Under-25 Novelists?

Hey Merryday:

Here's an old thread for writer's under 21, that you can peruse if you're interested.

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48460&highlight=Young+Writers

I'm sixteen meself.

I'm seventy but there are too many whippersnappers here to shake a stick at and they are very dedicated. Hell there are even some who think they like Grace Slick. They don't even KNOW grace slick.

Yeah, I'm under twenty-five. When I was in college, I got a very rude rejection letter (for a novel that I still think isnt half bad) from an editor insinuating that I was a tad presumptious to think my writing was good enough for the grown-ups.

Needless to say, after that I stopped mentioning in my bio that I was a college student (And of course when I'm famous I intend to flip said editor off to her face).

You surprise me. I was always under the impression that publishers were always looking for a new wunderkind.

I was writing novels at sixteen - nothing definite or publishable - just long long stories that sprawled out and out and filled up whole A4 ringbinders. I think it's just always been the form I'm most comfortable with.

Now I think of it, I think my first novel was published when I was twenty four going on twenty five, so barely edging into the margin there. But I didn't think that was especially unusual and I didn't consider myself especially young. I'd been doing it for so long that my first reaction was 'YES! AT LAST!'

(This is not to say I'm now under 25. I wish.)

Yeah publishers do love the child prodigies. Great for promotion even if the product isn't up to par: see the billion threads about Christopher Paolini.

true, true, dont even get me started ...

I'm still hoping to get published before I turn 25...(like AJ Clare over there)...then I never have to really grow up

I think Christopher Paolini ruined it for the rest of us. If I ever meet him.....

Anyway I'm nineteen and I've been writing for, well, ever. I go to college for Creative Writing (I have no idea what I'm going to do with the degree). I'd tell about my works in progress....but I doubt they're very interesting. if you look at my sig you'll see my word count progress, though!

How about S.E. Hinton???

We always ignore her. She was sixteen. And she's also fantastic.

Oh yeah, and there's this chick Shady Lane. She published her first when she was fifteen. What a frickin beast.

(She's pretty good looking, too)

airforceauthor said:

I'm still hoping to get published before I turn 25...(like AJ Clare over there)...then I never have to really grow up

Click to expand...

That is one of the perks, of course.

MerryDay said:

You're right...for some reason I always forget that S.E. Hinton was so young. She is a much better example for us, than Paolini, for sure. Though, 15 definitely trumps 16, so maybe this Shady Lane character is an even better example...I've heard she's really hard to get in touch with though. She's like the Harper Lee of young writers.

Click to expand...

That's true....but without the maturity.

And....let's compare. Harper Lee:



Shady Lane:



Not much of a contest there.

Is 25 some kind of magic literary number I've never heard of before? Crap! I finished my first novel at 17, and haven't even tried to get it published yet... Now I only have 5 months left?

Or the JD Salinger even

I'm actually eighteen. Well okay seventeen but I was TOTALLY around in August too. I COULD have been born in August.

I'm 20, going to be 21 in the next couple months. And more than looking forward to it.
Though, even now I feel like an old lady because I can be so boring sometimes. Sorry....just more serious about life than my friends. Oh well!

Anyways... Like I'm sure I've said, I have been writing since eleven, possibly before. I would write crazy rants online, stories, and other works just to write because I loved getting lost in the imagination. I don't have anything published but I do have lots of fanfiction flying through cyberspace. Fanfiction is really what got me to write in the first place. Now, I make up my own work/characters/settings/plots/climaxes. And that's even more fun. Right now I am doing it as a hobby. I'm in my second year of college and going for a Bachelor's degree in English Education with a minor in Creative Writing. We'll just see where that takes me. I would really love to teach period. Help others. I like to do that.

There's my two cents. Great topic! Because I have really yet to see a great novelist under 25.

Jonathan Safran Foer is a pretty fantastic novelist and he's twenty one, or was when he wrote Everything Is Illuminated...

<hides>

I'm not a young author, I just play one on t.v.

Seriously, Shady, I hate you. I don't, I love you, but you give a girl all these insecurities and what not.

When I was 14, I promised myself I would have a book published by my 30th birthday.

I have three months left...

I'm seventeen, started writing when I was fourteen. I've spent most of my writing time on one goliath series that won't leave me alone. The current one I'm working on is Saint Anger but that is the second series within the overall series. (Mind boggling?)

I know I'm being abit over ambitious by writing a series BUT! But they DO work without each other as not all of them follow the same character or even make mention of the previous MC/Villian. At least then if I get one published, I'll be ready to burst onto the scene with a couple more stories fast under my belt.

I thought for sure I'd be living "the successful writer's life", whatever that means, by 25. I won city-wide writing contests in 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. Pretty big city, too. Studied journalism and creative writing in college. Had the attention of an agent with my spec TV scripts by 21 or 22 and got invited to submit a spec for a pilot series. They accepted my episode as part of their original 13-script pilot season. The show never got picked up. I've never gotten that far again with my writing until last week.

Something happened over the next decade, I just couldn't get in any doors. Didn't help that I kept straying from TV, to plays, to movie scripts, to short stories, to novels. I like them all! I recently got news that my play will be produced in Los Angeles and get a six-week run. I'm not quite 40, but not quite 25 either. My point is, I saw some hints of success early on in my quest, then fizzled. It's good if you set a goal like being pubbed by 25. Just don't give up if it doesn't work out that way. I've been at it 20 years, since junior high, and I'm only now getting any kind of real success.

Good luck to you all, young and old. And Shady:
if your looks help you get in the door, take full advantage! Just be aware that a lot of sickos will make promises they have no intention to keep in the hopes of getting a little somethin somethin. Better you keep your looks a secret until you get an "in" based on your writing merits. If your looks help you after that, go for it! Any advantage helps. But don't fall for fake promises from people who are more interested in your looks than your writing.

Unfortunately, I've never had that problem. Maybe I need a makeover.

I'm a somewhat young teenager.

Can't say my real age, because my mom would kill me. And, trust me- she KNOWS. Everything. It's freaky- it's like she's psychic or something.

I can only say that I'm under twenty. Sigh... moms are such a pain sometimes, eh?