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Welcome, welcome, welcome! In case you missed the memo, I'm pivoting from a weekly blog to book reviews! (RIP TeenageTells, at least for now). What are we reviewing? A lot. Dive in, and find out whether the Assistant to the Villain series should be your next read. I'm not reviewing the other books now, not in-depth (but you can check my Goodreads here for the /5 star ratings). Title Adversary to the Villain Author Hannah Nicole Maehrer Series Adversary is the fourth book in t

Welcome, welcome, welcome! In case you missed the memo, I'm pivoting from a weekly blog to book reviews! (RIP TeenageTells, at least for now). What are we reviewing? A lot. Dive in, and find out whether Shatter Me should be your next read. Title Shatter Me Author Tahereh Mafi Series This is the first book in the series. It was originally a trilogy, and has expanded to like 9 books. But some of them have 2 novellas, etc. Age Rating 14+ Content Warnings Suicidal thoughts, depre

Welcome, welcome, welcome! You may have noticed TeenageTells has... crumbled. I might come back to it one day, but it's not in the cards right now. It was too much energy. So, I'm pivoting to bookish reviews, whatever I have read recently. But it can't be that simple (no, no). I have a system planned out. I saw someone on Goodreads split ratings into five different parts, to form the full rating. I want to make it a bit more... complicated. 20 ESSENTIAL parts of any book, to

Submissions to the creative collaboration are now closed! Thank you to everyone who submitted, and I'll be in contact soon :) And some other news: the book will also be available as an ebook, and to find on my website. Very excited to get that up and running, hopefully in the next few weeks, so it'll be ready for pre-order. Remember! All profits go to my school library, so all the support you can give would be amazing. This week and next will be all about wrapping loose ends

Super quick post this week, because I’m super duper busy and I definitely didn’t spend the last two days basically just reading! Definitely. This is just a reminder that the creative collaboration closes THIS SATURDAY! 4th July. Remember to submit. It doesn’t have to be long. It doesn’t have to be a master piece. Just make it YOU. Good luck to everyone! I’m excited to read your work! (I’ll write a good post for next week I promise!!!!!!)

Short stories are an art which is hard to master. This week, Nadia tries to break it down, to help anyone entering the Teen. Create. Connect. competition within the next few weeks. Buckle up for 10 terrific tips.

I'm writing a new passion project, when I was meant to be taking a short break from writing. Lovely. But here is the start of Rebel Land (temporary title). If you're not here for some fun, some rule-breaking or some chaos, then don't read this. Otherwise, enjoy. In a world of superficial beliefs and societal norms, we need to find a way to break free; become true rulers of our own lives. There is not only one way to achieve this. My way is to write a story with 0 acts, becau

This is the part of writing which isn't really writing, but stops a lot of people from starting. Why? Because they're worried about what they'll tell others. That they won't be able to promote their book. Maybe you feel this too. Even if you're not a writer. I know I did. Speaking to even one person about my books used to be hard, right at the beginning. The best way I can compare talking about your creative work is ripping your soul out and feeling like it has been served on

What happens after you publish your book? The one thing that should not happen is that you just let it sit. You've done promotion before the launch, but now's the time to turn it up. Talk about your book whenever you can, and wherever you can. Find every opportunity and go for it. Don't think it's too ambitious, or that you won't get chosen. If you don't go for it, you have a 0% chance of success. Applying already increases that. I'm personally planning to talk to some year g

May 29th is Friday and fast approaching. Here’s an overview: Max and Amethyst are back in the thrilling sequel of Amethyst- Time And Time Again. Now, they have to venture to Ancient Egypt to find The Chosen One: Emerald. But she isn't who they expect. Firstly, she's completely indecisive. Secondly, she's not cut out to be a Queen. And thirdly, and most importantly, everyone wants her, for one reason or another. Dive into a world of magic, history and drama. If you dare. I’m n

Every book is different. Especially if you’re writing as a teenager. I wrote my first book at 13, and my second one at 15, and the experiences were very different. With one, I had no clue what I was doing, and with the second I had some clue. Why was Emerald different? It wasn’t my first rodeo. I already had an idea with where I was going with the series and what I wanted my future in general to look like. And the process was…. well, great to compare and contrast, to be hones

Teen. Create. Connect. Is the writing and art collaboration I am launching, starting today! (4th of May) I've always found it so annoying how writing competitons either have $20 entry fees, are for specific countries or useless prizes like 20% off a course you don't even want. That it takes forever to find out whether your work was chosen, or you never get told anything. Instead of waiting around for the perfect thing to come about, or waiting until I'm an adult to do it, I'v

You may have noticed there no TeenageTells in the title. If you're a writer, it doesn't mean you just have to write and read. You can explore other faucets of your creativity, and learn to use it beautifully. I love the world of Fourth Wing. It's lots of fantasy, but not too complicated, and the characters are so lovable. So, in my (definitely not an) obsession, I designed and made a Fourth Wing version of Monopoly, using online fanart and my own (limited) digital design and

Last Thursday, the results came in. I was highly commended for BOTH my short story and my poem, called A Little Birdie Told Me and Lives Bigger Than Ours respectively. The theme was trees, and I’m so happy about both that got chosen! In ‘celebration’ I’ll be talking about how I wrote both of these (briefly). My Poem: Lives Bigger Than Ours came purely from the prompt of trees and I played with that idea. What comes in treees? A generational tree. A poem for me usually only ta

Here is an essay I wrote on the key driving forces of a narrative, which was chosen as one of the best in the competition, and I think you might find insightful. T here are two general methods a writer can choose to lead a narrative, with most novels, plays and short stories following both. Firstly, you have external conflict, where a reader is introduced to a setting and/or sequence of events that will occur to a character, whether it is a bank heist, or overthrowing of a le