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.

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

A lot of the time I have people tell me that they’re too afraid to write, or they don’t think it’s good enough. I want to burst that toxic bubble and tell you that writing is a process. Your first draft will never be perfect (and if you think it is, then we have some more work to do) but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write it. The only way to be a writer, get better, or say you’ve written something is to actually write. Having ideas is a very essential step, but to call yours

How do you submit your books to be published? Valid question, and I'm here to answer it. This week, I've been submitting Emerald (and Amethyst's second edition) to Ingram Spark, so now seems like the best time to write about this. I've got screenshots, and a step-by-step, dos and don'ts. Let's start at the beginning. Finish your book. Quite obvious, but edit, write, and do the final checks. Now's basically your last chance. Format. A lot goes into formatting, and I've talked

When I say publishing, I mean I'm going to be talking about doing everything on your own, and how to do that. Because it's so hard to get traditionally published, especially as a teen, so we have to resort to indie publishing. But then we're left drowning in an endless sea of information, unable to find what we actually have to do, and what we can avoid to not have too much on our plate. I think I'm going to split this topic up into a couple of blog posts, so stay turned. Tod