January Guest Blogger 2014: Amanda

I would like you all to meet a very good friend of mine that I met online.  Her name is Amanda and she not only has her own blog, but has her very own newsletter!  I was excited that she was interested in being this month's guest blogger!  Read below to learn a little about Amanda and read her great post on writing.  

Meet Amanda:

Hi, my name is Amanda and I am 14 years old.  I tend to be very shy, but once I get to know you, beware: I can talk your ear off!  I love to read, write, and eat peanut butter or ice-cream!  My favorite subject in school is — surprise — algebra!  I also really enjoy Health.  However, I cannot stand Science.  It leaves a sour taste in my mouth.  Yuck!  I enjoy creating graphics in Adobe Illustrator, and playing around with actions and textures in Photoshop is especially fun.  Like my mom, I love taking pictures, especially when they actually turn out good!  But one of my most favorite pastimes is writing.  There is just something that thrills me about being able to create a world of fantasy and share it with other people.  When I grow up, I am going to be a published author and a graphics designer, as well as the owner of a large Christian newsletter for young girls. :)  


Be the best writer you can be:  

Hi guys!  My name is Amanda, and I am here today to talk to you about – Yay! – writing.

Without a doubt, writing is a wonderful thing to do.  I love writing.  It is my one love.  And I am sure that my love for it will never grow dim, even when I am an old woman.

Writing, I think, can be classified as an art.  Anyone, and I mean anyone, can write because we all have thoughts and opinions.  As long as you have a computer, a pen, a pencil, paper, or even a sharp rock or piece of bark, you can write.  As long as you have a brain, words to put out there, etc. it is possible.

The kinds of books that I like writing is, by far, fiction.  But the choice is up to you.

In fiction, you can alter all laws of time, space, energy, and leftover pasta that gets eaten by a pet without a mom finding out.  Amazing!  Anything is possible.  You don’t have to follow the rules.

In nonfiction, you have to make sure that all your facts are accurate, and that everything you implore is true. Most of the time, the author doesn't share how she feels about what she is writing about.  She leaves that choice up to you.

Let’s talk about . . . Point-of-view.

Point-of-view in a story is so important!  If you write your story in the wrong perspective, then readers may not get something, or even walk away from your story without another thought.

The different points of views are as follows: 1^st, 3^rd, and omniscient point of view.  In 1^st person point of view, you use the words I, me, myself, etc.  The narrator, who is now classified as a character, is going through the story at that time.  If you want to focus on just one character, then this is the right one for you! In this perspective, feel free to use thoughts, what your character is observing in her head, in your writing. Use the word I.

Example: I ran to school, sweat dripping down my forehead. I pounded the pavement with my sneakers and untied shoelaces, an accident waiting to happen. I can’t let Stacy get to school before me, or else the whole world would be in danger.

In 3^rd person point of view, you pretend that you are hovering in a helicopter, watching every character’s move and writing it down for others to see.  Refer to the characters as he, she, it, or they.  And do not use thoughts or what they are feeling, or else you will be getting into our next concept.

Example: Clara ran to school, sweat dripping down her forehead. She pounded the pavement with her sneakers and untied shoelaces, an accident waiting to happen. She couldn't let Stacy get to school before her, or else the whole world would be in danger.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
Omniscient point of view is very interesting.  In omniscient point of view, you are still in that helicopter, recording your characters’ movements, except this time you know a lot more.  You know their thoughts and feelings of all, not one, character.

Example: Clara ran to school, sweat dripping down her forehead. She pounded the pavement with her sneakers and untied shoelaces, an accident waiting to happen. Her heart was filled with fear, anger, and sadness.

Stacy! Stacy, you were my friend. Why did things occur so wrong? She thought.

She couldn’t let Stacy get to school before her, or else the whole world would be in danger.

Let’s talk about . . . the idea.

The idea is this little spark of an idea that flickers to you, inspiring you to write a story.  Don’t ever let that spark be extinguished or go unnoticed.  Take that little spark and make a big bonfire with it.

You could be playing soccer, and all of a sudden you get the idea to write a series about a bunch of girls on a soccer team (which I actually did, by the way).

Or you could see a poster of a beautiful fairy, and you suddenly find yourself giving her a name and filling in all her biographical information.

You may be a person who has tons and tons of ideas for stories (like me), or you may be a person who has some occasionally.  Either way is fine.  If you need ideas, you can always go to a book that I got from the library called “Writing Magic.”  This book was written by Gail Carson Levine, the brains behind the awesome story “Ella Enchanted” and one of my personal favorite books “The Two Princesses of Bamarre.”  Gail talks about a writing technique in every chapter and then “assigns” you different things to write.  For example, at the end of Chapter 21 she assigns you to write just dialogue on either these two subjects:

·        A brother and sister have been left on a street corner in a part of town they don’t know.  Write down their conversation about what to do. 

·        A spaceship from earth approaches a planet that has been little explored by humans.  The ship is crewed by two space explorers.  They talk about how to make contact with the natives who are known to be intelligent.  Write down their discussion.

She gives a lot of assignments that you could use as ideas.

One other thing she suggests is rewriting a fairytale.  We all know the story of Snow White, but the way that the author wrote the original version doesn’t use good adjectives; as Gail says, they tell but don’t show.  Find a fairytale that you have always wanted a better understanding of and rewrite it.  The reason we can rewrite them is because most of the copyright laws on those old fairytales have been lifted.

Let’s talk about . . . proofreading.

Ah, the dreaded proofreading!  Yuck.  I know how it is . . . you write a story and fall in love with it and don’t ever want to proofread it. 

Not only proofread for errors, but for badly developed characters or dialogue that has nothing to do with the story or somewhere you should’ve described a bit more.  I know that proofreading hurts, and I have to say that most of my stories I write, I then never look at again.  But you have to proofread, because no matter how good of an author you are, you will always have mistakes in your story.  Gail Carson Levine says that every story has a problem, just because no one can agree.  Maybe some people will say that a character was developed poorly, or a critic will say that someone in the story said something stupid.  We have to face the fact that no book is perfect.  But, hey, we might as well try, right?

So, are you ready to get out there and start writing?  I just have one huge, major tip for you:

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever publish your story on the internet.  At least, not if you are planning on having it published.  You know why?  Because if your story ever does get published, people will be able to find it online and read it for free, so why would they ever pay for a hard copy of your book?

Consequently, writing is a great way to express yourself.  With writing, you can get what you believe in out there.  I challenge you to write, write, write!!!

Write on,

Amanda

Thanks Amanda for writing this awesome post on writing and for being this months January guest blogger! :)  View Amanda's site HERE and be sure to subscribe to her newsletter (it is awesome!!).