Keeping a Notebook

By 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... more

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FAQs about Keeping a Notebook:

How many episodes does Keeping a Notebook have?

The podcast currently has 27 episodes available.

Keeping a Notebook episodes:

January 30, 2020 The Middle
Nina walks listeners through a part-brainstorming, part-outlining strategy for when they feel lost in the middle of their stories. Also, enrollment in Nina's online class, The Slow Novel Lab is open! And full transcripts of this season's episodes are now available.
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9min
January 23, 2020 Emotion on the Page
It’s no small feat to make a reader feel what your character is feeling. Here is Nina's best advice for you--in the form of a story and then an exercise. Also, special announcement: The Slow Novel Lab, Nina's online writing class, is now open for enrollment!
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9min
January 16, 2020 The Past and the Present: Weaving Backstory into Your Story
In this craft-focused episode, Nina explores backstory and the different ways it can be conveyed to better serve your novel.
She considers what the reader needs to know about the past, as well as the character’s relation with it, and she gives four clear examples of how backstory can look on the page.
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9min
January 13, 2020 Five Strategies for Your 2020 Intentions
In the first episode of this mini-season, Nina gives actionable advice on mindset and productivity and practice for listeners to fulfill their creative intentions for the new year. She offers five ways to shift our thinking to best serve our work, such as prioritizing writing time, setting goals we have complete control over, and making progress visible.
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10min
July 02, 2019 Announcement
Nina explains why she's taking the summer off.
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3min
June 17, 2019 Experimentation
A call for experimentation in our work, including what Nina is currently trying and tips and goals from listeners.
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17min
June 03, 2019 Self-Doubt
Nina LaCour invites fellow novelist Elana K. Arnold to help answer a question from a listener about self-doubt.
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15min
May 20, 2019 Pressure
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!
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13min
February 25, 2019 Ten Years, Five Books, Three Things I've Learned
On the day before the ten-year anniversary edition of Nina's first novel comes out, she tells listeners about the highs and lows and most enduring lessons she's learned from a decade as a published novelist.
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13min
December 10, 2018 The Possibility of Invention
Nina answers a listener's question on writing a novel based on real events and explores ideas of truth and expansiveness in fiction.
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13min

FAQs about Keeping a Notebook:

How many episodes does Keeping a Notebook have?

The podcast currently has 27 episodes available.