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Chatterbox: Inkwell
Hello to everyone
Hello to everyone in CRICKET!!! I really want to be a writer when I grow up. I love writing and reading. If you could please help me, I need some tips from people to get me through this because sometimes I'm not so confident that I'll make it to be a writer. Please help!!!
Thank you!!!
submitted by Zoe R., age 11, North Carolina
(August 2, 2008 - 2:17 pm)
(August 2, 2008 - 2:17 pm)
Yes, I know what you mean. But if you just keep writing, then you'll be a writer. And if you write enough and for long enough, you're bound to come up with something worthy of publishing, even if it's not the first thing you ever write. Also, when a story is dragging you down and making you unable to work on anything else, it doesn't hurt to look at the story, cut out the awkward bits (or even the whole thing) and start over.
One more tip: Always back up your work. I suppose it's hypocritical of me to say that, since my work isn't really backed up at the moment, but really. If you don't want your work to melt or vanish, an external hard drive or a thumb drive or a CD (or all of the above) will (hopefully) preserve it. If you have two houses, keep a copy at each house.
Ah, there is no end to my hypocrisy. Now I've given that little speech, I suppose I should go back up my work now. Ew.
(August 4, 2008 - 6:58 pm)
BACK UP! is right.
Also, NaNoWriMo, in November, is great for this!
(August 4, 2008 - 11:31 pm)
Backing up is great. Once I didn't back up properly because I thought it was saved on the CD ROM, but the CD was ruined, by heat, I think, and I lost nearly a whole page. And then I had to reawrite it, but it wasn't quite the same. so back up! I always save in two places!!! Even save on a computer that you don't use!! You can always delete it later if the owner doesn't want it on there. Your work is more important!
My rant is over. Thanx for reading it, if you did.
(August 6, 2008 - 4:59 pm)
Trust me, she's right. One time, my friends and I made an amazing movie, then my computer went wack and we lost the whole thing! :(
(August 12, 2008 - 6:27 pm)
Something like that happened to me and my friend, too!! Only, the vid wasn't really really great, just funny.
(August 27, 2008 - 3:39 pm)
Zoe, have you heard of the author Avi? Well, he's an amazing guy and I love all his books (that I've read, not many so far) and if anyone could help you it would be him. You might want to check out his Web site. Good luck, and I hope I could help! :)
(August 4, 2008 - 8:04 pm)
I want to be a writer, too. But I have the same problem. I don't know how to get anything published! It's not like I haven't already written any short stories...
(August 6, 2008 - 2:08 pm)
Well, i'm in the middle of writing 8 books at the same time, so yeah. But as for publishing, if it's a short story just pick a magazine or something and send it out! If you write a cover letter, check out their Web site for the submission rules and send it! You might want to ask someone to read over the cover letter, though. I sent a story my late grandmother wrote a while ago to--well, to Cricket actually--in February, so I know what writing a cover letter's like. I'm also planning to send out a children's book pretty soon, so that should be...interesting. But I don't think it's that hard to get something published; it just takes time. and if your work is good, then someone will eventually take it. i think it was J. K. Rowling who said on her Web site that she sent her book to a ton of places and got a lot of rejections before someone finally took it--the number of rejections i'm remembering is 100, and look how popular that series is!!!! I mean, nearly everyone in the world has at least heard of Harry Potter...
My mom says that if you're trying to publish a book and if you're sending it to a big publisher it might be good to get an agent. She also said that if you're going to get an agent for a book, it's better to do it at once, because if it's already been rejected once or twice they're going to just dismiss it as bad work. That happened to my mom. But she said that then she just sent it out herself again, and it got published, so that's cool. But it takes a long time to get a book published--even if you send it to several places at once, which is a good idea. Publishers can take up to a year to consider a book.
Wow, I wrote a lot here. I really hope my book gets published. And i hope this was interesting, at the very least.
(August 6, 2008 - 4:56 pm)
I'm not really a writer, but I am definitely a reader! I was wondering what your book was called so I can look for it. Will it published in the US? It would be cool to read a book by a fellow Cricket reader. What's it about? I hope I'm not being too nosy. Please write back!
(August 12, 2008 - 2:05 pm)
Thanks, Alexandria!!
Reading is great. I read too much.
Wendy, it's called "Mine's Sketchbook," but I don't know when it'll come out--I haven't even sent it out yet--and I don't really know where I'm sending it...I'll try to remember to tell you, though. And you're not being too nosy.--and sorry I took so long to write back...
Keep on reading and writing, pplz!!! XD
(August 27, 2008 - 3:42 pm)
Thank you for writing back! I guess I'll just have to wait for your book to come out. Good luck! If it does get published, I will read it and then lend it to all of my friends and then you'll have a smallish group of American fans you brag about! Ha-ha ^_^
(August 31, 2008 - 6:08 pm)
That'll be kewl...O.O
Thanx for being interested. I think I mgiht be sending it to a Canadian publisher, though, btw. I'll still tell you when it comes out...i really should finish a novel, shouldn't I? I have about eight that I'm writing. I think there're more, plus some fan-fiction-like stuff, one of which is a sort of book that I'm thinking of trying to adapt into something that's purely mine...cuz it only has bits of other authors' stuff in it. I can replace that with my own stuff. After I do the prologue, it'll be easy--the prologue's hard cuz the only thing that's mine in it is the story and my character. The rest is Erin Hunter's world...
:-)
(September 2, 2008 - 5:13 pm)
Publishers can be really picky, though. You have something they really want. If they think they already have a lot of what you sent in, they won't want it, if they don't think it will sell just enough, they won't want it, and if they do like it, they still might not accept it. It takes awhile. My advise: write it with everything you got, and go over it a million times. Try to think like a reader and what they'd think, or even as the publisher. And if they don't want it, remember: usually it doesn't mean it's bad, it means they can't take it or don't think they can sell it...
Good luck with your book!
(August 18, 2008 - 3:23 pm)
backup is important
always keep 2 copies of ur work
OR ELSE!!!!!!!!
(sorry if thats a little harsh)
there is a magazine, stone soup, that allows publications, but its really hard to get ur work published there cuz of all the other people that wanna get their work published.
but i think they pay u!!!!!!!!!! YAY
going w/ the man for aeiou, NaNoWriMo is good
(August 18, 2008 - 2:25 pm)
I just sent a poem in to Stone Soup, and apparently, I'll get paid if they use it. They buy all rights, which means you can't send your work anywhere else after it's published in their magazine.
(August 21, 2008 - 7:34 pm)