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Position:Home>Books & Authors> I'm 13 and thinking of writing a book...Question: I'm 13 and thinking of writing a book!.!.!. I have tons of ideas - mostly about kid spies and i was wondering on average, how long does it take to complete a novel!? also, how many pages on word processor is good!? I'd already wrote a few chapters when i was 9 of a book but my laptop broke and i lost everything!. Do you think i'd be able to do it and get it published!? My English teacher said i just have to work on making a story less predictable and i have a good grammar!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: First of all, don't worry about whether it can be published just yet!. Write something you love, and try to make it unpredictable and not cliche!. Then work very hard on your grammar, punctuation, and spelling!. I'm not saying yours is bad in your question!. In fact, for 13 your use of language is quite good!. I'm just saying to practice and practice because that's how you get better, and develop your own voice!. At the end, PROOFREAD! You probably hate all those proofreading assignments, but they'll teach you a valuable lesson in writing!. I proof every single thing I write, from the chapters in my stories down to a silly comment I leave on someone's Youtube video!. Perfectionism is your friend!. ;) As for how long it takes to write a book!. It took me about 18 months to finish my first draft, but it varies for everyone!. I'm a mom of 6 kids, and have a part-time job outside the home and also had to deal with a family tragedy in the last year, so my life is pretty busy!. So is yours, with school and friends and such!. Just don't stress about how long it takes you, set your own goal, and try to set aside writing time at least 3 or 4 days a week to write your story!. My goal was to write 1000 words a day, 5 days a week!. I didn't always do it! Something more manageable for you might be 300 to 500 words a day!. Don't worry about how long your book should be, just plan it out first and write it!. After that, put it aside for a while and then re-read it, look for mistakes, and re-write several times until it's as perfect as you can get it!. An honest critique group would be good at this point--preferably not online!. Or honest teachers!. Friends aren't a good source of opinions, because they won't want to hurt your feelings!. You want honesty here, so you can truly improve your story and your writing!. That's about all I can think of!. Sorry it's so long! And don't get discouraged, just keep practicing!.Www@QuestionHome@Com I can't answer your initial question: it's different for everyone!. Just focus on writing your story and having fun with it!. It won't help you if you are thinking about how long it should be, where to get it published, who is going to read it, etc!. Write it for yourself first, and when you are absolutely happy with it, then you can start looking at publishers!. A tip for avoiding what happened when your laptop broke down, is save your work in more than one place!. For example: save a copy to a USB key or your email account!. Good luck, and have fun with writing you story!. Www@QuestionHome@Com It's a long, hard road to publication, but don't be put off!. You're very young and now's the time to start writing!. I wish I'd started at your age! Write what interests you, and read, read, read!. Read everything you can lay your hands on, from the classics to the penny dreadfuls!. In this way, you'll learn the different styles, themes, and ideas of good writers - and some of the bad ones, too! Keep writing, but forget about being published for the moment!. You have to love writing!. That's the most important thing!. Good luck!. I look forward to reading one of your books one of these days!. Mike BWww@QuestionHome@Com Well, you can publish anything as long it's not illegal!. However, if your laptop was broken and you lost all of your hard work!. I would say check the memory in your laptop and try putting it into the computer to see if it still works!. If not, then I would have to say is refresh your memory to bring back the chapters you've wrote!. Sometimes, when you rewrite the chapters, makes it a whole lot better than you think!. I had that problem only my computer and me are together a lot of time so my eyes intend to trick me thinking I clicked save!. So, just take your time to write your own novel!. also, try gettting a notebook and keep track of your novel!. Incase anything happens to your computer or laptop, you'll have a back up which is your notebook of your own novel!. You'll be glad you did!. I have a notebook and computer to work together!. First, I write things down in my notebook, then I put it onto the computer, and I'm going to be ready to go on!. Well, good luck with your decision!. Hey, check out my story, it's a good story!. http://answers!.yahoo!.com/question/index;!.!.!. Www@QuestionHome@Com Find a site or source for you to contact a local writer!. The length it takes to finish a novel is dependent on the target age group and the amount of time you spend on it!. At the very least, try to get more people to look at it than just your English teacher!. Someone else might pick up on something to help you improve your writing!. Writers sometimes have to change up their writing dozens of times in order to meet the publishers satisfaction so don't be discouraged if this idea doesn't pull through!. Persistence is key!. Www@QuestionHome@Com It depends on the person how long it takes to finish a book!. It's been five years for me and I've only written 20 pages (sad, i know)!. How many words on the word processor also depends on you, of course - how long it takes for your story to end, that is!. As for the chapters that you lost I think it's for the best, really!. I've written a lot first chapters of my story a few years back, then when I come back now to read it I find I don't like it anymore and threw everything away!. I guess as you grow your writing and thinking improves so what you wrote before will all look bad!. Therefore, I would suggest you to wait a couple of years before you actually try to publish your story!. In a few years from now, if you still like your writing, then you can go ahead and try!. If you don't, you can edit and make changes!. Publishing one's work is not as easy as you may think!. Remember that thousands of stories are submitted everyday!. You need to make yours stand out!. I've read a published author's blog, and he said that most of it's got to do with luck too!. Even if your story gets published, no one may even know that it exists!. On the other hand, complete rubbish can become a bestseller - it depends what people are looking for in a book at that period!. However, all this is not supposed to discourage you!. If you think that's what you want to do in life, then do it! I'm pretty sure my story won't be published, but I'm still gonna try, because this is what I want!. So I say, go for it dude! Good luck!. Www@QuestionHome@Com |