Christmas present query

[rivka]

What would you get a twelve-year-old girl who wants to be a writer?

I think we gave her a blank book last year. (Not because we knew that she was an aspiring author at that point, just because we got lucky. Or maybe that's why she now wants to be an author.)

There are a lot of books about writing aimed at kids and teenagers, but I have no idea of their quality.

There's also this writing journal, which, while not for kids, was recommended on Amazon by a young woman who describes herself as a "13-year-old writer."

Any recommendations?

Comments

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Give her a copy of Strunk & White's The Elements of Style. It's short, simple enough for a kid to understand and she will use it all her life. I must be on my fifth or sixth copy, and I still pick it up regularly.

[threeringedmoon.livejournal.com]

A set of gel pens in a variety of colors? Would have rocked my boat when I was her age.

[fairoriana.livejournal.com]

Still a preferred Christmas gift as far as I'm concerned!

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

If you're willing to overlook the language (she's passionate about the importance of the Shitty First Draft), I strongly recommend Anne Lamott's Bird By Bird. I first told the Bird By Bird story from this book to a tearful third-grader who was sure she'd never finish an assignment; she still asks for it every now and again.

Bird By Bird isn't a children's book; it's a human's book about how hard and how worthwhile writing is.

[qe2.livejournal.com]

I second this one. Bird by Bird was the first writing book I ever picked up for myself, rather than being handed it for school. I still love and reread it.

(I own and reread Natalie Goldberg, too. I would have found her frustratingly opaque and grr-inducing when I was twelve. Your giftee's mileage may vary.)

[jmhm.livejournal.com]

I was going to say Bird by Bird.

Also Strunk and White, Fowler's Modern English Usage (Teresa turned me on to that) and maybe a volume of Orwell's essays containing Politics and the English Language, which is far and away the best thing I've ever read about writing, political or non-

[firecat]

I may be out of touch with 12 year olds but I think one could do worse than get her a copy of Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones, even though it's technically an adult book.

[rmjwell.livejournal.com]

Were she a bit older or her parents wouldn't freak out about it, Susie Bright's "How To Write A Dirty Story" has many good exercises for writers.

I like Pat's idea of Strunk & White. Failing that, anything by a writer you admire: good examples are never a bad idea.

[stevendj.livejournal.com]

The Poet's Handbook by Judson Jerome taught me a lot about poetry, and I just bought a copy for my 10-year-old niece. It may be too much for her, even though she's very, very smart, but she's not being challenged at school and I thought something at a higher level might spark her interest.

The best book I've read on writing fiction is Damon Knight's Creating Short Fiction. Damon's essay collection, In Search of Wonder, is also a good choice. It doesn't talk specifically about writing, but it's very entertaining and a writer needs to start thinking in terms of what works and what fails.

[scalzi.livejournal.com]

Get her a book that features what you think is really excellent writing (at that age for me that would have been something like "The Martian Chronicles" or "The Dark is Rising" series). The reason to do this is that what makes people want to write is not books on writing, it's books that are great reads. If she's a smart kid (and if a 12-year-old decides she wants to be a writer, she is almost certainly on the smart side), she'll be able to see what in the story works, and very possibly intuit *why* it works as well.

Personally speaking I'm wary of giving "how to" books on writing to young people, as they often don't have the life experience to recognize what things in those books can be ignored (or that writers of "how to" books on writing are necessarily writing from the perspective of what works for *them,* which is not the same as what works for everyone). I think it's much better to give them good books, and then talk to them about those books when the opportunity presents itself. Great writers are always first great readers.

[writingortyping.livejournal.com]

I second John's notion: good writing always makes me want to write.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Some books about kids who write, or want to be writers? I'm not sure what those might be (OK, except "Harriet The Spy," and maybe she's a little old for that?) but I bet pegkerr's daughters have an idea.

K. [I'll ask them on your behalf if you like this idea]

[ke-jia.livejournal.com]

The best book about the task of writing and becoming a writer I've ever read (out of about five books I've read that are devoted to the subject) is Stephen King's On Writing.

I'm also partial to a book of essays and short stories written by Gene Wolfe, Castle of Days. The essays generally either describe the process of writing science fiction, or the process of writing his best known novel Book of the New Sun. It may not be the most appropriate book in the world to the task, but I never pass up an opportunity to plug Gene Wolfe. He's gold.

[pameladean]

Let's try that again without all the bad italics.

I'd recommend:

Eleanor Cameron's A ROOM MADE OF WINDOWS;
Dorothea Brande's BECOMING A WRITER;
and Edward Gorey's THE UNSTRUNG HARP.

The first is a YA novel that takes young writers seriously, the second is a quirky writing book that examines the character traits that make writing harder; and the third, well, it's Gorey, but it's a scarily accurate depiction of the moods one may go through in writing a novel.

P.

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

I would agree with all of these choices, particularly A Room Made of Windows -- gods, I love that book.

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

Have you considered a decent writing instrument? I always loved fountain pens when I could write. Or a set of fountain pens with different colored inks.

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

Seconding the fountain pen suggestion.

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

YES!

As much as I adore Sheaffer pens, many people seem to find Waterman a better brand to start with. The Phileas and Hemisphere are really nice, smooth-writing pens. If she likes colorful pens, though, Sheaffer makes the Agio and the Prelude in a rainbow metalic, which is surprisingly ungaudy. (The Agio is a slimmer, lighter pen, which she might like better; one never knows.)

[dafna]

As someone who used to be a 12-year-old wanting to be a writer who grew up to be a writer (well, close enough, anyway), I third the suggestion of Strunk and White. I read it when I was about her age and loved it. Plus, there's every likelihood that someone will make her read it later on, which as we all know, is usually the kiss of death and Strunk and White deserves better.

In general, I'd shy away from how-to guides specifically for kids -- I think 12 is old enough to crave "real" books -- particularly if she's not from a household likely to already have good reference works around. I also like the Anne Lamont "bird by bird" book -- funnily enough, was just looking at this morning in a bookstore.

Another possibility might be a collection of Jane Austen's letters or someone similar who talks about writing. (Virginia Woolf, though it depends on her family, maybe.)

All this presumes, of course, that she really really does want to be a writer. If you suspect this is more like "I want to be a ballerina" then a nice pen is a good way to go.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

How to write books make some people (me) paralysed and unable to write, and if someone had given me them for Christmas when I was 12 and wanted to be a writer, I'd have seen it as horribly patronizing of them, especially if it was prescriptive stuff. Let her buy The Elements of Style herself if she wants it -- goodness knows I never have.

And what you write when you're 12 is going to be crap anyway, and trying to write crap to someone's prescriptive style isn't going to help you get onto the good stuff any sooner. What a 12 year old who wants to be a writer needs isn't a pen (a pen? in 2004?) or a how-to book, she needs to be setting down the wide layers of reading.

My suggestions would be books written by people who used to be twelve year olds who wanted to be writers and fulfilled their ambitions. That's not just me, but actually most writers. How about Pamela Dean's Secret Country books? Or Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel. Or maybe a really good biography of a writer, like Claire Tomalin's Jane Austen biography, or Margaret Forster's Daphne Du Maurier one.

Or how about a book token -- urm, do you have book tokens in the US? Or a specific token for a big box bookstore near her, or for Amazon -- though Amazon won't accept tokens unless you give them a credit card number as well, so less useful.

Ah, booktokens, how much joy they gave me, how wonderful I thought them because they represented not just a potential book but a trip to a really big bookshop and money to spend in it on the things I really wanted to buy. (Lears in Cardiff, the Mecca of my childhood bookshopping, closed down entirely the week I emigrated.)

I second this!

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

She definitely needs to read and read and read. Gift cards are good (our equivalent to book tokens). The blank book suggestion is good, but not pretty ones--the bound exercise books are nice, but get little enough ones to fit in a backpack, and make them small the ones with hard covers. Give her a huge pack of eraseable pens, too.

I'd like to recommedn a book as well, Dodie Smith's I Capture The Castle, which is old, but really captures the mindset well of a young woman who wants to be a writer.

Re: I second this!

[uilos.livejournal.com]

I Capture the Castle is a great book. It's one of my comfort books and entirely appropriate for this situation.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

Funky pens. I'd hold off on the fountain pens--good ones cost too much, and crappy ones are no fun at all.

Give her books you like. Current (well, OK, lifetime) faves of mine are E. Nesbit and Edward Eager; if she's into the long stuff, give her _The Phoenix Guards_.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Possibly _The Courage to Write_ by Ralph Keyes--it's about fear as a normal and sometimes rational part of writing and how writers keep writing anyway.

[castiron.livejournal.com]

If she doesn't already receive it, and if it's still at least half as good as it was when I was a kid, a subscription to Cricket magazine. Lots of good stories.

[ailbhe]

I would have hated books on writing, but loved blank books and / or pens, or good literature. If it was me, I'd give her something that was a bloody good read. I Capture the Castle is good, but perhaps a book *about* a writer might be a bit... pressurising. It depends on your teenager. Adolescent. Whatever that age is called. I would have loved that journal.

The longer I stay awake, the less likely tomorrow is to come.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

*hug* I'll be thinking of you. Best of luck.

Books

[dragon3.livejournal.com]

Get her books, books with great stories she will love, books that she will be inspired by, written by authors she will identify with, even if they aren't authors you would identify with.

Besides being fun in themselves, they will show her that writing is an option and she'll write when she wants to.