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

[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.