Jennie Nash

The beginning stage of research for a novel is unlike any other kind of research because you're not in search of facts or proof or even information: you're in search of mood, little tidbits of truth, things that you can use to figure out who your characters are and what's important to them. I (more…)

When I told her about my novel idea, my agent said, "Think big." My editor has said this to me before, as well, during a revision of my last book.

The first time I heard this term, I thought of it very literally. My 14-year-old daughter is in the midst of a "big book" (more…)

The thing about opening your mind up to a new story idea is that you once you do it, there's no going back. All of a sudden, everything seems like it has to do with the new idea. Songs and lyrics and billboards and articles and movies and books and people seem to come (more…)

People always ask writers where they get their ideas, because the process seems like such a mystery. I think finding an idea has everything to do with being open to whatever the world is throwing at you. It's as if your brain is flypaper. Your job is to see what sticks. Writer Neil Gaiman (more…)

I am a midlist novelist, and I have an idea for a new book. It's one of the best phases of the creative process - the moment when the swirling cloud of images and concepts and characters begins to coalesce into something I can define. 2010-07-01-katrina_small.JPG Under normal circumstances, I (more…)