Teenage Authors: A New Writing Culture on Rise
Nothing can be more fulfilling than becoming an author when you are young. Teenage is the time when we are at our best in terms of energy and progress. If one can channelize the enthusiasm and energy towards writing a book, only few rewards can be better than that. Writing doesn’t have to do with age. If your plot is gripping with believable characters, you can become an author, even though you aren’t, technically, an adult. Eragon was also not written by an adult. The Diary of a Young Girl was also written when Anne Frank was just 13 years old, but it is one of the most popular books to have appeared in different theatricals later on and even today, we read her book for historical and biographical perspectives. So, it is absolutely possible to be an author under 18, but no matter how long you have been in the journey of writing, or how good your writing is, learning is essential; rules apply to young writers if they want to make their writing journey amazing. Especially, if you are self-publishing in India, you have a greater opportunity to be successful, but if and only if you follow the below best practices time-table:-
- Look for publishers who are known to publish children’s books– assuming as a young author, you will be writing mostly for your group, i.e. peers of your age or around, so you have to look for publishers who are popular in market for children’s books or books for young teens. In case, you choose the traditional route, it is very difficult to land your manuscript with an editor from a Big name, and then making them read through it. In such cases, they have manuscripts from all types of authors; they are super-busy and so are their inboxes. Chances are that they will not find your manuscript or even if they do, they will ignore it based on some preconceived notion that it isn’t serious writing. Better to look up some good publishers who focus on children’s writing or teenager fictions. Do your research from the web; look up journals and youth magazines to find them.
- Try to attend literary seminars– Find some good literary seminars or writing conferences in your locality. There are always some quality workshops/seminars happening, which are specifically focused on young writers and readers. Prominent publishers who work on children’s books appear there. You are not expected to join all of them, but at least try to attend one such seminar in a year. This will give you a place as a serious writer. Moreover, just by attending the seminar, you will be allowed to submit your manuscript to editors of publishing houses, and you will manage to skip the slush piles issue. It is hard to get editors to read your manuscript; you even need to pay them some times, to make them read your work; when you can jump over all of that and get a head start, why not!
- Join a local critique group– Ask your teacher about local writing groups, library clubs etc. There are always reading clubs and writers’ associations happening in localities, you may not know of. Some are definitely about young writers and readers. Visit these places with a guardian; be a part of these clubs; attend their meetings; read out your work to other writers like you, in order to get a feedback. In this case, your peers are young writers like you, so their feedback will be absolutely honest. Before you jump into the lake, you need to make sure you are in the right direction. Peer feedback will help you understand the relevance of your topic, quality of your writing and scope for improvisation. Moreover, you can learn from other’s experiences; get keys on self-publishing in India, and information about traditional and guiding publishers, which is very important for your hunt in the industry.
- Polish your writing– Improve and work on your grammar. It goes undeniably, that age and experience reflect on a person’s output as a writer in some way or the other. As a young writer below 18, you need to realize this truth that your language will not be equal to that of an experienced and aged author, who has been writing for years and belongs to the senior club. Work on your grammar; replace adverbs with stronger verbs; work through your punctuations; restructure your sentences with brevity. Even before you submit your manuscript, you should work harder on editing yourself.
- Get your teacher or parent read your manuscript– You may think you know it all, but it is never too bad to learn. Even adults need to learn and grow so do children and teenagers. An author cannot sometimes understand the problems with their own manuscript, but someone else reads it, problems are more clearly identifiable. Take the harder path; open your mind to constructive criticism. Work on them to make your manuscript a masterpiece.
As a young kid, most of us had thought we could become great writers and publish something like Harry Potter; some of us managed to do a bit of it, but maybe only as grownups. But today, young minds should not be underestimated; their imaginations are carved with maturity through their writing. Youngsters below 18, can become great writers if they are talented; more so, when self-publishing in India is giving them the golden opportunity to try their luck in this industry at a very young age. But when you are still not grown-up enough to understand the nuances of literature and the presentable format, you do require some guidance from your teachers, parents or peers, so that you can effectively work on your writing skills. The above rules can direct you properly if you are serious about becoming an author.
