For the Curious: Writer Laura Price on Writing & Wellbeing

"Creativity is observing things that others don't notice"

HELLO! Welcome to a new series of For the Curious. You KNOW I bang on about how good for you creativity is. But don’t just take my word for it! I wanted to speak to some people who’ve also experienced the joy of creativity and how it has impacted them. So for the next few weeks, I’m going to be sharing some interviews with interesting people who’ve got a thing or two to say about the topic.

Up first, the gorge and talented author of Single Bald Female Laura Price.

Laura and I first met when we spoke about how writing can help us explore difficult things at YALC. She talked about the process of writing Single Bald Female, I spoke about writing Life, Lemons and Melons. It’s funny to me that we’ve now gone full circle and we’re both sort of exploring this in more expansive ways.

1. First of all, what does creativity mean to you?

Creativity means the things that come out of my brain that aren’t the same things that come out of everyone’s brains. I have a chapter in my Notes app of random observations I write down whenever they come to me, which I’ll add to a novel at some point: “You only know someone truly when you’ve seen them brush their teeth,” and “Life is like an episode of a sitcom. Everything wraps itself up eventually”. Creativity is thinking outside the box, observing things that others observe but don’t realise they’re observing. Creativity is turning thoughts into words or pictures or whatever canvas you prefer.

2. Would you say you’re a creative person?

Yes and no. It comes more naturally to me to write about the things I know from personal experience than to create fiction. I don’t enjoy fantasy and I struggle with magical realism. But creativity isn’t just fiction – it’s also creating an expression out of everyday life, so in that sense I am creative. I turn my thoughts into written words, spoken words (in podcast form) or even pictures with captions on Instagram. I’m always doodling, making photobooks and coming up with new book and podcast ideas.

3. Your book, Single Bald Female, explores a breast cancer experience from the perspective of your character Jess. The book is based on your own experiences of breast cancer (even though they’re different to Jess’s). Why did you feel you wanted to write this story?

I prefer to say the novel was inspired by my experience rather than based on it. I went through seismic changes in my life after being diagnosed with breast cancer at 29 and my blogs at the time were very popular. As I went through my thirties, I had some disastrous dating experiences and realised they were too funny not to be shared, but I didn’t want to write a book about my own life – it would be too personal and I didn’t want to implicate anyone else. I found it easy to write the parts of the book about Jess’s cancer treatment because these were based on mine, but the rest of the book was more challenging. I had to create a backstory and family life that were totally different from my own and I found that hard because my brain’s tendency was to go with what I knew. When a fellow author recommended I let go of my own stuff, I suddenly felt this complete freedom to create. Once you realise the possibilities are endless, fiction is fun and freeing. Lots of people think I am Jess, which is natural, but in fact most of the book is completely made up.

4. You write about life and living with secondary breast cancer. Do you find any benefits from choosing to write about your life and cancer?

I was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer not long after my novel came out in 2022. It means the cancer has spread to another part of my body (my bones) and is now incurable, but treatable. Whilst my prognosis is good, the average survival is just a few years so I’ve had to face a lot of thoughts around death, life and everything in between. Writing has always been my favourite form of expression and I’ve written a private diary since I was a kid, but every so often the urge strikes to write about the beautiful moments I’ve experienced in this curious in-between world between life and death. The writer AA Gill only had the time to write one piece about his cancer before he died, and it was so profound. I’ve been fortunate enough to have written about cancer for 12 years and I don’t plan to stop – partly because I love writing and partly because I receive such wonderful feedback every time, and I know it helps others.

5. You also write about food. I’d say there’s a lot of creativity in that. What is it about food writing that you enjoy?

It’s all about the people. I interview famous chefs and restaurateurs in the same way celebrity journalists interview actors and popstars. I like to find out what makes them tick, and what experiences fuel their cooking and creativity. After working for many years as an editor for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, I was frustrated that I would speak to someone for an hour and get so many wonderful quotes but I could only use a handful of these profound declarations in an 800-word article. So in 2022 I launched my podcast, Life in Food with Laura Price, to share full-length interviews with some of my favourite people through a culinary lens. My favourite episodes feature writer Lauren Bravo on Food and Fashion, Australian broadcaster Jessie Stephens on Food and Heartbreak and, of course, our very-much-missed CoppaFeel! founder Kris Hallenga on Food and Cancer. I am now working on season three, where I’ll be focusing on brilliant chefs and restaurateurs and their lives in food.

6. I talk a lot about how creativity can help our wellbeing because we find ourselves in flow (that gorge sweet spot between work and joy where we forget about everything around us). Can you describe what it feels like for you to be in flow and how creativity might have helped you get there?

Oh my goodness, it’s such a good feeling! I always say that the times I feel best are when I’m productive, and for me productivity includes creativity. The best days are when I’ve recorded a successful podcast episode, finished writing up an article from a chef interview or written a chapter of my next novel that I feel really excited about. Those days don’t happen often (there are many days of planning, admin and emails in between) but when they do, they get me so fired up and buzzing about my beautiful freelance career that I want to work all night. (I never do though – I need my nine hours’ sleep!)

7. Do you have any creative hobbies that aren’t writing?

Cooking. I spend my life interviewing the world’s best chefs and, in comparison to them, I really can’t cook – I would be ashamed for a professional chef to see my onion-chopping skills! But cooking for me is a great way to switch off and unwind, particularly when listening to a podcast. My favourites are Mamamia Out Loud (Australia’s equivalent of The High Low) as well as How to Fail with Elizabeth Day, Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place and of course Dish by Waitrose (disclaimer: my other job is working for Waitrose Food magazine!) On that note, podcasts are also a very creative hobby. I often get ideas while walking along listening to a pod. There are some brilliant writing podcasts out there, like Confessions of a Debut Novelist with Chloe Timms and Novel Experience with Kate Sawyer. It’s hard to listen to one of these pods and not run to your desk to fire up the creative juices afterwards.

8. What does wellbeing mean to you?

As someone living with cancer, my wellbeing is critical. It’s about taking time for myself, whether that’s going for a swim at 3pm on a weekday (a regular occurrence and a perk of freelance life), booking a dream trip because life is short, going to bed at 9pm because I need the sleep, or turning on my noise-cancelling headphones to block out the world. I need a lot of rest and sleep so if I’m not feeling it one day, I won’t work. I try very hard not to beat myself up about not sitting down and writing when I feel I should. It’s much better to switch off and read a book instead.

9. Have you faced any challenges around creativity? How did you overcome them?

All the time. Procrastination and self-doubt are the big ones. I regularly cringe at my own self-promotion on social media and there are days when I won’t post something because I think no one cares and I can picture people rolling their eyes. I wait for the days when I feel better about myself, and I take note of the wonderful feedback I receive when I post things that resonate with people. (If you ever feel tempted to tell a writer you’ve enjoyed their work, don’t hesitate! We are fragile creatures, all of us.) It’s important to remind yourself why you do what you do in the first place – I create primarily for me and secondly for my audience. You can absolutely feel the passion when I’ve put my whole heart and soul into something: my podcasts, my novel and my newsletter, Doughnuts for Breakfast. Remember that if you do a piece of work that you really feel strongly about, it will probably do well as a result – and if it doesn’t, at least it made you feel good. (And if it doesn’t do that, do something else instead!)

10. How do you stay inspired and motivated to continue exploring your creativity?

By consuming other people’s creativity. I subscribe to at least 30 different podcasts and I read around 60 books a year, both fiction and non-fiction. I read as widely as possible, not just in the genre I write in. I am slowly chipping away at my second novel, but for the last year I’ve been focusing on other projects: I host the Breast Cancer Now Podcast, which is an incredible privilege, and I edit features at Waitrose Food magazine. These things keep me learning and keep the creative juices flowing, so that when I get back to writing my novel, I’m full of new ideas and experiences. The beauty of my freelance career is having a variety of strings to my bow: I work on podcasts, magazines, newspapers, newsletters and books, and each of those things feed into each other in beautiful, creative ways.

11. Can you recommend any resources for people struggling with creativity?

Daisy Buchanan’s Substack is brilliant. Daisy is one of my favourite authors and one of the most successful people I know, yet she regularly writes about how vulnerable and self-critical she feels. Her newsletter is one of those you come away from wanting to write again. I also wrote a post about rejection that resonated with other writers. When the self-doubt kicks in, it’s always a good idea to read about other people’s self-doubt and realise every successful creative has doubted themselves at some point.

Laura is a multilingual food writer, broadcaster and author of Single Bald Female, a novel inspired by her experience of breast cancer at 29. She writes about food, travel and lifestyle for publications including The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, Waitrose Food, Red and Stylist. She hosts the Breast Cancer Now Podcast and produces her own podcast, Life in Food with Laura Price, where she interviews inspiring people about love, grief and everything in between through a culinary lens.

---