At this moment my teenage daughter is driving me home from a trip to Tennessee where we visited my father and several of her friends from the Tennessee Young Writers Workshop. Not only is this a great program with published authors as instructors, (I was a guest lecturer one year ;), but she made several life-long friends, hence the visit. Over the course of the weekend I found myself engaged in several conversations with parents and my daughter’s friends about writing and publishing. I was inspired by the questions they asked, their insightful comments about their work and most potently by their self-motivated drive and determination. They write because they love to write!
I have also been a featured speaker at several dozen Young Author events over the years. I enjoy discussing my work. But even more so, I enjoy hearing about their work and the issues they struggle with as writers. Inspired by my daughter, her friends, and the hundreds of Young Authors I work with every year I have created this blog to share some thoughts, practical instruction and a little inspiration, as little as possible. I also hope to create a space where Young Authors can share their work, thoughts and a little more inspiration. If you would like to share, drop me a short query, maybe 50-100 words about the topic you wish to explore or a synopsis of your story and then I will gladly post the work that fits. Check back frequently to see what your peers and colleagues are writing about!
For teachers, encourage your writing classes to utilize some of my Lesson Plans and send me the results! OR Read through the blog and send me a short essay, 200 – 500 words about why they like to write or why writing is important or about something they read that inspired their writing, or… or… or…
Brian Fox Ellis — 04 January 2009, 11:05
For my first entry, I would like to share three simple ideas that have the potential to help all aspiring writers to make the grade and move from a wannabe to a published author:
1. Read, read, READ. Read voraciously. Read magazines. Read poetry. Read the newspaper and the ads you see on billboards. Read fiction and non-fiction. Read a lot of what you love, but often wander into strange sections of the library, bookstore or internet and read things that are funky or outside your comfort zone. Read everything your favorite authors have ever written and make notes about how their writing developed or changed over time. I really hate it when other people write in a book, so I often use sticky notes to copy quotes or make comments in a book and then after finishing the book re-read some of those sections and put all the sticky notes, with the page number noted, on a single sheet of paper. Read for pleasure, but also read as a writer, making mental notes about their style or ‘how did she do that?’
2. Write, write, WRITE! Like any other muscle, the more you exercise it the stronger it gets. Keep a journal, start a blog (or write for mine!), write letters, write a few pages of your novel every week, get up a little early and spend a half hour or hour writing every day. Txt ur bff dnt count! Play with genre, maybe novels or short stories are your favorite, but stretch yourself and learn to write
real haiku, write an editorial for the newspaper and send it in!
3. SUBMIT! Send it out. Do a little homework to figure out who is publishing what you write. Write a stunning cover letter and send it out! Create a special file of all of your rejection letters and be proud of the growing stack, later you will learn to brag about the fat pile of rejections, how your bestselling novel was rejected 14 times before it went to the New York Times Bestselling List! But you will never get published until you learn to accept rejection. Harden yourself off now. SUBMIT!
I will write more about each of these subjects in the next few months, please send me your thoughts and reactions.
