How I create… with writer Ella McLeod

Ella McLeod is a writer, poet and podcaster perhaps best known for her acclaimed Young Adult novels The Map That Led to You and Rapunzella, Or, Don’t Touch My Hair.

As part of our 2026 Imagine festival, McLeod joinED us, along with illustrator Rochelle Falconer, for a special interactive storytelling session designed to inspire young readers to celebrate what makes them unique. But what is it that makes McLeod unique? Well you needn’t wonder for long, as we caught up with her to find out how she creates.

When and where do you find yourself at your most creative?

When I’m not trying to be! In the bath, when I’m about to fall asleep, travelling through a new country or city – but especially when I’m walking through nature. My fiancé is Irish and I love going on long walks in the Mourne Mountains near where he lives.

How do you know when an idea is worth developing into something more?

I sort of think every idea has the potential for development – it’s all about timing and execution. Some ideas will give me this rush of urgency, a sense that I need to develop it immediately because I can’t stop thinking about it or I worry that someone else will get there first. Those are the ones I pursue. But every idea – whether it’s just an image, or a question or a line – gets written down and filed away for a later day.

Which tools are key to your creative process?

Long hot baths, talking to my cat, troubleshooting plot issues with other writers and a top tier writing playlist.

Who are you creating your work for, and how free are you to create the work you want to create?

I think I’m always writing for myself, but the version of myself I’m writing for changes with each project. Sometimes it’s my inner child, sometimes it’s the angsty, misunderstood teenager, sometimes it’s the mother I hope to someday be. 

The question of freedom is an interesting one. Being a Black woman writer in an industry that consistently devalues Black women’s voices can be galling at times. It can be easy for outside chatter about what I should and shouldn’t write to creep in. But ultimately, whenever I’ve sat down to write something I feel I should be writing, it’s almost physically impossible. The characters don’t behave themselves; the voice is too much like my own – I end up writing what I want to write anyway. Ultimately, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, I can only be myself. Everyone else is already taken.

How do you stay disciplined, and dedicated to your work?

I just want to make my family proud, to be honest. I feel like I’ve been given so many amazing opportunities because of their hard work. I really don’t want to squander it, you know? So whenever I’m tired or panicked about a deadline, I think about my grandma, with her one pair of shoes in Jamaica in the 1940s, or arriving in England on her 25th birthday in 1960 and having to weather a violent storm of racism as a nurse. Or my ancestors, only four generations back, who lived in slavery. It’s humbling, to be honest. I love what I do and I really don’t think I have a right to be anything other than disciplined and dedicated.

What do you do when you hit a wall; when you feel unmotivated or uninspired? How do you overcome this?

I guess the above answers this. But also just going for a walk, having a change of scenery, having a snack. I make a playlist for every project so that helps too. I’m also a writing coach at The Novelry and we talk about having hero books; books that you return to again and again while working on a project, for inspiration or vibes or help finding the right tone of voice. So I’ll often read a couple pages of my hero book too.

Who do you look to for feedback?

My agent and my editor mostly. When I get further along in drafting maybe a couple of writer friends, but I fully believe that too many cooks spoil the broth and I’m very protective over early drafts.

How different is your creative process now to when you first began as an artist?

I think I’m more disciplined, more structured. It’s less throwing everything at a wall and hoping it sticks, because now I have a better idea of what makes the substance sticky and why.

What does success feel like?

Honestly I’m not sure I’ll ever really know. I’m the type who always wants to do better than my last best. But when people tell me I wrote something that made them really feel, or I articulated something they hadn’t been able to – I don’t know if that’s what success feels like but it certainly feels pretty good.

Is there a piece of advice you’ve received that you often find yourself returning to?

It’s not so much advice, but my mum always says that I’m blessed and highly favoured. I think working to believe that that’s true, that I am deserving of good things and that they will come to me, is something I return to on the hard days, for sure. Similarly I once heard Candice Braithwaite say ‘don’t let small logic get in the way of big magic’ and I love that, particularly coming from another Black woman.

What’s the most recent thing you learned about yourself through your work?

That I love reading and writing about people who are willing to break the rules a little!

How do you know when you’re done?

When there’s nothing else for me to say.