Sage Flinn asked Shannon Messenger:

Miss Messenger, Hello my name is Naomi Brazil (S. L. Flinn is my pen name) and I am "writing" (I'm ATTEMPTING to write) a book. Because of my age and inexperience I doubt t will be published, but I am hoping it will be. I was hoping that if you had time you could tell me about the whole writing process; How it works, what is expected from an author, and if my age (I'm only thirteen) would be a problem? Thank you!

Shannon Messenger Hi Naomi! Yay for being a writer! But wow is that a question with a long answer. Honestly, there's no way I could ever cover the whole writing and publishing process here--so first I'll say: make google your friend. There is SO MUCH INFORMATION about writing and publishing on the internet between agent blogs and editor blogs and author blogs. That's honestly how I learned 75% of what I know. The other 25% came from just trying and doing.

I will say though that it's important to not expect perfection from yourself in the beginning. Some people do publish their first book. But most don't. (And the few that do generally re-wrote that first book a LOT). That's the thing most people forget when it comes to writing: it takes practice. And even if the first stuff you write is "good" you will still get "better" the more you write. So write as much as you can. And revise revise revise.

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