Advice

[Elena]

Being only fourteen.... I don't have as much experience as most of the other members. However, I am currently working on my sixth novel attempt, (all of the others failed sadly...) Knowing that most editors/agents won't even look at a young teens work, I am going for the goal of just FINISHING my novel.

I was hoping some people could give some advice on anything from building characters to sentence fluency. It would be most helpful. Thanks.:D

[James D. Macdonald]

Finishing is the most important thing right now.

The author's age isn't really a question. An unfinished novel won't be published no matter the author's age.

[icerose]

You are worrying about the wrong things right now. Sentence fluency and character building are less important than just finishing. Just focus on writing and keep on writing. Even if you end up with a pile of nothing in the end, it is still a finished piece of work and you will learn countless things about yourself, your writing, and all the important stuff of laying a foundation of a novel. That in itself will be a success and will help encourage your writing.

Good luck!

Sara

[sunandshadow]

Just asking for advice in general doesn't really work. What you want to do is, if/when you get stuck and it seems your novel attempt is going to fail, look online for people who write the same genre as you, show them what you have written, and ask them to make suggestions for improving the piece. Then hopefully their suggestions will inspire you to make more progress as well as teaching you some things about writing. If you get stuck again, you can repeat the process. :)

[blacbird]

Write.

bird

[Mistook]

Being only fourteen.... I don't have as much experience as most of the other members. However, I am currently working on my sixth novel attempt, (all of the others failed sadly...) Knowing that most editors/agents won't even look at a young teens work, I am going for the goal of just FINISHING my novel.

I was hoping some people could give some advice on anything from building characters to sentence fluency. It would be most helpful. Thanks.:D


BUILDING CHARACTERS: Make sure every character has a voice of her/his own. Don't have everybody be a wise philosohpher, using all the same vocabulary. develop a feel for the different ways each character talks. Also, make sure that each character has more on his/her mind than the plot. Throw in other dimensions. Everybody has a personal problem. On top of that, you may have... say a tough-guy, but show a different side - perhaps he lost his mother. Perhaps he has a passion for flowers, or bugs, or math. Mix it up. Give bit characters at least a side problem that they mention, but give main characters three dimensions - three unrelated personality traits - one or two of which may be buried beneath their facade, but allude to them. Let us know they are human.l

SENTENCE FLUENCY: That's tougher. The primary objective is to be clear in your descriptions of places, events, and dialogue. Avoid overuse of the same word. Avoid overly complex wording. Avoid gigantic words that come from a thesaurus.

Don't overuse pronouns, "She did this. She did that. She did the other."

Try to consolodate action, "She did this, that, and the other."

Keep to the plot and the characterization. Don't stray off into a lullabye about how your character perceived the infinite beauty of the pattern on the drapes.

Show, dont' tell!

Don't say, "Ever since she was a child, she'd been fearful of clowns. Her own uncle had been a clown, and he'd burned all her stuffed-animals in a drunken rage. That was years ago, and her Uncle had died in a sky-diving accident, but she still carried the scar. That scar that now underpinned the secret meaning of her question to Carl. Carl had no idea that Clown College would upset her like this. He thought she was being her usually rude self. Anybody would attest that Clarice was a high-strung individual..."

That's all tell, and it's a big snore-fest.

You need to show these facts, one by one, through action and dialogue. Perhaps in chapter one she has an adverse reaction to seeing a clown. Perhaps later she has a flashback to her drunken uncle. When we read the dialogue between Carl and Clarice, it should speak for itself, without a bunch of "helpful info" to clarify what's going on.

Okay, there's my crash-course for ya. If you really want to learn how to write, read the "Learn to Write with Uncle Jim" thread... (and no, he's not and evil clown, he's a man of true wisdom).

Good luck, and God speed!

[Garpy]

First of all, your age is a HUGE advantage. Provided the writing is good enough, any given publisher would be thrilled to announce signing up a teenager...being as young as you are definately plays in your favour.

Secondly, the writing...strictly assign yourself a minimum time each day to write, say 1-2hours, and aim for a wordcount each day of 1000 words.

Fluency....with dialog, I'd suggest 'acting' out the conversations as you write them, literally...have the conversation aloud, with yourself. With narrative, you don't need to be hugely descriptive these days. Writing has fashion trends, just like anything else, and these days the trend is generally towards less descriptive writing, shorter chapters (1500-2000 words). I'd suggest working out what genre you are writing in, read some leading books in that genre and get a feel for the style of writing that is prevalent. In the end though, fluency comes with practice...and I fully expect that when you come to the end of your novel, you'll want to go back and rewrite the first few chapters.

Don't be disheartened if what you've written reads like crud. I often look at what I've written and think it's the most appalling drivel...that's common. You just go back and rework it until it reads more fluently.

So...anyway:
-identify your genre, and read within it
-give yourself a word count target for the book (that'll depend on genre. I think anything up to 70-80k words is novel-length)
-try and write a 1000 words a day (maybe more or less, find a number you can achieve)
-accept that every page will probably need to be edited several times to polish it up
-and don't fret about being young...publishers really love young authors.

My tuppence....although, I'm sure there are writers here who will disagree on some (or even all!) points ;-)

[Jamesaritchie]

Being only fourteen.... I don't have as much experience as most of the other members. However, I am currently working on my sixth novel attempt, (all of the others failed sadly...) Knowing that most editors/agents won't even look at a young teens work, I am going for the goal of just FINISHING my novel.

I was hoping some people could give some advice on anything from building characters to sentence fluency. It would be most helpful. Thanks.:D

Jeeze, if you're only fourteen and are already working on your SIXTH novel attempt, you're miles ahead of most writers. I wasn't far from twice your age before I even tried to write anything.

Finishing is far and away the most important thing you can do, but don't get the idea that agents and editors won't look at your work because you're young. That's an advantage, and great publicity for any publisher. If anything, agents and editors will cut you some slack because of your age.

But get in the firm habit of finishing what you start. Do this and you won't have a worry in the world.

[veinglory]

As an aside you might want to look at markets that only accept young writers. (Articles, book reviews etc). It doesn't get your novel written but it might be good experience of working with markets and editors.

[maestrowork]

Your passion for writing is great.

Now at 14 you might think your life is ending... ;) But you haven't even begun the best part of your life yet. Keep that fire burning. In the meantime, there's so much to learn, about writing or life in general. The best advice I can give on building believable characters and telling amazing stories is to live life to the fullest and experience the world. It doesn't mean you have to drop what you're doing, take a backpack and travel the world (that would be cool, too). But it does mean you should keep your eyes and ears open and just take in what the world and life has to offer you. There's a richness of materials and characters in this world, and observation and experience are some of the best gifts a writer can have.

[La Reine]

Hi Elena,

The best advice I can give you is finish it. No matter what you do or how bad you think it sucks, just finish it. It's the process of writing that helps us get better. And you know what, even if you think it's not so good others may be of a different opinion and working with an editor can definitely help you polish it. I know published writers who still don't write good dialogue, who still have flat characters, and yet because they told a good story they got published (albeit with extensive work from an editor, I would imagine).

Also, Joyce Carol Oates wrote profusely as a child. I think at your age she had written several novels also. Writing is a lifelong journey of failure, improvements, success, failure, success etc. The most important thing, I think, is just to finish. Don't worry too much about the mechanics right now. There's always the second draft...

[sassandgroove]

Good on ya'! At 14 I was only imagining the back of what my novel would say and writing in spurts. I agree, just keep writing. You have your whole life in front of you. And starting now is GREAT. I have a friend who wrote fan fiction for Buffy and Dawson's Creek when she was a teen. She's embarrassed by it now, but I am proud of her becasue she was writing, and isn't that the whole point? Not only did she get a lot of practice under her belt, the girl had fans! I didn't get the courage to really write until my mid twenties, and even though I am still rather young, I feel like I am playing catch up. Don't loathe being 'only 14.' Relish in it. Use it to your advantage. Keep writing, finish your novel.

[Elena]

Thank you all so much for the advice. I have learned a lot from all of you. Hopefully I will be able to apply your suggestions to my work. Thanks again for your help!:)

Also, if anybody would be intrested in reading the beginning of my novel, its in the "Share your Work" board and under "Childrens" its the medieval post. (my name says Lindsey because thats my middle name. I had to create a seperate account because I thought my computer went whack.) Honest critiques are wanted badly. (Please tell me if it sucks... because then I won't waste another 120 pages like in my last novel attempt.:mad: )

Thanks again for your advice!

[jackie106]

Hi Elena,

Your work definitely does NOT suck, but I agree with other posters who suggested that you should do more historical research. Continue writing, but don't get so bogged down by historical details that you lose momentum. You can always fix things in your second draft.

Does your school have a creative writing club? It's a good place to get feedback from your peers and make new friends.

Jackie

[aadams73]

Elena, how wonderful to be so passionate about something at such a young age! I wish you all the best. My best advice is for you to keep writing and read everything you possible can. The more you read the more you will absorb about what works and what doesn't, sentence structure, how stuff "works", and all kinds of goodies that will help you in ways that you can't imagine.

[PattiTheWicked]

Also, if anybody would be intrested in reading the beginning of my novel, its in the "Share your Work" board and under "Childrens" its the medieval post. (my name says Lindsey because thats my middle name. I had to create a seperate account because I thought my computer went whack.) Honest critiques are wanted badly. (Please tell me if it sucks... because then I won't waste another 120 pages like in my last novel attempt.:mad: )



That's you? No, you definitely don't suck.

And 120 pages is never wasted, even if it's awful. Use it as a chance to learn from your own mistakes. Learn, adapt, and grow. If you can do that, then you'll eventually come up with a marketable manuscript.