Jennie Nash's Blog, page 2

A Book By Any Other Name

It always happens: the moment I commit to an idea, put a stake in the ground and say, "I'm going to write about THIS," I discover a book by someone else who got to the idea first. Usually, the someone else is famous, the book is fabulous, and my sweet idea is crushed before it even sees the light of day.

It happened again just this past weekend. I had finally taken the time to get this idea about migraines out of my head (ha ha) and onto the page. This is an idea that's been fermenting in my m...

How to Revise

Writer Natalie Whipple has a post on her blog, Between Fact and Fiction, that is just an awesome overview of the editing/revision process. Editing and revising is such a completely different process than writing, and beginning writers, especially don't GET that, and they make themselves crazy trying to make their work better by continuing to "write." If you're in the middle of revising, or you will be revising someday soon, or revising is going to be in your future, check out this post.

I am ...

Reading Retreat

The Vroman's bookstore blog had a list of great New Year's links, and this one from the Squam Lake Art Workshops was my favorite. Check out their Reading Retreat. It's so deeply strange that we live in a world where going away for a few days just to read would be something that someone would pay for -- and yet, and yet -- it's so deeply wonderful, too. The second I read about this lakeside retreat, and the happy proprietor's and the evening salons, I was thinking, "Sign me up!" What could be...

Back in the Saddle

I've been away from my desk for several weeks, now, and away from the stories brewing in my head. The writing never stops, though; my brain never takes a vacation. I have a stack of newspaper clippings to read through, again, and process, and a stack of books with little Post-It flags sprouting out of them like grass. There's so much to do -- all of it good.

I hope your New Year is full of creative promise, as well.

The Creative Storm: Where Ideas Come From

In my last post, I wrote about how I wrote down the very first words of a new book idea after an inspirational drive on the 405 freeway. This novel has been gathering in my mind, like storm clouds, but despite the swirling energy, it's not time for this particular idea to actually be a creative storm. It's still brewing, still simmering, still trying to figure itself out. And besides, another idea started boiling over first.
This second new idea for a book has been gathering in my mind for...

First Words on Paper

I have had an idea for a new novel swirling in my head for awhile, now. Yesterday, on the way to guest teach a class in Santa Monica, I was stuck on the 405. And the title came to me. And the main character's voice. And really, the whole thing, in one fell swoop. I wrote it down on three pieces of paper (yeah, writing and driving; it's a bad habit) and today, I opened a new file, and wrote the very first words of this story -- just a character sketch, a plot sketch. But still. It's something....