The Writer’s Gauntlet with Sadie Kaye is a regular column at The Hooghly Review. This article is being reprinted with The Review’s permission.
SK: If a detective looked at your browser tabs right now, would they arrest you, call an exorcist, or buy you a weighted blanket?
LM: They’d arrest me, call an exorcist, and then buy me a weighted blanket.
They’d find a rabbit hole of bullying psychology, teen slang, liminal corridors, dissociation, inner child work, and “how to stage the exact moment someone slips out of their body and into their Innerverse without losing the audience.” They’d scroll past pages on negative self-talk, healing the inner critic, and what it takes for a shy kid to walk back into school and say, “I like my shoes,” like it’s the bravest line in the show. At that point they’d arrest me, call an exorcist, and then quietly buy me a weighted blanket, to which I’d reply, “I’m not tired, I’m just transforming!”
Would you rather your protagonists sue you for emotional distress and gross negligence or be sentenced to life in a Happy Ending colony?
I’d rather they dragged me to court than got stuck in a Happy Ending colony!!
If my protagonists sued me for emotional distress, at least I’d know I let them feel the full range of human messiness instead of wrapping them in narrative bubble wrap. A life sentence in a Happy Ending colony sounds like creative imprisonment; I’ll take furious but fully alive characters over politely satisfied ones any day.
If you could magically delete one trope from existence, which one are you throwing under the bus with zero regrets?
The “brutal healing” ones. The trope that says a girl has to be completely broken so the audience can learn a comforting lesson while she’s still quietly bleeding out of sight. Young people are allowed to be messy, scared, funny and inconsistent, and still keep their voice and agency. I want narratives where a sensitive, shy or “too much” kid is allowed to take up space without needing a makeover, a saviour or a personality transplant to be worthy of a hopeful ending.
What font do you write in and why is it superior to everyone else’s?
I write in Aptos Display, for me, it hits the sweet spot: modern enough not to feel stuffy but calm enough that it doesn’t compete with the emotional fireworks on the page. It looks like it means what it says.
What’s your writing ritual and why is it a cursed superstition?
I wish I could say it involves a lucky pen and a full moon, but it’s much less glamorous than that.
My only real superstition is this: once the idea lands, I have to move fast. I write quickly, almost in one breath, because the second I start overthinking it, I strangle the life out of it. I trust my gut, my heart and the muscle memory of 40 plus years of making stories with young people, and I get the draft out before my Inner Critic has time to put on their headset and start giving notes.
The cursed part is that if I ignore an idea, it will absolutely haunt me. It’ll show up in the shower, at 3am when I wake up for a wee, tapping its foot until I sit down and give it a scene. So, my ritual is simple…say yes to the idea, get out of my own way, write fast, tidy later.
What non-existent job do you wish existed?
Head of Rebel Girls and Late Bloomers!
I think the job I was born for is “Global Director of Permission,” whose entire remit is to help women and young people stop shrinking, start making things, and treat sixty‑plus as Act II, not the credits. I’d be paid to stage wild projects, shove people gently but firmly out of their comfort zones and prove by example that you can reinvent yourself with glitter, grit and humour at any age.
Which creature adds more joy to your world: butterflies or geckos?
Geckos.
Butterflies are beautiful, but geckos feel truer to my world: small, scrappy, a bit chaotic, and quietly keeping me company on the walls while life does its wild thing.
What’s the last thing you researched that has probably put you on a government watchlist?
It was about how cults slowly reel people in. I had tabs open on psychological manipulation, mass persuasion, crisis intervention, and “signs your group is becoming a cult,” all because I was trying to write a better scene for a show. The algorithm can’t decide if I’m starting a movement or preventing one, when in reality I’m just a middle‑aged theatre nerd trying to help teenagers feel less alone.
Drafting fuel: coffee, tea, liquor, Haribo or the tears of your antagonists?
Haribo. Every time.
Coffee for baseline functioning, tea for pretending I’m calm and evolved, but I nearly always leave it until it’s cold and I can pour it away. The actual drafting rocket fuel is a shameful, colourful pile of gummy candy that would horrify my dentist!
Describe your latest WIP using three emojis and no context.
Would you prefer a 1-star review that says ‘This changed my life for the worse’ or a 3-star review that says ‘It was fine’?
The 1‑star.
“It was fine” would crush me. I’d rather risk rage bait than create something forgettable and safe.
Are you an Ellipsis… (trailing off into mystery) or an Exclamation Point! (perpetually caffeinated and/or yelling)?
Ellipsis, pretending to be an exclamation point.
On the outside I come across as big energy, ideas, colour and “let’s put on a show!”, but internally there’s a constant quiet “…and then what?” running underneath everything, wondering what the next portal, project or reinvention is going to be.
SK: Your author’s bio as a clickbait headline?
LM: “Local Art Witch Lindsey McCalister Accidentally Starts Glitter‑Fuelled Revolution in Teen Mental Health! Authorities Say The Vibes Are Immaculate, But Impossible To Vacuum.”
In a post-apocalyptic world, is your primary contribution navigating by the stars or knowing which snacks stay edible the longest?
Knowing which snacks stay edible the longest, obviously!!!
I can barely find my way out of a shopping mall, never mind navigate by the stars, but I am the person who knows exactly which biscuits, Haribo variants and slightly‑questionable tinned things you can still eat three years past the “best before” date without dying. My primary contribution to the post‑apocalyptic girl gang is morale handing out secret stashes of long‑life sugar while someone more competent makes sure we are not walking directly into danger.
If you had to turn into an animal for an hour every day, are you a Majestic Hawk (great view, very cold) or a Fat Housecat (great nap, very judged)?
Fat housecat…I already spend most of my human life in “Majestic Hawk” mode, zooming out, holding big visions, watching over teenagers from the metaphorical rafters and trying to keep everyone alive emotionally. For that one forced animal hour, I’m absolutely choosing sun‑patch, snacks, and unapologetic napping while other people project their stuff onto me and I do not care.
LINDSEY MCCALISTER – YOU HAVE PASSED THE WRITERS GAUNTLET!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR WIT AND WRITERLY WISDOM!
Think you’ve got what it takes to ride The Writer’s Gauntlet? Email or (preferably) DM Sadie on IG @KayeSadie @TheHooghlyReview
Lindsey McAlister OBE, JP is a British-born theatre director, writer and cultural pioneer who has made Hong Kong her creative home for nearly four decades. As founder of the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation and the heartbeat of Hong Kong’s youth arts scene, she has written and directed more than thirty original musicals, and large-scale devised productions every year, including Gen Last and Likes & Lies, giving young performers a platform to create bold new work that has toured internationally. Specialising in physical theatre and ensemble-led storytelling, Lindsey’s rehearsal rooms are collaborative spaces where young artists find their authentic voice on stage. Her passion and commitment to empowering young people through the arts have earned her an MBE, an OBE, and appointment as a Justice of the Peace. She has also been recognised in Tatler Asia’s Most Influential (2021), as a Woman of Power by Prestige (2025), and as a finalist for the AmCham Women of Influence Awards (2026).
https://lindsey-mcalister-art.com
@lindseyhongkong (IG)
@lindseymcalisterhk (FB)
Read a more conventional conversation between Sadie and Lindsey in Cha: An Asian Literary Journal here!
Sadie Kaye is a writer & performer from Sai Kung, Hong Kong. Her humour, fiction, rants & reviews have appeared in the South China Morning Post, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, The Hooghly Review, Buzz & many anthologies. Her humour column for RTHK Radio 3, Sharp Pains, received nominations for Best Comedy from the New York Festivals Radio Awards and Moment of Comedy Gold from the International Women’s Podcast Awards in 2022 & 2023. She won the Comedy Women in Print Prize for Flash Fiction in 2024. She’s a producer for Contro Vento Films. Her most recent film, To Love A Narcissist, was released in North America on 19 May 2026 and will soon be available worldwide.
She can be found at https://sadiekaye.tv
Her life motto is you’re only young once, but you can be immature forever.
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