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Ten Tips for Young Writers
Elise Howard, editor in chief of Avon/Tempest
Books for Teen Readers, offers ten tips for teen writers who would like to
be published. Write regularly, write about what you know, imitate writers
you admire, don't be afraid of rejection... -- those tips and more from an
experienced editor of fiction for young readers!
Write regularly. Be prepared to edit and
revise. Read, read, read... Those are three tips for young writers
from Elise Howard, editor in chief of Avon Tempest Books for Teen Readers.
If you're a young writer eager to see your work published, Howard has ten
tips for you. Those tips are reprinted below with permission from Avon
Tempest.
AN EDITOR'S TEN TIPS FOR WRITING AND GETTING
YOUR WORK PUBLISHED
- Write regularly. Some writers work
every morning. Some set aside an hour a day to write. Some write once a
week or on the weekends. Some writers write for as long as it takes in a
day until they have produced a page. Look at it this way: If you set a
goal of two paragraphs a day for your writing, at the end of a year you
will have written one hundred pages.
- Join a writers group. The need to
discuss your work in a group can help you out with #1, by motivating you
to get your "homework" done and have something to contribute at a
meeting of the group. It can also help to know you're not alone with
your creative struggles. Can't find a local group? Try posting notices
at school, at the library, or at the local community center or Y.
- It's an old saw, but do write about what
you know about and care about. That doesn't mean you can't write
about runaways if you've never run away, or about ancient Tibet. The
world is full of great historical novels, and it's not because the
writers were there. But the good ones take the time to know their
subject -- so well that they might as well have been there.
- Speaking of published writers, one great way
to hone your craft is to imitate writers you admire. Another old
publishing chestnut: good writers plagiarize, great ones steal. Well,
maybe not. But if you begin by attempting to write in the style of
another writer, you may find that this gives you a starting point that
gets you over the terror of facing a blank page.
- When you're ready to submit your work for
publication, research publishers. Not every publisher publishes
every kind of work. And since most publishers take months to get back to
writers, you can waste lots of time sending your work to the wrong
house. There are also a number of good reference books on publishers
available at virtually every bookstore or public library.
- Once you know where you would like to submit
your work, write for publishers' submission guidelines. Some
publishers only want to see a letter about your work before they see the
work itself. Some publishers want to see a partial manuscript, or a
synopsis and a few sample chapters. Others want complete manuscripts
only. Many will not accept manuscripts also being considered by another
publishing house at the same time. Once you know a publisher's
guidelines for submission, respect them. In general, all publishers will
require that you submit your work in typewritten form, double-spaced,
printed on one side of plain, white bond paper, and that you enclose a
self-addressed stamped envelope (be sure it's the right size envelope
with the right amount of postage!) if you want your manuscript to be
returned.
- Make sure your work is as technically
correct as possible. Spelling counts. So do grammar and punctuation.
If you are a mad, maverick storyteller who cannot be reined in by paltry
conventions like spelling, find somebody who can and let them help.
- If you succeed in interesting an editor in
your work, be prepared to edit and revise. Almost no one's work
makes it into print without going through some revision. Sometimes these
changes require major structural work, including cutting or adding or
re-arranging large chunks of material. Sometimes they are simply small
stylistic refinements.
- Don't be afraid of rejection. If you
are receiving rejection letters, it means you are submitting your work
for publication -- and that's the only way to have your work published.
It may take time. History is full of stories about masterpieces that
were repeatedly rejected before they were published.
- Read, read, read. Not only will reading
offer you an education in the craft of your work, but if your goal is to
write for publication, it will give you some idea of market trends,
prevailing styles, and suitable formats for commercial publication.
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