We have another blog for you today and that’s written by the lovely Leila Rasheed. Leila is a children’s author who will be at King Street Waterstones on First Friday as part of our Bookworm kids event.
Leila has written us this fantastic blog about 5 pieces of advice for young writers! Have a read and make sure you share with any young writers that you know!
Five pieces of advice for young writers.
1) Read a lot
Because reading feeds writing.
2) Don’t let rejection put you off.
There’s one thing you have to get used to as a writer, and that’s rejection. Everyone gets it; even published authors continue to have their stories rejected by publishers. Chips, Beans and Limousines was only published after three other stories I wrote were rejected by the same publisher. Since being published I’ve had lots more rejections.
When I was at school, I sent a poem off to a magazine. I was really terrified of doing it in case I got rejected – and I did. I felt as if it was the end of the world, and it stopped me writing for a couple of years. I thought that getting rejected meant I was a bad writer who shouldn’t even try to get published. But it doesn’t mean that. It really is true that even the most successful writers have many rejections behind them and in front of them. Do you enjoy writing? If so, then do it. Your writing matters even if it’s never published. Do you want to be published? If so, keep on sending those stories and poems out. Rejection is NORMAL.
3) Write with a friend
I started writing when I was thirteen. My two best friends were the people I wrote for. I loved having readers! Knowing others were going to read my work, that I had to entertain someone, gave me motivation to make my writing as good as it could be.
4) Write alone
You might not want to share your writing with friends, and that’s fine too. Everyone is different, which brings me to…
5) Writers are all different.
When I was a child, I used to think writers were all the same: wise, kind, old people who enjoyed reading the same books that I loved. Now I’m an adult and I’ve met lots and lots of writers and this I know: they are all different. There are old writers and middle aged ones and young ones. There are writers who are horrible people and writers who are kind people, and both of these sort may write brilliant books. There are writers who hate books I love, and writers who love books I hate. There are writers who are rich and writers who are poor (if they’re rich, chances are they didn’t get that way through writing). There are writers with children, writers who can’t stand children, writers who think only poems are worth reading and writers who think if you’re not writing crime fiction you’re not a proper writer. There are writers who wear crazy hats to work and writers who wear suits to work. They are all different. And that means you can be one too.
To find out more about Leila’s visit to Lancaster click here.
