creative high school electives

[Phyllis in Canada]

Ds would like to use the novel he's writing to count as a creative writing elective. He has already spent several years of his free time working on it, and is now rewriting the whole thing as he wasn't satisfied with the quality of his earlier writing. Any suggestions for turning all that work (and future work) a course I could put on his high school transcript? I'd call it something like Creative Writing: Novel or Creative Writing: Fantasy. But I feel like I need to put something else in to make it a little more academic, to make sure he's covered a certain amount of "required" material. I just don't know what specific topics should be covered in a "class" of this sort. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

[Veronica in VA]

I think if he wrote a whole novel that is pretty academic! I know the local high school has a creative writing course and the kids write short stories and poetry and then try to publish their work. I think writing a novel and then going through the editing and publishing part would count as a full course. Maybe have him work through some sort of book like Strunk and White's The Elements of Style as he edits his novel. Kudos to him!

 

Veronica

[danielle]

What about having him read a short syllabus of good books on writing fiction? That way it shows some context for the work (and might give him some more ideas on improving the work). I'd call it "Creative Writing". That's an entirely respectable elective for high school, as long as some thoughtful work was done and a "course description" and sample can be shown if required. Here's some "respectable" ones I've got on my own shelf--I'd choose maybe 3 or 4:

 

On Becoming a Novelist (John Gardner)

The Art of Fiction (also Gardner)

Making Shapely Fiction (Jerome Stern)

Zen in the Art of Writing (Ray Bradbury--haven't yet read this one, but it came highly recommended)

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers (Browne & King)

The Weekend Novelist (Robert Ray)

First Draft in 30 Days (Karen S. Wiesner--lots of typos in the book but good info)

Making a Literary Life (Carolyn See)

Any of the books in the Writers Digest "Elements of Fiction Writing" series--I have Beginnings, Middles & Ends by Nancy Kress

Any books by Peter Elbow

and two more I've only browsed that look worthwhile:

Reading Like a Writer (Francine Prose--yes that's her name!)

Living by Fiction (Annie Dillard)

 

 

and if he dreams of making a living at writing (mostly non-fiction and business writing, but it does pay the bills while working on novels)

Books by Peter Bowerman (Well Fed Writer series)

Books by Robert Bly (Secrets of a Freelance Writer, etc.)

 

Danielle

[Moira in MA]

Have you seen "Learn to write the novel way" by Carole Thaxton, of Konos?

 

This is a Lang arts course with the intended output being a completed novel.

 

HTH

~Moira

[CJinVA]

I'd have him learn to write a query and synopsis, both of which writers hate but are integral to being a creative writer. Then he could submit his query (and possibly partial) to either a literary agent or publisher. That will require a fair amount of research into the market such as what publishers purchase what types of books and their requirements for submissions. Some publishers will take submissions from unpublished writers and some require an agent. And agents tend to specialized, so he'd have to find out what agents might be interesting in his type of book. (And take a tip from me. Submitting also frequently teaches humility <sigh>.)

 

If he could find a professional organization to join, that might be another idea to flesh out the course. Some of them offer membership to unpublished writers (and some do not, so he'd have to see what was available to him). A lot of them have email loops, and they sometimes host workshops or conferences. Or he might find a local writers group or a critique partner/group.

[Phyllis in Canada]

I've thought of the whole submitting process, but it's such a huge new realm for me! There's SO much info on the web--where does a teenager begin? Could you suggest a website or book for solid information on the whole process?

 

By the way, he's been part of an online writing group with other teenagers for several years now, getting lots of helpful feedback from them too. Hmmm, maybe they'll have publishing suggestions for him...

[Phyllis in Canada]

Great ideas! I've put a number of those books on hold at the library, and I'll definitely let him choose at least one to read.

[Lori D.]

How about having a mentor/friend edit it, and then have him explore and go for self publishing on Lulu as part of the credit for writing it? A 15yo boy in our homeschool group just self published his fantasy novel on Lulu, 2 years after writing it! : )

[danielle]

The classic title for how to pitch a book is How to Write A Book Proposal by super-agent Michael Larsen. Another "classic" is Be Your Own Literary Agent by Martin Levin. I know your son's into fiction writing, but a good one I have is Nonfiction book Proposals Anybody Can Write by Elizabeth Lyon. She also wrote a book called The Sell Your Novel Tool Kit, but I haven't seen it. Both writers magazines have lots of articles on this, and many of the articles can be read on their websites: Writers Digest & The Writer Magazine.

 

If you think your son might be at all interested in writing non fiction (where you can even consider self-publishing as a viable alternative), try a book called ****! Why Didn't I Write That by Marc McCutcheon. Very inspiring. For some brutal truth (maybe not yet so as not to be discouraging) there's a little book called Some Writers Deserve To Starve by Elaura Niles which gives a pretty good view of the (brutal) book publishing industry.

 

It is much more difficult to sell a fiction book than a non-fiction (maybe 5:1 in favor of non-fiction--look around any bookstore), but a fiction genre (sci-fi, romance, mystery) is easier to sell than a "serious" literature book. If he is into sci-fi, he might enjoy reading Isaac Asimov's book How to Enjoy Writing, altho it's a little disorganized. Stephen King wrote a pretty good one called On Writing, which he might look at.

 

I know I've probably overwhelmed you with books, but then, most writers read a lot! Contrary to popular belief, it IS possible to make a good living writing, but you need to be at least as creative with business promotion as you are with the artistic end.

 

If you want to make it a class, I don't think that just yet I would push the book proposal idea as it can be very frustrating and require a steel spine and rock solid self confidence. For example, I've published dozens of articles, but I could literally paper my house with the number of rejection slips I've received (often for the same articles that are bought by another editor). Sometimes you will labor on an article forever or book proposal and it will be rejected everywhere (even after the editor has expressed interest) and the next time you'll toss off a 2 minute idea and it will be snapped up. I'm speaking of non-fiction, mostly. Also, once you manage to sell a book, it can take two years to get it actually into a bookstore, where it has about an 8 month shelf life.

 

All discouraging, but it's also important to remember than thousands of books do get published every year, so it's not impossible. It takes smarts, ability, and some little push from luck.

Danielle

[CJinVA]

A good way to research publishers would be for him to look at his favorite books. Who published them? Which ones are similar in tone/length/feel to his? Those would be good publishers to look up. They all have website now, and most of them have some information about whether or not they take submissions from authors or if they only take submissions from literary agents. For instance, if he discovered a number of his favorites were published by Tor, he might research the company and see if they will take submissions from authors. (They do, BTW, and they even have some great info on their page about how to prepare a submission. Takes a bit of searching to find it on their site, though.) The worst a publisher will do is send a rejection. And even that is polite (since for all they know, he may become the next Stephen King someday, and they don't want him harboring bad feelings about them if that happens).

 

For the agent route: Jeff Herman puts out an annual guide to literary agents. Your library probably has a copy. Writers organizations will often publish lists of recommended agents for their members. Preditors and Editors is a good website to check for recommendations or reported problems from other writers. And sometimes you can find an agent listed in a book's dedication or acknowledgment, or on a list of award winners. And always check to see if an agent is a member of the Association of Authors' Representatives (a professional society for literary agency). (Just beware of "book doctors" who want you to spend $$$ for them to "help" you polish your book. A lot of them are scams. And really, the idea isn't to spend money but just to give him a feel for the whole process -- which includes putting stuff out there to be read (and perhaps commented on) by knowledgeable strangers.)

 

I'd probably recommend doing the publisher submission -- just because it takes less work to weed out the bad apples. After all, if you see a publisher's books in your home, at the store, or in the library, you know they are successfully selling books. If a company claim to publish books, but you don't see their books available anywhere but on a website, they probably aren't selling many books.