It's the final episode of the season and Nina covers a lot of ground. Notes from a virtual launch. Upcoming workshops. The months ahead. Flowers on Justice Ginsburg's grave. A ray of light. Truth and beauty.

In the third installment of this Watch Over Me-themed season, Nina talks about darkness in her work. She shares a source of inspiration, reads an excerpt from Watch Over Me, and discusses what's gained by letting darkness into your work.

Nina tells you a true ghost story and shows how she wove it into her book. What if you were sitting down at a cafe together before you started writing? This episode is like that.

Nina talks about a project that didn't feel right and how she chose to let it go. She reads an excerpt from her new novel, Watch Over Me. She talks to Doubt (and Doubt listens).

In the fourth episode of Keeping a Notebook's special season, Nina takes a good, long look at the messes in her apartment, and discovers that messes are gold mines for fiction.

In the third episode of Keeping a Notebook's special season, Nina talks about an object that she missed when her family was uprooted, and how she felt when she got it back. She invites her listeners to choose anchors of their own for this week's writing prompt.

In the second episode of Keeping a Notebook's special season, Nina takes her listeners through a tour of the windows of her apartment and invites them to do the same.

In this special bonus episode of Keeping a Notebook, Nina is sharing an interview from the Shelter in Place podcast, hosted by her good friend Laura Joyce Davis. Laura asks Nina about her writing and teaching, and her hopes and fears during this time of sheltering in place.

Nina LaCour is back with a deeply personal season devoted to where we are during this time in the world. In this first episode, she asks a question: "Do you want to write with me?"

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.

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!

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.

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.

Nina explains why she's taking the summer off.

A call for experimentation in our work, including what Nina is currently trying and tips and goals from listeners.

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.

Nina answers a listener's question on writing a novel based on real events and explores ideas of truth and expansiveness in fiction.

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.

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.

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.

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.