation with others than by myself!
Only slightly related to writing, but since it is finally slightly cold in Sydney, a shout out to the best tracksuit pants in the world and my trusty heated blanket.
And now, over to Lorena!
What are your favourite tools?
I LOVE a notebook. Preferably thick and pretty with nice paper that I can end up massacring with messy notes and ideas. I find this kind of organised chaos inspiring. Paperchase is a brand favourite, but these days most newsagents or even Kmart have really lovely and sturdy notebooks.
Once I’m on the computer getting into the serious stuff, I write in Word. I don’t like too many tabs, or too much fuss when constructing my story, and I find along with my messy notepad, Word is the perfect writing tool for me.
Do you have any rituals for your creative practice?
I write at the dining table usually in the daytime when my daughter is at school, or at night after she goes to sleep. NEVER in the morning. That is wild sorcery to me, the fact that a person's brain cells can function before 10am!
I used to write with quiet meditation music in the background, but these days I need silence. I go a bit batty if the neighbour's leaf blower fires up mid-writing session.
A nice cup of T2 Melbourne Breakfast tea is my usual accompaniment. And because I'm a dance teacher, I am known to leap from my writing chair on the odd occasion and grande jete around the couch a few times to get my blood-flow going if I’ve been sitting for more than a couple of hours.
What do you listen to while you write?
Nothing these days. The sound of silence is ideal!
When do you usually write? Do you set a target (either word count or length of time)?
I’m an afternoon/night owl writer. Recently, during the structural edits of my memoir, Solo Mum by Choice, my publisher asked me to add 30,000 new words to my manuscript. She gave me a four month timeline, but of course I wanted to smash it out in two. I ended up writing an average of one-thousand words an hour and got it done in a week. And the funny thing is, there were barely any edits needed. A little bit of cleaning up and refinement was necessary, but overall it was as though the words were waiting to spill out of my head and onto the page.
Normally I'd set myself the goal of writing around an average of around 1-2,000 words a day if I'm immersed in a project, so this was an intense period where I learned a lot about myself and what makes me thrive as a writer. (Smashing a timeline, as it turns out!!!)
How do you write?
I tend to write chronologically in the order of the story. I never do an outline, but have myriad pages of notes that I love putting lines through as I go.
I’d classify myself as sitting somewhere closer to the pantser side of the spectrum purely because I often allow myself to go off in tangents. And would a planner do that? I mean, I think there's always a spectrum.
I usually underwrite and then go back. Then I usually add too much and have to go back a third time and do a trim. I have the habit of editing a little as I go, even though I try really hard not to because it breaks the flow. I can’t stand errors and typos that are really obvious, and then when I go back and fix them, I end up rereading and tidying whole sections. I’m learning as I gain more experience that this time is better spent adding to the manuscript because you may spend time detailing a section that will end up on the chopping room floor.
Where do you find the most pleasure or joy in your creative practice?
I love sitting at my computer writing. I just love it! Time disappears, and I could seriously do it all day, every day. There's so much satisfaction from the result too. witnessing the word count of a project going up. I love constructing sentences and then making them better. I also get a real rush out of editing my first draft, whether it be a manuscript or a short story, finding bits of my own writing I’m proud of and fixing sentences that aren't quite right.
Do you have a favourite piece of writing advice or guiding principles that drive your work?
Many years ago, I got stuck.
I was in the throes of writing my memoir and it was before I became a mum, so I wasn't sure how the story was going to end. I had a mentor who suggested I leave that project for as long as I needed to be away from it, but to start something new. So I began writing a novel. Only thing is, I couldn’t get into it. I felt so guilty starting something new, when I had another messy unfinished piece of trauma filed inside my computer. So my mentor then suggested I spend just ten minutes a day working on my new novel. Enough to ‘tap in’, but not so much that I'd feel overwhelmed.
It worked a treat. I averaged around 200-300 words in those ten-minute slots. Quite productive, really, and it gave me a sense of accomplishment. The simple act of opening my computer every day eventually gave me the courage (and curiosity) to return to my memoir and continue work on it.
The point of all this is to show up when you can. Even if it’s for just a sentence worth of writing. Or to reread yesterday’s work. Open your computer every day or every other day, sit down and be a writer for a small amount of time. It’s amazing where this habit can take you.
What do you do when you get stuck? How do you fill your creative cup?
I haven’t been stuck for a while, so I have to think. I feel that the above advice applies here also. Just showing up when you can. There’s nothing wrong with having multiple projects, as long as you have an idea of where they are heading.
I also write short stories and always enter the AWC’s monthly Furious Fiction competition as well as the quarterly Not Quite Write Prize for Flash Fiction. For me, writing short stories is a tonic. I listen to podcasts to help hone the craft and basically have a heap of fun with it. If you’re entering all the time, the outcome becomes less of a focus. Sometimes I write the worst drivel, and there may not have been enough time to work on making it better. I enter it anyway. Other times, I write something I wholeheartedly love. My stories often get published in literary mags afterward too. It’s a real energy source for me, and a huge motivator.
What (non-craft) book taught you the most about writing?
Tara Westover’s memoir Educated changed what memoir meant to me. Her writing is vivid, thematic and dripping with sensual detail. I never knew memoir could do this. I actually need to reread that book, because it is like a masterclass in memoir.
I also love Savannah Gilbo’s Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast. This is obviously isn’t a book, and it is based on the craft of writing, but it’s worth a mention. The episodes are short but incredible, she’s really good! My new manuscript is fiction, so after writing memoir I needed plenty of guidance on structure, arc, story beats and that kind of thing. I don’t follow the formula to a 't', but I certainly find it useful as a guide.
If you could save one book from your shelves, what would it be?
This is an impossible question. Aaaargh!!! I really need to think because the reality is I’d need a suitcase to haul all of my favourite books off my shelf. I'd say it’s Martha Graham's biography Blood Memory. It's full of delicious quotes and because she’s a dancer like me, and someone I have studied deeply in my dance training, I feel like her words are home. I can relate to her but am also entirely in awe of her.
Thanks so much, Lorena! Find Lorena on Instagram, TikTok, Substack and on her website. Lorena’s memoir Solo Mum By Choice is out now.
Lovely to hear this, guys!! And how good is Melbourne Breakfast tea?!?
Both websites were a delight.