Tips for Young Writers

WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW
It wasn't until I wrote my book On the Home Front: Growing Up in Wartime England, that I truly understood what that meant. In that book I was writing about things I had experienced for myself, things I knew.

RECOGNIZE THE KIND OF WRITING YOU DO BEST
My writing is best when I am able to be descriptive. My English teacher told me that when I was a teenager. And she was right. So, writing about  other countries and cultures is a perfect subject for me. I am primarily a  nonfiction writer,  although I have been able to home my skills as a fiction writer enough to have four books published.

READ, READ, READ!
Read the kinds of books or articles that you like to write.

WRITE, WRITE, WRITE!
Write about anything that interests you. Write the kind of stories you like to read. Use your imagination, but make sure your characters, their  situations, and the setting you place them in sound realistic. Check and  recheck any facts you use. REVISE!

READ WHAT YOU WRITE OUT LOUD
Read your work to your friends, parents, dog, teddy bear - anyone that  will listen! And then read it again. Make corrections. Read it again. Wherever you stumble probably needs to be reworded. REVISE!

WRITE AND REWRITE
Whether you are a child or an adult, in order to make your writing the  best that it can be, you will need to write, and rewrite. And if someone  agrees to publish your work, you will be expected to do even more  writing and rewriting. REVISE!

TITLES AND FIRST LINES
When you write a story or a research paper for a teacher, there are two  things you need to look at again and again: your TITLE and your FIRST  SENTENCE. Today, editors at publishing houses are so busy and receive so  many manuscripts, they often only have time to look at the FIRST LINE or the TITLE, so if neither of them GRABS or HOOKS their attention, they send your work right back to you.
 

TEACHERS are the same. If the TITLE or FIRST SENTENCE doesn’t grab their attention and make then want to read your work with interest and enthusiasm, they decide right then that your writing is not going to be great. So, when you finish your story or report, look at the TITLE and  FIRST LINE again. Will they GRAB or HOOK your teacher’s attention? And is your work neat and well-organized? That also makes a difference.
 

For example, which TITLE is more interesting - "The Dog" or "The Adventurous Dog"? Just one word can make a difference. 

Beginning your paper with a QUESTION can also capture someone’s interest - for example, “Have you ever wondered why Egyptians buried their ancestors so far underground? And why are they called mummies? Well, I’ll tell you."

So, on the next paper you write, make sure it will HOOK or GRAB your teacher’s attention!