How to Write a Book for Your Preteen

If you are thinking about write a book for your preteen, close your door on the world, guzzle some coffee, and snap to it. You could be the next Holly Black!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Write a Book? It's a Snap!

1. Decide whether or not you are a writer. It's simple, really. Writers write. If they can't write on anything else, they'll write on paper napkins, tablecloths or even toilet paper rolls.
2. Get to know the market. Talk to some teens. If you have a captive audience of teens, say a classroom of middle schoolers, or a high school age group of Promise Keepers, pick their brains. Ask them what they think about, talk about, wonder.
3. Read lots of young adult literature. You don't have to read the entire book, just a few sentences from each chapter
4. Sit down with pen and paper and make a list of things you remember about being a teen. Think about conflicts you experienced. Ask yourself what you did not know then that you know now that might have helped the situation.
5. Eavesdrop if you can't get them to talk. Read a bunch of blogs by teens. They are easy to find: MySpace, Xanga, Facebook, Model Mayhem, and any MMORPG forums. Note what phrases kids use, the topics they discuss with one another, how they spell words, how they give words new meanings. Note the books they say they are reading, the music they are listening to, the clothes they are wearing or talking about buying.
6. Sit down with your home grown teens (i.e., daughters, sons, nieces, nephews) and ask them what they would like to see in a book. Ask what they are reading. Get a copy and read it yourself. Determine the themes in their favorite books, the conflicts the characters face and what growth they experience. Add all this to your novel.

Tips & Warnings

• Once you write your book, have several teens pre-read it. Take their advice on phrasing, topics, slang, dress and issues.
• Listen to music that is popular with teens while you write.
• Do not photograph any teens or children without a parent or guardian present to give permission.
• Do not approach teens in any venue unless you have already spoken to their parents.
• Do not use real names of any teen or descriptions of teens that are so accurate that it is obvious who the description refers to.