It’s not uncommon for teenagers to attempt writing a book. What is common is for teenagers to have a million-dollar idea, the ability to achieve their goal of becoming successful, but not pulling through in the end. This is saddening, as no contribution to the writing industry can be negative. There are many ways to becoming a great writer, though, and achieving your desired goal.
1. Have an idea
All good books start with an image or concept. These usually start small, but progressively build into more day after day. Cherish these thoughts, don’t let them slip, continue thinking about them.
2. Turn that idea into more ideas
Having a concept/idea is fantastic, but the majority of stories do not involve a single storyline, which otherwise can lead to a very straight-forward book. Instead, with every idea, think of many more to associate it with. Your storyline will mature and become much more respectable
3. Research the idea
Chances are, every idea has been attempted in some form or another. By looking at both successful and unsuccessful novels, you can determine what did and didn’t work for those authors, and adjust your approach accordingly.
4. Write the ideas down
While planning novels page-by-page won’t work for everyone, forgetting previous ideas can be one of the worst things you could do. It doesn’t take much to open a word document or keep a notebook around, just encase one of the brilliant ideas that you had slips your mind.
5. Seek Inspiration
Sometimes it can be hard to come up with original and interesting ideas. Don’t stress! You can find ideas almost anywhere you look. By looking at the world in different perspectives, analysing people and understanding how real plots develop, you can fit these important factors into anything that you write.
6. Fiction is YOUR creation
The beauty of writing fiction is that anything you can imagine is completely possible. This means that you decide your own limitations. In your mind, a kangaroo could become a football champion, and it’d be completely and utterly fine!
7. Understand your limits
Remember the age old questions:
Who?
* What?
* When?
* Where?
* Why?
* How?
By understanding the key points to your writing, you’ll quickly see which ideas are too farfetched to be considered.
For example: You wouldn’t expect your local neighbour living in an average society who is overcoming the experience of a death to be playing poker with the president.
8. Know your moral
By the time you finish a book, fictitious or not, you should have learnt something from it. Usually, non-fiction novels will teach you facts, while fiction offers lessons or experiences. When people finish your book, they should learn something new, and it’s up to you to teach them.
9. Understand the audience
The language you use, how you use it and some key elements in your book will change depending on your target audience. While you can generally successfully use words such as “Melancholy” and “Pugnacious” in teenage and adult orientated writing, you wouldn’t expect to use such words with those under the age of 12.
10. Length Approximation
Not every idea will be a successful series, but could be a very fine piece on it’s own. The average story length for novels are 80000 – 120000 words, which is approximately 320 – 1000 pages.
These are very simple tips, and I do hope to go into more depth soon. This is part one of the series, and please check back regularly for more tips for young authors.
