Three Things to Do Right Now

To get published:

1. Subscribe to "The Writing Kid," "Funds for Writers" and "Funds for Writers: Small Markets" over at www.fundforwriters.com. They're free newsletters with weekly advice on getting published and appropriate markets. If you're already a subscriber, go through the past 3 issues and outline 5 magazines or anthologies you could write for.

2. Spend ten minutes brainstorming article and short story ideas. Brainstorming: don't rule anything out, have fun being ridiculous, go to every extreme. The coolest ideas come out of the weirdest ideating sessions.

3. Start writing your bio. Write a summary of everything you've done so far; write a bio that you want to come true in a year; write a bio focusing on everything weird and wonderful about you; write a bio that makes you sound like the Rhodes Scholar of all Rhodes Scholars. Start creating the brand that is your name.

The Science of Being a Weird Teen

I was at an NHS eligibility meeting at my high school and like every normal kid between the ages of 13 and 19, raised my hand and asked what we should do if we want to write about an activity that had no adult sponsor.

"What kind of activity?" asked the teacher.

"Um, like an independent project."

"What kind of independent project?"

"Like... well, it's a blog, for teen writ-- I'm sure the [200 people] here don't want to hear about it."

Sure enough, the [colloquial phrase] peanut gallery enjoyed repeating my question ("Does blogging count?") but somehow I doubt I will see them at the induction ceremony. You gotta love high school.

The vignette illustrates the reality we live in, being part of a writing universe online and the real world we can touch without a mousepad. I keep writing and life separate; it's easier than explaining to my lunch table the difficulties of query openers. Compartmentalized? Sure. But the differences between my so-called "night life" as a blogger and writer and "day job" as a fashionable and nerdy high school student make writing- real writing- more interesting.

Later I'll be posting some Top Publishing Tips, but in the meanwhile I need to work on my (last) college application and (too many) scholarship applications and then this thing called homework. This is after I've done a happy dance because of all the author emails I've gotten this week AND the crazy, wonderful people who like to follow my blog.

Moi? Quasi-popular? Never, I'm too weird.