Writing Tips for Young Authors

So you want to write. You want to become the next J. K. Rowling, or Rick Riordan or maybe even Stephen King. That’s great. And the first and most important fact that you must face is that everybody will try to talk you out of this goal.

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to publish a book?”

“Oh, you’ll never be able to write a Harry Potter – that’s a once-in-a-lifetime dream. J.K. Rowling was just lucky.”

“You can’t even spell, you don’t know grammar – what makes you think you can be a writer?”

“Maybe you should set your sights a little lower – why not take up a trade. You’ll be good at that.”

Yes, dear friends – those are the types of remarks you’ll hear from family, friends and even teachers. But DISREGARD all these naysayers. Ambition and drive are powerful tools and if you have  them, you can go a long way.  But you still need to learn your craft and how does one go about doing that? You learn by doing.

Stephen King stuck all his rejections on a spike until that spike got too heavy. What did he do? He bought another one. Slowly, very slowly, those flat rejections turned into comments and of course one day he sold Carrie and it was the start of a phenomenal career. What all writers can learn from Stephen King is to never give up.

Jot all your ideas down in a notebook or on a computer file and start observing people, places, animals, whatever. Your powers of observation is what will come in handy once you start writing up your stories. That’s when the dude with the disgustingly long toenails and bad breath may earn a place as a creepy character in one of your novels – who knows?

What is your writing tip?