How Teens Can Begin a Novel Writing Career

Many people who have gone on to be full-time novel writers have known since very early on that they wanted to be writers. But if a teen or preteen tells a teacher or parent that full-time novel writing is their career goal, they are told to finish their education until college graduation and then try the novel writing thing. So one gets the idea that one must be in the mid-twenties to even begin with the noveling life.

But judging from the experience of many writers, the teens isn't too early. Look at the example of the novelist Marion Zimmer Bradley. In 'A Darkover Retrospective' she told the story of how she began her popular series of Darkover novels. She was only about 15, and had been writing down stories she made up in composition books. She started a long novel, set on a world she then called Al-Merdin, and featuring seven telepathic families. Much later, after she had written a number of published short stories, she wrote a novel set on her old world of Al-Merdin, now called Darkover. When asked for a second book, she did a re-write of part of her old novel, and called it 'Sword of Aldones'.

Marion Zimmer Bradley continued writing Darkover novels her entire writing life, along with other fiction. Later, she thought the story in 'Sword of Aldones' was somewhat immature compared to her later Darkover books, and did a retelling of the tale called 'Sharra's Exile'. This novel was considered one of the best of the whole series, and was included in lists of the best science fiction and fantasy novels. Not bad, for an idea created by a fifteen-year-old.

No matter how young you are, you can begin your novel-writing career. It's very likely you won't write anything good enough for publication for a number of years, but the same is true of someone who doesn't begin to write until age 30. It takes time to learn novel-writing skills.

Your first step, if you haven't already taken it, is to start writing things down--- ideas, outlines, scenes, and full stories. Some writers do this at a very early age, while others have a fear that once they begin to write down the stories they make up in their heads, a phantom teacher will appear to grade it, and others will laugh at it. Let them laugh. The sooner you make the transition to writing everything down, the easier it will be.

Don't be afraid to imitate other fiction at first. Stephen King, as a very small boy, copied his Combat Casey comic books, and only when his mother suggested it began making up his own stories. In later childhood King wrote out the stories of horror movies he'd seen, to be printed up in a newsletter his brother sold to neighbor kids. Even when King began writing his first original stories they were imitations of his favorite writers. We all imitate at first--- it's how we learn.

Read extensively. Don't let the books they require you to read in school put you off reading. Real writers read--- a lot. Read non-fiction books on any topic that catches your fancy. That book about Afghanistan you read today may give you an idea that will work in your novel five years from now. Read in the different fiction genres--- romance, science fiction, fantasy, crime novels, Christian fiction and so on. If you don't enjoy a certain genre, like romance, find a friend who reads romances and ask for a recommendation of good books to start with. Reading in genres is important. The most financially successful writers write within a genre, and you will need to figure out what genres you can write well in. You should also read books on how to write novels, especially ones written by novelists or literary agents.

Read the great books--- works that have stood the test of time. Don't confine yourself to the one or two great (or semi-great) books a year you may be asked to read in English class. Read a Shakespeare play and Jane Austin's 'Pride and Prejudice' and Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist'. Find lists of great books to help you make your selections. If you start one great book and it bores you, find another.

Learn the basic writing skills such as spelling and grammar. If you somehow missed out on learning these things in grade school, get some spelling and grammar workbooks meant for grade school kids and work your way through them. Learning these things now will spare you hundreds of hours of time correcting mistakes in your manuscripts that you didn't need to make in the first place.

Learn money management skills. The writer Mickey Spillane said that the reason he kept writing was because he needed the money. When you become a professional writer, you will get your money when you get paid for your writing. You won't be paid as much or as often as you wish. Practice now by saving a little out of every sum of money you get. Some of your savings should be very long term--- keep it earning interest somewhere until you get old. Other savings should just be stored away in case of unexpected--- or expected--- expenses.

Learn to listen to what's going on around you. The kind of person who has to be chatting to his friends--- in person, by phone or through texting--- all of the time is missing out on life experiences that are essential to the writer. The person who will be a future writer is the one who takes an interest in the experiences of other people, even people who are older, poorer, or unpopular with all the cool kids.

Finally, be a hard worker. Work hard at your writing, your schoolwork and your day job when you have one. To really make it as a writer, you may have to work full time at a day job and then come home and put in several hours writing, as well as fulfilling a number of home and family responsibilities. Being a novelist isn't easy money--- if that is your goal, there are other professions you should try. But if writing is what you really want to do, and you are willing to put in the work--- often for a number of years without any success before your first publication, you can succeed, and you can begin working on your success now.

References:

Lisle, Holly--- Mugging the Muse: Writing Fiction for Love and Money --- Forward Motion E-press 2000

Maass, Donald--- The Career Novelist--- Heinemann 1996

King, Stephen--- On Writing--- Scribner 2000

Bradley, Marion Zimmer--- 'A Darkover Retrospective' published in Ace Science Fiction edition of The Planet Savers/Sword of Aldones 1980