Thursday, January 22, 2009
Help Me Teach Teen Writers!
I'm doing a presentation in a few weeks about getting published, hoping to cover everything from queries to contracts (and something in between!) Do you, fellow teen writers and adult writing experts, have any suggestions? If you came to the workshop, what would you want to hear? What are you interested in? What are you not coming to hear?
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3 comments:
I think two of the more valuable lessons with writing are:
1) Learn to love revision. It's so easy, once you type those last words of the last line on that final page to want to rush out and share the story with the world. Or, at least, an editor or website. But a young writer needs to embrace patience. And they need to put the manscript away for a few weeks--let it percolate. And THEN, well, then they can read it over and see if it is as good as they thought. They should consider revising anything that seems unclear or overwritten. Revision improves a story greatly.
2) Okay, they do actually need to share their ideas and stories a bit earlier than I mentioned. But I didn't want to deny the vital importance of revision. But writing is a lonely exercise. And sometimes a person needs to just talk with another to feel connected. So, a teen writer should find a friend that shares his/her enthusiasm for storytelling (it need not be a fiction writer - it could be a musician or a poet or a painter) and they need to plan every week or two to get together, in person if possible, and talk about their creative outlooks, what they are working on and so forth. If the teen can find more than one such friend, even better. That's how writing groups are created. And lifelong friendships.
~ The different places a teen can submit their to keep their writing chops sharp
~ where and how they can find ideas to write about.
i went to your presentaion it was really good and it helped me know what to do if i wanted to be a writer. ^_^ thanks for presenting!
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