Answering Deep Questions with Isobelle Carmody

This is the final instalment of my writing series following The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, and I wanted to end with something special—a conversation with one of my favourite Australian authors—Isobelle Carmody.

I first interviewed Isobelle when I was in high school. At that time the first two books of her wonderful Obernewtyn Chronicles had been released and I was captivated by the post-apocalyptic world of Elspeth and her community of talented misfits.

I wasn’t much good at Chemistry and was only average at Maths (do we have to call it Math now?!) but I loved English and had a wonderfully supportive teacher who helped arrange for Isobelle to come speak to us.

I even got to interview her at home. I baked banana cake (which she mistook for poppy seed cake—I didn’t mind) and sat in awe, speaking one-on-one with one of my literary heroes.

30 years between interviews!

A few weeks ago, while waiting for PJ Harvey to take the stage, I was swapping latest reads with my gig buddy. And wouldn’t you know it, he was making his way through The Obernewtyn Chronicles.

I told him the story of that first interview and how, back then, Isobelle had asked me to send her some of my mum’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest anecdotes as a psychogeriatric nurse.

I never sent them. I was young, distractable, and already an A+ procrastinator.

My friend said, “Well, you’ll have to get back in touch and make good on your promise.”

Gosh yes, I thought.

So I sent a message via the contact form on Isobelle’s website, then a few days later, received a personal reply from her, saying she didn’t remember our past conversation but would be delighted to be interviewed again.

After some email hiccups and a bit of scheduling back-and-forth while she travelled Europe, we finally made it happen.

I was a bit nervous. She’s written many more books since we last spoke, won awards, and built an incredible body of work. I stumbled a bit at the start, but her warmth and generosity soon put me at ease, and I was once again completely absorbed by her insights on writing, creativity, and life.

Faith in the creative process

The final chapter of The Artist’s Way is titled “Recovering a Sense of Faith.” It’s about trusting the creative process, letting go of control, and believing that when we show up, something meaningful will meet us there. That ideas will come. That our voice matters.

Befittingly Isobelle described her own relationship with the creative process like this:

“Almost everything we think and see, if it's good enough, will accrue to something. I just have faith in that.”

It’s a great reminder that art, whether it’s writing, painting, music, ceramics, or any of the myriad other ways creativity can be expressed—is just as much about what doesn’t get manifested: the shitty first drafts, the sketches that end up as crumpled paper balls, or the clay coffee cup that gets squished back into a lump before becoming a better version of itself.

Inspiration through deep questions

Another theme that I was fascinated to get Isobelle’s take on, is the source of inspiration. Many creatives describe it as an amorphouse entity that is expressed through them, rather than by them. I find it a fascinating concept that as artists we are vessels more than creators.

Isobelle experiences this as the arrival of deep questions that must be answered.

“If you’ve got a question you’re pursuing, it’s got to be a deep one... the bit of grit that starts to form the pearl.”

Storytelling, for her, began as a way to process the grief of her father’s sudden death when she was still just a teenager.

"That was the trigger for all my anxieties... and the start of my stories."

She writes because something inside her demands it.

Out of the gentle darkness it comes

I had a deep question I hoped she could answer for me. One that, in one way or another,, I’m always trying to answer in my writing:

Where did we come from, why are we here, and where are we going?

Here was her answer:

“I think we come out of gentle darkness and we go into gentle darkness. We're surrounded by it. I think life is about paying attention and finding ways to be really present. It's this constant search for that feeling of connectedness with life. For me writing is one of the ways to reach that state.

I guess none of us can know for sure what came before or what is coming after. But we can spend our lives answering the why. And the beautiful thing is that it doesn’t have to be an absolute. It can be subjective and personal.

Creativity can be both the way and the reason. It can be as simple and profound as paying attention to each moment.

The End

And that brings us to the end of this adventure through the pages of The Artists Way. It has been such a joyful process for me to put creativity front and centre, instead of allowing it to get buried at the bottom of the life pile.

Thank you for reading. If you’ve been following along, I hope it has inspired more creativity in your life too.

This conversation with Isobelle was such a perfect cherry on top. It was full of her generous insights, advice and wisdom. Definitely worth a watch.

You can find out more about Isobelle Carmody here, and join her Patreon community here.

This may be an ending, but as with all things in life, it’s also a beginning. Exciting things ahead, always!

Leonie x