SCREENSHOT with a messy superstar: Megan Prescott ⭐️
Our series on the messy lives of writers!
Welcome back! We are so proud and forever in awe with our messy woman Meg Prescott and we think you should be too!
From having spent her teenage years on set to starting an Only Fans during the pandemic and having her own show at the Edinburgh Fringe, Meg is one of the most wonderful, kind and funny writer/performers we know, and also an OG Messy, so we were desperate to get nosy about her writing routine, projects, hopes and dreams ♥
How did you come to be a Messy Woman?
So I met Jessica Riches through another Messy Jess - Jessica Rowlands - who I had the pleasure of doing a directing course alongside. Jess Rowlands invited me to see a play she was seeing with Jessica Riches and thus a lifelong friendship was created!
I spent a decent amount of time ranting at Jess Riches after the play about how frustrated I was that since reaching my thirties I’d noticed that way more social events centered around either alcohol or boyfriends and I was sick of it. I don’t drink and I value my friendships hugely but I noticed as I got older that we really have been conditioned by society to prioritize our romantic partners over everything else and it made me so sad; women are so powerful when we band together. But the patriarchy benefits when women are taught not to value friendship as much as we value romantic relationships; If we don’t have a close group of friends that we see regularly, we’re far more likely to find ourselves in unhappy relationships, not being treated how we should be, because we don’t have that core group of friends who remind us exactly how we should be treated!
After listening to me monologue about this, Jess suggested a brilliant pastime that didn’t have to involve alcohol or partners: D&D. What followed was a year of hanging out with new people, developing new friendships, and enjoying the creative outlet that D&D came to be!
Messy Women was in its infancy at this time so I got to witness this amazing group grow from just a twinkle in Jess, Isobel and Sorcha’s eyes to what it is today. If it wasn’t for Jess’s support throughout the process of creating my Edinburgh solo show ‘Really Good Exposure’, I don’t think I would have ever had the confidence to make it so I am extremely grateful that Jess and the Messies came into my life when they did!
What was the first project that you were proud of?
This sounds like a shameless plug but honestly my solo show is hands down the project I am most proud of. I’ve wanted to write something that was inspired by my own experience as a woman in acting and sex work for a long time but its a tricky thing to do because of all the pre-conceived ideas the general public have about both of those industries.
I wanted to make sure the show didn’t come across as me trying to speak for all sex workers; I have a lot of privileges that other workers don’t, so I can’t possibly be a spokesperson. But what I can do is use my own life experiences as the basis of a story that highlights just how ridiculous it is that we’re still not treating sex workers like human beings who deserve bodily autonomy and worker rights.
What is your writing routine?
Ok so my ideal writing day is as follows: Wake up before 8, go for a walk (ideally with a dog), have a good breakfast, make a tea, get some life adminny tasks done, then trick myself into writing. I have intense ADHD and I’m also autistic so it's taken me 33 years but I’ve finally found a way to trick myself into hyperfocus. It’s not a perfect science and it doesn’t work 100% of the time but usually I can trick my mind into focussing if I make sure that I always stop writing on a new thought each day. That way, the next time I start writing, I can go straight into finishing that thought. I find that if I finish writing on the end of a thought, then the next time I try to start again it's almost impossible to get into the writing session. It just seems so much more of a gargantuan task to conjure up a brand new thought, so my ADHD mind will procrastinate and I’ll end up steam-cleaning my bathroom for two hours when I was supposed to be writing!
I’ll stop writing around 4/5pm, do a workout, have a shower, have dinner and then I’ll do a bunch of Only Fans scheduling/answering messages etc while sitting on my sofa (ideally with the cat that frequents my house who is not mine but has decided he has free reign over the place).
After a day of writing I usually am mentally drained so I’ll treat myself to some mindless TV to wind down. I’ve been watching the entire backlog of Love Island series over the past year - initially it was as research for my solo show, but at this point I probably have to admit that there is something I find really fascinating about reality shows; having spent my entire teenage years on sets and doing interviews for TV I know first hand how a scene/interaction you thought went one way can be edited to portray an entirely different narrative.
Seeing the way we still allow young people with no knowledge of how editing/story producing works to sign up for a TV show that could portray them entirely differently to who they really are without the support they need after that kind of exposure both shocks and terrifies me. I have got a lot of inspiration for my creative work from shows like Love Island and Married at First Sight - which might sound strange, but how we portray reality to young people has always fascinated me and I feel in many ways like Love Island is just the new Disney.
What projects are you working on right now and how do you juggle them all?
‘How do you juggle them’ is a very good question - one that I cannot fully answer right now! I’m currently at the Edinburgh Fringe on my 16th performance of my solo show and it has taken me over a week to even answer these screenshot questions! I think finding a work/life balance as a creative freelancer can sometimes feel impossible and my heart goes out to anyone just trying to get their foot in the door of the industry. Creative freelance work is incredibly inaccessible to lots of people - be it the numerous financial barriers that exist within the industry, unaddressed access needs or having care responsibilities etc.
Four years ago, during the pandemic, I made the decision to start an Only Fans page; I had around two hundred thousand combined followers on social media and my friend (and co-creator of the ‘Strippers in the Attic’ podcast, Heaven) said something along the lines of ‘Meg, you’re leaving money on the table here - you’re working seven days a week and barely making enough to pay your rent, you’re giving content out for free on Instagram, you need to start an Only Fans page and actually get paid for this’. I took her advice and it was the best decision I’ve ever made. Sex work is the only reason I’ve been able to juggle all of my creative work and still manage to pay my bills. I wouldn’t have been able to put on an Edinburgh fringe show if it weren’t for sex work and I have zero regrets.
What are your hopes and dreams for the future?
I really do hope that I can use my platform to impact social change. Issues like worker rights, safety, and bodily autonomy for all women is something I feel incredibly passionate about. I would love it if we could rely on politicians to advocate for these things but unfortunately we are continuously being failed by governing bodies to take even the most basic of steps towards making sure women are safe in our society.
Sadly, many sex-worker-exclusionary-radical-’feminist’ groups have been rallying governments to impose harmful laws further criminalising sex work under the guise of ‘protecting women’ rather than use that energy to address the real causes of violence against women. I’d love to be able to use my platform to create work that highlights this as well as the many other injustices many women face, but can’t speak up about due to stigma or the exclusionary structures in place that make sure people from marginalised communities can’t speak out.
I hope that I will be able to take my play, Really Good Exposure, further and that it will be the catalyst for audience members to challenge some of the harmful narratives we are seeing over and over again - not just in TV and media, but in parliament, in everyday situations and in our own internal biases.
Thank you so much, Meg!!
BIG LOVE!
The Messy Women