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Advice to a young writer!

mantra
Wed, 18 Jan 2017 15:00:49 GMT

Hello, I have an 11 year old son who was inspired to write a 12,500 novel after reading the Wind Singer. Do you have any advice as to how he should develop his skills? any advice gratefully received!

William Nicholson
Thu, 19 Jan 2017 12:56:54 GMT

My advice would be: decide on your main character - who he is, what he wants, if it is a 'he' - then work out very roughly how your story is going to go, before you start. Have some idea of your ending. That'll help keep you going. You can always change your mind later. Then as you go, have fun. Make up fun stuff, let your imagination go wild. And when the terrible day dawns when you lose faith in your story, just put it aside for a day or two, and then come back to it. It might look better. If you can, push on to the end. Finishing's hard, but extremely important. I have a sign above my desk that just says PUSH ON.