3 Tips for Teen and Child Authors, How to Write an Entire Novel

If you are an aspiring author under the age of eighteen, I’ve written some tips I’ve learned from my experiences writing when I was younger, and my current experience of actually being on the cusp of finishing a book. I hope these tips will help you succeed where I didn’t, and finish a book by 18.

1) Outline the book before you write it. This is not a fun step, but for me it’s the difference between actually writing an entire book and writing a couple chapters and losing interest. Figure out what’s going to happen before you start writing. Then once you’re writing, you don’t have to stick strictly to the outline, but at least you’ll have some idea of where you’re going. Here’s how you do it: On several sheets of paper, write the numbers for your chapters, leaving several lines between them. A good standard number of chapters is 20.

Then write a few words next to each number about what happens in that chapter. You can sort of make this up at random. There are really no unique plots, just unique ways of using the same old plots. For instance, it could go something like this: 1) A scene from the regular life of the main character. 2) Something weird happens. 3) The character meets someone new. 4) The character goes on a trip, etc. Keep in mind that the conflict of the story needs to be rising until near the end when the climax happens, and then in the last part of the book there’s the resolution (the ending) of the story. At this point you might just write climax by number 18 and resolution on 19 and 20.

Next put in more detail. This is when the story becomes unique and your own. So your character goes on a trip in chapter 4? Why? Where to? How? etc. You may feel a need to reorder your chapters at this point. Maybe it’d be better if the character was already on the trip in chapter 2 when something weird happens. Maybe the character doesn’t go on the trip at all. That’s fine. Do whatever works with your story.

Don’t get discouraged if it takes you a long time to come up with your story. In my experience it takes a lot longer and is a lot less fun than it should be. It took me a month to plot out my novel, and I still didn’t know everything that was going to happen. Let me offer a small tip that may make this easier on you. If you’re anything like I was, and have a lot of boring minutes to kill each day at school after you finish your assignments, then you can do this at school. Making an outline doesn’t require a computer, whereas, at least for me, writing the novel does.

2) Drafts. I hated rough drafts and all that when I was taught writing in school. Why write out a entire draft, when you can just change things as you go on the computer? This is probably an ok question with short stories, but not with novels. I attempted many novels, trying to make the writing perfect as I went, and I never got anywhere. I found that it worked much better to write an entire, bad, messy draft as quickly as I could. Why? Well, it’s probably just a mental thing. If I’ve been writing a long time and all I’ve managed is one really good chapter, what’s to keep me from giving up? I have 19 whole chapters still to go. Whereas, if I’ve been writing a long time and I’ve finished an entire draft, I have something to show for my effort. Surely I can keep going and make the draft better.

Keep in mind, it’s going to take you a lot more than two drafts to get your book just right. In fact it’s going to take you a lot more drafts then you think should be necessary. When you finish writing a draft that you think is pretty good and may be the finished product, set it aside. Don’t read it for a few weeks or a month, then read it again and see if you really think it’s good enough.

3) Talk to People about Your Novel. There are two reasons you should talk to people about your book. The first is that it will help keep you motivated. The second is that you need honest (but kind), trustworthy people to give you feedback. If other people read your novel they’ll be able to tell you that a paragraph which makes perfect sense to you doesn’t make any sense to anyone else, or that something happens too suddenly, or a scene drags too long, etc. You don’t have to (and probably shouldn’t) agree with everything they say about your book but it’s important to hear a different perspective. Here are a few suggestions of people you might talk to or ask for feedback: your parents and other family members, a teacher you respect, your friends. Hopefully, all these people will be kind and trustworthy, but they may also be biased. You might also consider joining a writing group. Don’t get discouraged if people criticize your book. It’s impossible to write a book that everyone will like.