Writing a Novel in a Busy Life, with Nadia Bozak

Send us a text! We'd love to hear your thoughts on the show. Your book can take longer than you hoped and still get finished. That’s one of the things I hope you’ll take away from my conversation with novelist Nadia Bozak. When you’re writing around a job, parenting, and everything that keeps a household going, it’s easy to look at your progress and decide you’re falling behind.  In this episode of The Resilient Writers Radio Show, we talk honestly about writing a novel when sustained time is hard to find, accepting feedback, and remembering what makes the work worthwhile. Nadia is an Ottawa author, researcher, and creative writing teacher at Carleton University. Her novel, Fret, follows a single mother facing a family crisis and the public scrutiny that comes afterward.  We explore how Nadia brought motherhood, isolation, and climate change into the story without losing sight of her characters’ emotional lives. Nadia began Fret during the pandemic, while at home with two young children. Much of the writing happened during spring and summer, when her teaching schedule allowed more room for sustained work. She tried to stay connected to the manuscript during busier months, but that didn’t always happen. There were interruptions, lost momentum, and stretches when other responsibilities had to come first. I think many writers will recognize that experience. We talk about what it means to finish a book in the middle of an already full life, and why the length of the process doesn’t tell the whole story. I hope hearing the realities behind a finished novel helps you look at your own manuscript with more patience, especially when the available writing time changes from week to week. We also get into novel revision and the point when you can no longer see your own story clearly. Nadia describes turning to friends, colleagues, and freelance editors for fresh perspectives. Her literary agent also played an important editorial role, sending the manuscript back for further work before submitting it to publishers. That feedback included looking at the book’s length and how long it took for the story to get going. We discuss the value of an honest reader and our observations about opening a novel in a way that keeps readers turning pages. For Nadia, parenting and her research on climate helped shape the questions behind Fret. What happens to everyday decisions under extreme heat? How do loneliness, responsibility, love, and joy exist together within a family? Our conversation offers a thoughtful look at drawing on lived experience while creating complicated, individual characters. Finally, we talk about book promotion, the nerves that can accompany public appearances, and Nadia’s experience of beginning another project while Fret still feels fresh. Her new manuscript gives her somewhere to explore voice, structure, and the pleasure of making something. I loved that reminder. Publication matters, but so does the experience of being absorbed in a story you want to tell. Listen to my conversation with Nadia Bozak for an honest look at finishing a novel, working through revision, and finding your way back to the writing itself.