The easiest way to create a new article is to click on a link to a page that doesn't exist. Typically, these links show up as red links.
You also can use the Search box—on the top-right corner of your screen—to look for an article name. When you are told that the page does not exist, click the link provided. You can also use the Article Wizard.
Besides the Village pump and article-related talk pages, there are other ways to talk to Wikipedians. The English IRC channel is quite popular, regularly reaching up to 300 users. If you care about our policies and general Wikimedia-related matters, you may also want to consider subscribing to one of the mailing lists (high traffic!).