28 NOVEMBER 2019 http://www.writers-online.co.ukS
Some people know from an
early age that they want to
be a writer. I certainly did.
Creative writing classes in
school can leave much to be
desired, and budding young authors
will certainly benefit from a bit of
extra support. Whether you’re a young
writer yourself or have children and
grandchildren with writerly aspirations,
this young person’s guide to writing
might come in handy for nurturing
that fledgling love of writing.When do you become an
author?
While some authors come to writing
later in life, there are others who,
from a young age, have felt the ache
in their fingers for the want of a pen
or a keyboard. They just know. Many
popular authors from a variety of
genres started writing in childhood.
Joanne Harris (famous for Chocolat)
wrote her first book at nine, as did
Jacqueline Wilson (Tracy Beaker).
While neither of these authors found
fame and stardom until much later,
there are certainly authors who have.
Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein
before she turned twenty. In the 1970s,
Gordon Korman published his debut
book (the first in his Macdonald Hall
series) with Scholastic. He was fourteen
at the time, having written the novel
aged twelve – he hadn’t wanted to write
his school book report on anything he
could find in the library, so penned hisown novel and then wrote a review of
it. Jayne Fisher was the youngest author
to ever write for Ladybird Books – her
Garden Gang series was created when
she was only nine. So while it’s rare for
budding authors to shoot to stardom
while they’re still in school, it does
happen from time to time.
The question of when you become
an author isn’t easy to answer. Some
might say that you can call yourself
an author when you’ve started making
money from writing – though making
decent money from it, these days, is
no easy thing. For me, the answer is
simple: if you write, you are a writer.
You feel it in your core. Once you
know, all you have to do is practice. A
lot. In Grit, Angela Duckworth’s book
exploring the power of passion and
perseverance, she says that to become
really, truly good at something,
you have to invest 10,000 hours of
purposeful practice in doing that thing.
That’s a lot of writing to get under
your belt.The author’s journey: Top tips
on becoming an author
Read. Read everything. Read things
you like and things you don’t like so
much. Read classics and new releases
and things that are recommended to
you. Stephen King said that ‘If you
don’t have time to read, you don’t have
the time (or the tools) to write. Simple
as that.’ Pretty much everyone agrees
on this point – if you want to write,Celia Jenkins offers tips and tools for young writers
Brightyoung thingsBright Bright Bright Bright Bright Bright Bright Bright Brightyou have to read.
Try out different types of writing.
You might already know that you want
to write romantic novels, or sci-fi for
middle grade, or free-form poetry.
But while you’re young is a great time
to try things out and experience new
things, in life and in writing. Discover
different forms from nano and flash
fiction to novellas, novels and sagas.
Try your hand at a story in under 100
words. Experiment with haiku, senryu,
sonnet, canzone, cinquain, idyll,
rondeau, pantoum and villanelle. Don’t
limit yourself by what you haven’t yet
discovered.
Be resilient. Harry Potter was
rejected twelve times. Imagine if JK
Rowling gave up after eleven agents
said ‘no’. Be brave – try new things,
enter competitions, and if you still feel
the burning desire to continue writing
in the face of setbacks, you’ll know
that you should never give up.
Write what you love, not what’s
popular. Nobel prize-winning author
Toni Morrison said, ‘If there’s a book
that you want to read, but it hasn’t
been written yet, then you must write
it.’ If you try to jump on a trending
bandwagon, the masses might have
moved on to something else by the
time you’ve written it. Write what you
want to read, what you see a gap for in
the market.
Find your own style. Some authors
will swear by their personal promises
to write 1,000 words a day – every
day – or to finish a novel in a year.
Others will wait for inspiration to hit,
or choose not to limit themselves with
impressive goals they can’t achieve. You
might be an early morning creative
or a total night owl, or you might be
nothing in particular. Try things out,
see what works, and remember that
these things can change, too. As a
student, I often stayed up writing late
into the night. These days I’m often
more productive in the morning!
Go out and live an interesting
life. Benjamin Franklin said, ‘Either
write something worth reading or
do something worth writing.’ While
Emily Dickinson, JD Salinger, Harper
Lee, and Samuel Beckett managed
to produce literary canons in their
reclusive lives, most of us need to get