Keeping a Notebook

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Projects & Practice Dec 30, 2025

Show notes

Read more and enroll in Projects & Practice.
Read more and enroll in Winter Writing Nights: Exploring Voice and Language in Fiction.
Subscribe to Nina's newsletter.
ALSO! If you enroll in BOTH classes, you'll receive free access to Nina and Elana's The Business of Writing workshop. In this ninety-minute session, we will get deep into the business side of writing and publishing. We'll be transparent about rejections and successes, surprises and setbacks and risk-taking. Most of all, we'll turn our attention to what you want to know about the business of writing. You'll be able to pre-submit questions and/or ask them live. From querying agents to understanding advances, maintaining relationships with editors to making big pivots, setting expectations around publicity and sales to selling on proposal, we're so looking forward to sharing what we know with you. This workshop will be held on January 31st at 10am PST. It will be recorded and sent out in case you can't make it. If you'd like to join, sign up for both Projects & Practice and Winter Writing Nights. Nina will then send you a Zoom link and more info on The Business of Writing in mid-January.
This episode of Keeping a Notebook references Anne-Laure Le Canff's Tiny Experiments and Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks. I recommend both books!
Happy New Year, everyone!

Truth & Beauty Sep 23, 2020

Show notes

Purchase Nina's new novel, Watch Over Me.

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.

Gaslight Sep 22, 2020

Show notes

You can rent Gaslight here. (Highly recommended!)

Purchase Nina's new novel, Watch Over Me.

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.

A Ghost Story Sep 16, 2020

Show notes

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.

Watch Over Me Sep 15, 2020

Show notes

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.

Writing in Place: A Mess May 18, 2020

Show notes

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.

Writing in Place: An Anchor May 11, 2020

Show notes

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.

Writing In Place: A Window May 04, 2020

Show notes

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.

An Interview with Nina Apr 29, 2020

Show notes

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.

Writing In Place: Wherever You Are Apr 27, 2020

Show notes

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.

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