Nothing in a girl's novel is creative (8)
I believe the answer is:
original
'creative' is the definition.
(associated in meaning)
'nothing in a girl's novel' is the wordplay.
'nothing' becomes 'o' (looks like zero - 0).
'novel' is an anagram indicator.
'in'+'a'+'girl'='inagirl'
'inagirl' anagrammed gives 'riginal'.
'o'+'riginal'='ORIGINAL'
'is' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for original that I've seen before include "Archetypal" , "Primitive, earliest" , "Phototype" , "Existing from the start - quite new" , "Not derived or copied from anything else" .)