Keeping a Notebook: Recent Episodes
Nina LaCour
A podcast on writing that explores the craft of fiction, answers listeners' questions, and provides strategies for a fulfilling writing practice and creative life, hosted by bestselling, award-winning novelist Nina LaCour.
Purchase Nina's new novel, Watch Over Me.
Register for a morning of writing with Nina to benefit Diesel, A Bookstore.
Enroll in Writing, Reading, Responding: The art of drafting and critiquing, in which Nina and Elana K. Arnold will discuss the making of Watch Over Me. (Remember to read the novel first!)
Subscribe to "Letters from Nina" for behind-the-scenes looks at her process and projects, and to be the first to learn about class offerings.
You can rent Gaslight here. (Highly recommended!)
Purchase Nina's new novel, Watch Over Me.
Register for a morning of writing with Nina to benefit Diesel, A Bookstore.
Enroll in Writing, Reading, Responding: The art of drafting and critiquing, in which Nina and Elana K. Arnold will discuss the making of Watch Over Me. (Remember to read the novel first!)
Subscribe to "Letters from Nina" for behind-the-scenes looks at her process and projects, and to be the first to learn about class offerings.
Wednesday, September 16th with Tiffany D. Jackson
5 p.m. PST/ 7 p.m. CST/ 8 p.m. EST, hosted by YA @ Books Inc.
Learn more and register here!
Thursday, September 17th with Stephanie Perkins
3 p.m. PST/5 p.m. CST/6 p.m. EST, hosted by Books & Books
Learn more here!
Subscribe to Letters from Nina for writing musings and exercises, class and event news, and more about Nina's books.
Join Nina in celebration of Watch Over Me's release! (If you order from a hosting bookstore, you'll receive a signed bookplate with your copy of Watch Over Me.)
Tuesday, September 15th with Brandy Colbert
5 p.m. PST/7 p.m. CST/8 p.m. EST, hosted by Main St. Books
Learn more and register here!
Wednesday, September 16th with Tiffany D. Jackson
5 p.m. PST/ 7 p.m. CST/ 8 p.m. EST, hosted by YA @ Books Inc.
Learn more and register here!
Thursday, September 17th with Stephanie Perkins
3 p.m. PST/5 p.m. CST/6 p.m. EST, hosted by Books & Books
Learn more here!
Subscribe to Letters from Nina for writing musings and exercises, class and event news, and more about Nina's books.
Announcement:The Slow Novel Lab is open for a special summer benefit session, with 50% of the profit going to Direct Relief!
Nina examines messiness and her complicated feelings about it, both in herself and in others. She invites you to spend some time with a mess of your own--not to clean it up, but to see what it offers you in your work.
If you’d like to share your mess, or what you wrote about it, or your experience of writing (or not writing) during this time, we'd love to hear from you! Use the hashtag #writinginplace on Twitter and Instagram. And you can see scenes from Nina's messy apartment, too.
Follow along with the project on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/nina_lacour/
and
https://www.instagram.com/theslownovellab/
Subscribe to Letters from Nina for the full text of this season along more photographs of Nina's home.
Enroll in The Slow Novel Lab for an transformative and interactive six weeks with Nina and fellow participants.
Announcement:The Slow Novel Lab is open for a special summer benefit session, with 50% of the profit going to Direct Relief!
Nina examines the anchors in her life: her work, her desk, the mug she drinks her morning coffee from. She offers a writing exercise to ease you into exploring your own anchors, and the anchors in your fiction.
If you’d like to share your anchor, or what you wrote about it, or your experience of writing (or not writing) during this time, we'd love to hear from you! Use the hashtag #writinginplace on Twitter and Instagram.
Follow along with the project on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/nina_lacour/
and
https://www.instagram.com/theslownovellab/
Subscribe to Letters from Nina for the full text of this season along more photographs of Nina's home.
Enroll in The Slow Novel Lab for an transformative and interactive six weeks with Nina and fellow participants.
Nina contemplates the windows in her new apartment, and what it's like to be on the inside when people outside pass by. She offers a two-part exercise for her listeners to be used first as a method of noticing and being in place, and then as an entryway to their fiction.
If you’d like to share your window, or what you wrote about it, or your experience of writing (or not writing) during this time, we'd love to hear from you! Use the hashtag #writinginplace on Twitter and Instagram.
Follow along with the project on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/nina_lacour/
and
https://www.instagram.com/theslownovellab/
Subscribe to Letters from Nina for the full text of this season along more photographs of Nina's home.
About the Shelter in Place podcast, hosted by Laura Joyce Davis: When the news came down about the mandate to shelter in place, Bay Area writer Laura Joyce Davis decided to mark this moment in history by chronicling her daily experience of sheltering in place. Episodes are short (~10 min.) and often feature other artists, scientists, therapists, and those whose work pushes us to faith, contemplation, and hope.
Subscribe to the Shelter in Place podcast.
Follow Laura Joyce Davis on Instagram and Twitter.
This season opens in Nina's new home. She shares a story of disorientation, and finds her way back to writing.
She invites listeners to write with her. To keep a notebook of these times. She offers a writing exercise as a way in.
If you’d like to share your object, or what you wrote about it, or your experience of writing (or not writing) during this time, we'd love to hear from you! Use the hashtag #writinginplace on Twitter and Instagram.
Follow along with the project on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/nina_lacour/
and
https://www.instagram.com/theslownovellab/
Subscribe to Letters from Nina for the full text of this season along more photographs of Nina's home.
New! Full transcripts of this season's episodes are now available at ninalacour.com/transcripts!
Learn more about Nina's online class, The Slow Novel Lab! ninalacour.com/the-slow-novel-lab
Today, Nina walks listeners through a part-brainstorming, part-outlining strategy for when they feel lost in the middle of their stories.
It's easy to feel lost at sea in the middle, to doubt our paths and lose direction. But by completing this two-part exercise, you'll learn to identify phases of your novel so that the middle is not longer as overwhelming.
The Slow Novel Lab is now open for enrollment!
Join the conversation at The Slow Novel Lab Instagram!
Subscribe to Letters from Nina for more writing tips, book news and special offers!
Highlights:
- I want to experience the pleasures and sorrows of life through the page.
- It’s no small feat to make a reader feel what your character is feeling, and much of my drafting and revision time is spent making sure I’m getting it right.
- If something isn’t working emotionally in your story, go back to what came before. To what hurt your character. To what they need or fear.
Join the conversation at The Slow Novel Lab Instagram!
Subscribe to Letters from Nina for more writing tips, book news, and to hear when The Slow Novel Lab opens for enrollment!
Highlights:
-We need something to connect to. Details of setting. Histories. Hints or statements about how the characters came to be who and where they are.
-Allow the past and present to have their own plots and progressions.
-Showing is great, of course, but telling can be powerful. So don’t shy away from stating things plainly when your story warrants it.
Join the conversation at The Slow Novel Lab Instagram!
Subscribe to Letters from Nina for more writing tips, book news, and to hear when The Slow Novel Lab opens for enrollment!
Read Jocelyn K. Glei's blog post, "How to Feel Progress."
Highlights:
· Our goals have to be things we make happen for ourselves—not things we wait to be given.
· Overwhelm is a powerful opponent of productivity—but if you’re clear-eyed in your priorities you should be able to fend it off.
· Write yourself a new script—one that tells you what you secretly know: That you can do this.
· Speak to yourself as you would a friend. Today is a new day. Today can be the day you write.
· Writing is a practice. The more you do it, the better you’ll become at getting words on the page.
· I want to see myself moving forward in a way that tracking words or page count is not going to give me.
· Your work is a gift from you to yourself. Even when it’s messy, even when it’s not yet nearly what you want it to become.
Nina talks about how life sometimes interrupts plans and shares some advice given to her by a friend.
Keep in touch with Nina, and hear more about this topic, by signing up for her mailing list here.
Once you’re lost in a scene, it really doesn’t matter where you are or how long you have. What matters is that the words are coming, you’re getting closer.
On the third episode of Season Two, Nina talks about how she manages to meet her writing goals and is working to find solutions to the stumbling blocks she faces along the way, such as time constraints and mindset; and how identifying these blocks and their solutions has helped her creative process.
She encourages listeners to experiment with their work processes and offers suggestions on how to do so.
She shares audio and written notes from listeners telling us about their goals and struggles, and how they address issues such as the constant distractions, changes in routine or lifestyle, as well as their efforts to find more joy in their work.
Join Nina's newsletter for more musings on writing!
750 Words
The Artist's Way
Get in touch with us at keepinganotebook@ninalacour.com
The best writing happens when you forget that you're a person. -Elana K. Arnold
On the second episode of this season, Nina shares an experience of self-doubt.
Later on, she and fellow author Elana K. Arnold answer a listener question about facing self-doubt during the process of writing a novel.
Elana and Nina talk about how self-doubt can be useful for a writer and how it can be channeled into characters for the work to be more authentic and resonant.
Elana K. Arnold
Sign up for the Slow Novel Lab!
The American Library Association (ALA)
You can’t write a good novel without trusting yourself to write it.
On the first episode of the second season, Nina talks about the pressures writers feel at all stages of their journey and offers advice on how to get back to a place where inspiration sparks creation.
She shares her experience of writing the story she thought she was supposed to write instead of the one she wanted to tell, and how releasing that pressure resulted in her finding her career and her voice.
She discusses surrendering to uncertainty, what we can and can’t control within the publishing industry and how to reframe the pressure that cannot be lifted.
The Slow Novel Lab
Sign up for Nina’s newsletter!
Episode 8
-I share with you my plans for season 2 of Keeping a Notebook. Send your questions my way to keepinganotebook@ninalacour.com!
-I take you through the first ten years of what I intend to be a lifelong career.
-I talk about the expectations I had when Hold Still was published ten years ago, and how those expectations have changed with time.
-I tell you why the practice of writing is the most important thing to nurture, and what my intention for the next ten years of my career is in this regard.
-I offer my advice on how to go deep within, instead of out of your element when crafting a story.
Tour dates
You can order signed and personalized copies of the We Are Okay and Hold Still paperbacks here!
Read Courtney Summers' letter here.
My website, Twitter, and Instagram
Nina answers a listener's question on writing a novel based on real events and explores ideas of truth and expansiveness in fiction.
My website, Twitter, and Instagram
In Episode 5, Nina turns to three people who inspire her for the stories of how they started their own endeavors. In Part Two, we hear from a journalist/novelist/podcaster about her ten year journey to publishing her first novel and the podcast that helped her find her way.
- Sarah Enni - Website | Twitter | Instagram
- First Draft Podcast - Website | Twitter | Instagram
My website, Twitter, and Instagram
In Episode 5, Nina turns to three people who inspire her for the stories of how they started their own endeavors. In Part One, we hear from a shop owner and a bread baker.
- Knots & Found - Instagram
- Humble Bakehouse - Website | Instagram
My website, Twitter, and Instagram
We all have our own ways of seeing and understanding the world. This episode dives deep into the ways our perspectives shift as we grow up, and how embracing our unique ways of seeing can lead to our most authentic writing.
"On Writing" by Raymond Carver
My website, Twitter, and Instagram
We all have trouble getting started sometimes. This episode is for when you're stuck in a major way with your writing, or when you simply need a way back into your story. It's full of questions and strategies to help you start writing.
My website, Twitter, and Instagram
In which Nina answers a listener's question about how to weave plot into character-driven novels, and shares her own journey toward understanding that a quiet story can be all the story you need.
- MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults - Hamline University
- The Disenchantments - Nina Lacour
- Hold Still - Nina Lacour
- Ira Glass
- This American Life
My website, Twitter, and Instagram
A look at early inspiration and a call to do our best work during difficult times.
Books Mentioned
- Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
- The White Album by Joan Didion
- The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg
- The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara
- Heroes and Saints and Other Plays by Cherrie Moraga
- Angels in America by Tony Kushner
My website
Welcome to Keeping a Notebook—a podcast on writing
For the next eight weeks I’ll being taking a deep look at the creative process. Answering questions on craft issues like character and plot, and discussing what it means to be a writer in tumultuous times.
I hope you’ll subscribe and join me here.
My website