FAQ Month: How to Get Published Step Two

Feb. 29^th

Happy leap year everyone!

As promised, I have some examples from Monday’s ‘homework’.

Example one: By Sophie (15) in Minnesota, based on her experiences at work. (Based on a scene from What Happened To Goodbye).

… The customers are sometimes angry. The blenders hurts my ears. The tips are lousy. The hours are weird. At the end of the day my feet ache and I smell like raspberry syrup and chicken. I don’t know why I stay. But at the end of the day, I got money...

Example two: By Cora (12) Oklahoma, based on the road trip she takes to commute to school every morning. (Based on a road trip scene from The Summer I Turned Pretty).

I don’t know why I do this, but I still do. Every morning at six thirty sharp, I’m wide-eyed and bushy-tailed. My teeth are glossed with a crisp minty smell with an underlying taste of chocolate rice crispies. I’m barley ready for an hour on the road. It’s still dark out. Cars are sparsely dispersed across the highway, a car here, a dump truck there, a handful of trucks driven by people who look like they belong on some trucking show. Stereotypically, they all have beards and a dash board full of McDonalds bags. I think this is where I first developed my hate for McDonalds.

Great job!

Now on to step two: Writing

Though it seems obvious enough, this is one of the biggest keys to writing well. It’s just as important as reading or observing. Now that we’ve watched a person do a layup, we’re going to try one ourselves.

There’s no right way to do a layup… er I mean… write. The only way you can improve is to write.

So write every day. Little things, big things. Anything. Then go back and edit. Edit. Edit. Edit. Work on what you wrote yesterday. Add to what you wrote yesterday. Keep all your writing in a safe place, you never know when you need inspiration.

Homework:

If you’re working on a novel right now, write an entire chapter before Friday’s post.

If you’re not working on a novel, or if you’re stuck, try doing this for inspiration:

Take the homework from Monday and edit it. Make it even more interesting. Add a problem. Maybe it’s really hard for your character to put on their shoes for some reason. Maybe it brings back bad memories. Whatever, it’s up to you. Make it shine.

 Feel free to email me at everymanuscript@gmail.com

-C