Writing to Your Taste & Feeling Close to the Character 🫶

🎙️ New episode: Elle Nash on learning craft, trusting the process & indie publishing

Courtney Kocak

and

elle nash

May 01, 2025

Hey Bleeders!

This week on The Bleeders podcast, we have a blast from the past with the phenomenal

elle nash

, author of Animals Eat Each Other, Nudes, Gag Reflex, and Deliver Me. In this interview, Elle delivers a timeless sermon on structure, psychic distance, and the creative freedom that can come from going small instead of big when it comes to publishing.

My favorite part? Elle is someone who seriously knows how to trust her own voice and taste as a writer.

As she put it:

“I'm writing to my taste. I'm writing about like women that I'm interested in and experiences that I am interested in reading about. Things I see, things I wanna see, represented emotions and atmospheres that I can't stop thinking about…”

I stan any artist who allows their taste to guide them. (It should go without saying, but that's not always the case!) Elle’s voice and aesthetic are so strong and recognizable, and it was fascinating to hear how she developed that in tandem with her editing chops.

She credits taking classes with writers like Chloe Caldwell for making a writing career feel attainable.

“Seeing what Chloe did and what she could do with her career, that's when I was seeing what she was doing and I was like, I'm gonna figure out how to do that.”

Here are some of the key takeaways from our chat:

🎯 On choosing the right structure

When it comes to deciding between experimental formats and traditional storytelling, it all boils down to psychic distance. As Elle explained:

“I think the biggest deciding factor for me in how anything is structured comes down to how close you are to the person's psychic experience. So I think about that term a lot, psychic distance, and it's like, how far away are you from this character?”

She continued:

“I want to feel close to them. I want them to forget that I'm a person. I wanna be experiencing this character as close as I can.”

So whether it’s listing calorie counts or using diary-style entries, like she did in Gag Reflex, the goal was to make the reader feel the experience of ED, tedium and all:

“What is more of an experience of what it feels like to be obsessed with something than forcing another person to read your lists that you're writing with these numbers that don't really maybe don't even matter and you have to read through them again and again and see how they're crossed out again and again.”

🔄 Edit your work backwards for a fresh perspective

When you're deep in revisions, try editing your manuscript starting from the last chapter and work your way to the beginning. Elle shared how this self-driven approach helped her spot structural issues and tighten her story.

Elle also recommends using note cards to map out each chapter, which can make the big-picture editing process way more manageable.

📚 On the freedom of indie publishing

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your creative vision is not go the traditional publishing route.

“I honestly feel like I've been so spoiled as a writer because I've had a lot of creative control and freedom over how I want the stories in the book to be structured.”

From the cover photo to the typography, working with small presses has allowed her to shape every part of the book:

“It's nice to have control over what the book looks and feels like as a finished product.”

👀 On attracting agent attention

A starred review in Publishers Weekly for Animals Eat Each Other brought agents knocking—but there was a catch:

“I didn't have anything that was even close to halfway done at that point.”

Her advice?

“One of my biggest pieces of advice when someone's writing a novel is continue writing the next one. Because if you hit that point where the book gets published and then you have that agent reach out to you, you probably want to have something ready to go.”

We dive even deeper into indie publishing, how she ultimately landed her agent, and the freedom of embracing experimental forms. If you need a reminder to trust your taste, be patient with yourself, and keep making the work you're obsessed with—this episode is for you.

🎧 Listen to Elle’s full interview now.