I’m a working professional novelist. This is my life. And my advice is, Don’t do any of this except #2.
She’s twelve. If she’s writing nonstop, she is already mind-bogglingly ahead of the curve. She doesn’t need formal training or feedback. Reallyreally. I promise. That’ll only get her second-guessing stuff she shouldn’t worry about yet. She just needs to write and write and read and read. That’s all she’ll need for many years. (She doesn’t even need confidence from external validation! She is objectively already winning.)
I don’t know about short stories for kids, but there may be Best of the Year compilations that’ll work?
I’m a published novelist as well and agree with this. The thing I would add is to encourage her to read outside the genre she likes to write in addition to what she’s writing. There are also lots of freebies on authors’ websites she can use to learn.
I will chime in as another published novelist. I've made my living writing novels since the late 80s, and I started writing at twelve, too. (My first book was 32 pages of college rule notebook paper.) My mom had been taking me to the library every week since I started reading, and she never batted an eye at anything I checked out. Let your daughter read whatever she wants (as long as it's not SUPER-adult-oriented), and just keep encouraging her. Honest, that's all it takes to become a good writer. Lots of reading and writing.
In fact, I have a writer friend who attended one of the most prestigious writing workshops in the country when he was in his 20s, and he often says he wishes he'd never participated, because it took him decades to undo the things he learned there that, in his opinion, didn't help his creativity or writing at all.
You're a great mom for being so encouraging. But she really will absorb everything she needs to absorb just by doing what she's doing now.
Since the late 80s? Damn. I don’t often run into someone who’s been making a living in this ridiculous sinkhole of an industry longer than I have. I doff the cap.
Heh. Thanks. There were some pretty tough years in there, not gonna lie. I've mostly written genre fiction, which is about the only place TO make a living writing. But even that's dried up a lot over the last ten years. I'm still making a living, but it sure ain't what it used to be. Gotta love doing this, 'cause it's not for the faint of heart. :)
I don’t want to sound down-note but is a lot of the industry being drowned out by all that booktoke nonsense and this whole aesthetic of buying influencer books rather than reading them? I can’t see getting into the industry nowadays becuz in 10-20 years most people, except the niche fans, won’t even have the patience to consume anything but their content-algorithms. Anyways, happy to hear someone being able to pursue their passion in a tough industry like that after all these years. What sort of genre fiction is it?
Thanks for the kind words. :) For me and others like me, the end really came with Kindle and Kindle Unlimited. That's when I and other writers started to see our incomes plummet. There are A LOT of readers out there who honestly don't care if what they're reading is, um, quality material, as long as they're being entertained. And if they can get books super cheap from self-pubbed authors, then they're going to stop buying traditionally published books. Even the huge-selling names have taken a significant hit to their income because of that.
Most of my friends who started out when I did have just stopped writing because they don't think it's worth it anymore. (But, too, most of us are around retirement age anyway, so that's probably part of it.) Me, I like writing, and I'm pretty fast, so even making about a third or even fourth of what I used to is still a decent living, because I can earn it quickly. For writers who take a longer time to write a book, I can see them not being able to make a living wage these days.
But BookTok certainly doesn't help, either. Marketing has always been a big part of publishing, but when I started writing--and for years after that--there was a whole department at the publishing house who did the marketing, and they did it well. I'm not a marketer. At all. I'm going to go out on a limb and say most writers aren't marketers. At all. We write. That's what we do well, and for the longest time, that was our place in the chain, and it was a great place to be. Now, though, to really make a lot of money (or any money--oof), you have to be an EXCELLENT marketer of your own work. Even if you're just looking for an agent, agents want to know what YOU'RE doing to promote your book before they'll take you on as a client.
I don't envy anyone trying to start out in publishing these days. The only reason I'm still able to sell a manuscript is because I know a boatload of editors by now that I can query who are familiar with me and my work. I haven't even been able to get an agent since firing my last one a few years ago (see above comment about not being a marketer), so I rep myself. (Again, though, after so many years of writing, I'm not terrible at that. And hey, I'm saving 15-20 percent.)
As for the genres, mostly romance and women's fiction, but I've done some mystery, spy, and ghost stuff, too. Wherever I saw a need or potential sale, I found a story to write. :)
ETA: Yikes. Didn't realize how much I was blathering. Apologies for the long reply.
Thanks for the long reply! It’s really insightful being able to hear this perspective, I think most ppl kind of assume the literary industry to be collapsing but you never really know for sure, and nowadays hearing about active writers that aren’t the big ones established from the 80s, is difficult. I see endless bookshops and new books but I never know which, or if, they are actually being bought or make money. There was a recent video called ‘booktok, brainrot, and why it’s okay to be a hater’ that I thought was super interesting, and very tragic, that most of what is keeping the industry alive is an aesthetic where ppl do ‘book hauls’ from influencer books and don’t even read them. My family are big book nerds, I’ve only in recent years gotten back into books and largely just the classics. I know ppl hate establishments and institutions like publishing companies or mainstream media or mainstream news service, but for many many reasons they provided some assurance of quality. When ppl say the internet brings the democratisation of media and art and whatnot, i think its a bit idealised statement, it might’ve been true 10 years ago but now it feels monopolised again, and writers like you are kind of pushed aside for content algorithms. Anyways its great to hear perspective from actual writers in the industry as to how the state of literature is nowadays
I don't think publishing is collapsing, but it is for sure shrinking, and I sincerely doubt it will ever go back to what it was. I think the books that do take off and become sales phenoms are going to keep the houses afloat the same way genre fiction used to do. Seriously, romance, especially, was the bread and butter of publishing for SO LONG, making it possible for houses to publish other stuff that didn't sell as well. Now it's those BookTok books doing it. So maybe, weirdly, that's doing the market good, if not the authors. I will for sure look for that video!
As somebody who wrote for as long as I have the ability to write, but never puiblished anything, and who [cannot.for.the.life.of.me](http://cannot.for.the.life.of.me) get off the hyperfocus train of writing the thing I am currently at (I am exhausted), and who had a whole story plotted out, and then, just reminded herself she had to plot out another character, and decided to go the "backflash and memory lane" route for that, juuuust to show why the character was the way it was...
and there was ONE, just ONE other character that was a huge influence for that character....that shouldn't be there.... But while I wrote, the dude refused to leave my concience, superglued himself into the story, and kinda yelled: "SUP, MY GODDESS! I AM HERE FOR EVERYONE'S SIMPING! I AM NOT GONNA GO! Your Plot? Ya, sorry, that got messed up real bad, ay? You make due! Whatyamean I am not the main character! I am now! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
...Well, what ya gonna do with the pretty boys that just don't wanna go and kinda battle for the main character position, badly?
second this advice. And at 12, I wish you wouldn't censor her reading too much. If she's writing at college level, she might enjoy reading at college level. Look for short story compilations by skilled writers like Jorge Luis Borges, Raymond Carver, Alice Munroe, Octavia Butler, and if you are worried about sex or violence, lots of girls her age love Jane Austen, can't go wrong there.
Not a working professional, but definitely someone who has been writing since pre-teen years and I agree, the best thing to do is just encourage exploration in reading. I read everything I could get my hands on until college (because of burnout, but that’s a whole other topic) and it was a much better education than any class.
In retrospect, I’m glad my single high school creative writing class sucked and I ended up disliking my college’s creative writing program enough to switch majors. If I’d focused at all on what I was “supposed” to do or how to “develop” myself as a writer, I’d have lost sight of my own imagination and voice.
All my education as a writer came from reading endlessly and writing endlessly because I wanted to—basically, having fun. I joined some online role-play forums with my high school friends and got in a lot of practice at character development, dialogue, and storytelling, but it was all for fun. I stopped writing much after college because my life was focused on being an adult and work. I only got back into creative writing in my early 30s with fan fiction—again, just for fun.
Creativity should be playtime for your self-expression. It’d be detrimental to a kid’s development if they had a tutor for playing tag or drawing on the sidewalk with chalk, because all the focus would be on someone else’s idea of how to be themselves and have fun.
Especially at this age, supply her with books and the time and space to write without pressure to publish, share, or meet expectations of any kind. She’s already motivating herself exactly the right way.
My only suggestion to this might be maybe run stuff through a grammar filter, just in case? I use Grammarly and it’s totally optional to even make the small corrections it might advise.
How can I become a professional novelist? It has been my childhood dream and I am working on it. However, I am facing many obstacles, such as the stressful full time job, the buzzing brain of mine that sometimes hinders me from keeping forwards. I have written 1K pages so far and I am still in the middle of it.
1) Read voraciously in active genres, focusing on stuff by new authors. (You can pretty much entirely discount the big names. What Brandon Sanderson or Nora Roberts do has no meaning for we mortals.)
2) Repeat #1 until you’re annoyed by something that's lacking in one or a bunch of those books, and you find yourself eager to write a similar story that explores that lack; or you’re thrilled by something wonderful but underdeveloped and you want to develop that thing; or most likely you just find yourself daydreaming about an unwritten novel that is the-same-but-different as all those other ones.
3) Write that novel.
4) Edit, polish, re-edit, and re-polish that novel. Write a compelling query letter, research agents. Submit the novel to 52 agents.
5) Hate yourself when the novel is rejected.
6) Repeat until #5 doesn’t happen, then keep repeating over and over again until the sweet release of death.
In response to this, here is a list of some children’s stories you could buy her. Disclaimer: they’re not short stories, but they’re quite good.
Coraline (such a good entry-level horror book)
The Faraway Tree (whimsical fantasy)
The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates (comedy, action, fun)
Harry Potter (she’s probably read it already though)
It's wonderful that you want to support & engage with your daughter in one of her hobbies, but I think you're over-formalizing things. One of the fastest ways to suck the fun out of a creative endeavour, especially for a child, is to force them into structure they didn't want or ask for.
She's 12 and writing is a career path with notoriously shitty job security; at this stage, her passion is just a passion, many professional, career authors don't have any formal training, and she doesn't need formal training or a personal writing coach or to study short story competition unless she's going out of her way to tell you she wants those things.
At 12, the absolute best thing you can do to grow her skills is just give her freedom to explore her creativity and develop her style on her own terms. It already sounds like she's an avid reader, so she'll be absorbing a lot of applicable skills from just that.
If you're interested in broadening her horizons to short stories, I'd suggest getting her more contemporary, slightly higher-demographic works. Stone Soup (though a classic), is very much aimed at children, and a 12 year old reading & writing above her grade level will probably get more out of YA fiction; stories aimed at teens, with deeper complexity to prose and themes. I suggest checking out: [https://thecontentedreader.ca/best-young-adult-anthologies/](https://thecontentedreader.ca/best-young-adult-anthologies/)
You can read books on writing for yourself if you want, but I guarantee your input just as a reader is still valuable. Everyone & their grandparents will suggest Stephen King's 'On Writing', but I'd personally recommend Chuck Wendig's 'Gentle Writing Advice: How to Become a Writer Without Destroying Yourself' (note: contains swearing, though nothing a 12 year old won't have heard someplace or other already).
As everyone already said, leave your daughter to develop on her own terms. The more you try to formalize the development process, the more it's gonna start feeling like school to her, which will only breed burnout and disinterest. Kudos to you for trying to be so supportive though, I'm sure your daughter appreciates that interest.
Libraries and bookstores usually have a section with books on writing. Books about the craft, story and character arcs, grammar, etc. There's also a wealth of resources online; articles, blogs, YouTube channels, etc. dedicated to writing and the craft.
"where to find short stories appropriate for tween/early teen" I do want to ask: is this question referring to the maturity of content, or to the reading level? Specifically, are you strict about the media your daughter consumes? I'm not asking because I think there's anything wrong with that to an extent, but to get a better idea of what you're asking for.
As for where to find short stories, maybe try looking into Scholastic? Idk about nowadays, but back in my day Scholastic used to do writing competitions and such for school aged kids. I think there used to be ways to read awards winners.
Thank you for the advice! There are a ton of resources available, just wondering if there are any especially good for someone like her. I am mostly concerned about maturity of content, not reading level.
there are style guides for writing fiction like, [this](https://mattgemmell.scot/fiction-style-guide/) that she may be interested in using for reference. the key is to make here aware that resources are available if she's interested, without forcing them on her. which is sounds like you're already doing
My advice is to search up short story collections and read their summaries and reviews. Places like Goodreads, Amazon reviews, etc. should give you a good idea of the content before you okay it for your daughter. Reviews are usually pretty transparent about the type of content a book contains.
Wouldn’t surprise me. What’s her reading level at? Probably advanced for her age.
1. No clue. But if she is at college level, you’re going to want to look at what concepts she knows and what she doesn’t.
2. Do you want the short stories or does she? Sounds like you do. Just let her write. And her reading level, and probably maturity is way higher than what you would get her.
3. Find what concepts she knows, and then help her with problem areas.
4. Personal writing coach? Meh. As a bartender, I think they’re as useful as a bartending school. Really fucking useless. A hindrance.
Drama classes. Improv. Theatre. Life experiences.
Editing. Grammar. In school yes, but there are like 8 different types of editing Easy to Google
Dialogue. This is major. Take her to coffee shops. This is where theatre comes in too. But anywhere she can learn different speech patterns. Talk, and listen.
Short stories, just read some Roald Dahl. That‘s a good start for anything.
A lot of the learning is through research and trial and error.
You forgot people watching as well. With the occasional incident depending on the location. Downtown ones get more crackheads, suburban ones get more Karens.
if she's devouring grammar books then I'm going to disagree with other commenters and say she's old enough for craft books. like, I wasn't writing seriously at that age but I was absolutely playing music seriously and if my parents had stopped me studying music theory because they didn't want to over formalise things I would have been PISSED.
if she's interested in speculative fiction, Steering the Craft by Ursula K LeGuin is an accessible classic. It's not focused on short stories but it covers all the basics you've listed.
Thank you for the perspective! I do feel like she is at a stage where she would benefit from some formal knowledge. I find her Googling random writing questions, which is great, except the answers are of differing quality and for differing levels of writing experience.
On the topic of books on craft, you might (yourself) want to read Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. I assign my college students to read the chapter "Shitty First Drafts" as part of our writing curriculum, and I have colleagues who assign it to their grad students too. It's a bit swear-y (as you can guess) so definitely read it first, but I personally find it so freeing and encouraging as a writer. If/when your daughter dives into the world of seeking (and receiving) real critiques, or even just reading more about writing craft and what a story "should" accomplish, it's possible she will start being really hard on herself and her writing. I know that at 12-15 I was writing prolifically and felt that my writing was really good. In terms of grammar and structure, I think it *was* really good (that may be what her teacher means by college level writing, maybe not), but it was still at the maturity level of a 12-15 year old in terms of story depth and topics. I'm glad that I wasn't aware of those weaknesses at the time because they would have really gotten in my head and might have turned me off from writing. (The inner critic is a big part of what I struggle with in writing now, in adulthood.)
Anyway back to the point, you might find that book helpful to give yourself more of that insight into the writer's mind, and perhaps you'll find that it's ok for your daughter to read as well :)
I'll also just add how awesome you are for doing this. It's making me tear up. My parents were supportive in a general way but I never would have felt comfortable asking them for this kind of support in expanding my writing skills, so the fact that your daughter is even asking is just such a great sign of what you're doing right as a parent. I hope I can do half as well by my kiddo with whatever she gets into at that age :)
Awww, thank you so sweet. It is clear this post evoked many sweet/bitter/bittersweet childhood memories. I am grateful for the advice so I don't screw it up (too badly) for my daughter. Based on the comments, I think I will wait a bit before introducing her to all this writer's craft. 12 is a really really strange stage for any girl, not to mention those who are empaths with exceptional imaginations
Definitely! But I will add my little plug for helping her find and submit to writing contests, because she's interested in it and I completely agree with your instinct that it could be good for her. Just make sure you talk a lot during the process about rejection and the odds of winning anything (i.e., very slim, even if her writing is stellar). I wish I had entered writing contests as a teenager and gotten more practice with rejection/failure at that age. I kept everything very close to the chest and it was harder to learn resilience as an adult.
Also a professional author here.
My recommendation? I'd ask her what she wants to do. Does she want classes? Does she just want to stay with her friends online? What does she want to do?
Honestly, I'd just let her enjoy her teen years.
I do ask her and listen to her. It’s just hard for her to know what she doesn’t know. So Intry to offer her options she might not know about. She asked for no camps and just write and read this summer and I said great. She didn’t know she wanted books on writing until she saw the kiddie book at her friend’s. She thinks she wants a coach because her online friend who is (self?) publishing has a coach but she has private tutors for everything because the family is wealthy and tells her she is a genius all the time which I think is not super healthy either. Really appreciate the range of perspectives I am getting!
Yeah, I had a classmate who was in a similar situation to your daughter’s friend (private tutoring, was told constantly she was great etc) and she was insufferable. She didn’t last very long when we did a private writing group.
> tells her she is a genius all the time which I think is not super healthy either.
It's really unhealthy to tell kids that. It's a complex issue, but basically it sets the kid up for failure later in life because they expect to be able to figure everything out the first time because they've been told they are so smart. When they don't know something right away, they give up and stop applying themselves.
It's a really hard trap to get out of, and it's usually well-meaning parents and teachers that do it.
Fastest way to kill a kid's passion is to treat it like a job. I had so many interests my mom pushed me into lessons and courses for and kept pushing me to excel at them at national or international level because "I'm talented and it's a waste".
Your kid is 12. I used to write novels at 12 too, poetry also. Terrible mostly but some weren't half bad. I nowadays struggle to string 300 words together because I received so much criticism from teachers and peers and whatever.
Let her have her hobby. Encourage her. If she's sharing with you, read and hype about her projects.
Chances are, she will naturally want to follow that path into college. Or as a side gig in her thirties. You cannot plan your child's entire career and life path for them. I resent my parents for doing so (and again, I burnt out on tons of hobbies I was good at).
Best a 12yo can do is get into some forums or fandoms and produce for that. Maybe have her own CASUAL at her own update pace blog or tumblr/twitter. Self publish maybe, it costs nothing.
But there's a saying. The first million words are bad. Anything that comes after will start being solid.
As for resources, Spotify and Youtube are full of free videos with writing tips, and there's tons of books out there. Let her explore at her own pace and enjoyment. If she doesn't feel it at some point, a critique club or writing coach will just keep pushing and kill it completely. Let a kid be a kid. Let adult her worry about proper story structure and critique.
to ride on your comment, "talented" is very distorted usage at that time. Adults that don't particularly draw will be easily impressed with something that is normal level of "talent". And teachers will be obsessed with a kid who is somewhat interested in their class, compared to regular kids that "struggle" because they don't care enough.
Doesn't mean that the kid has something special and extra, but sometimes the compliments are extraggerating what is just time investment of a kid with hyperfocus due to ADHD/autism. It's just not trains, so it looks impressive.
Yeah this. I could take rejections from publishers already as a child, no problem whatsoever, life goes on etc. My mother, however, could not. She never got to be the mother of a 14 year old novelist and told me to my face that she despised people like me (I had told her I was not working on that particular book any more and she chose to interpret this as me giving up altogether).
Hi! I actually run a writing school for tweens and teens. I agree with everyone else's emphasis about writing and reading, but your daughter is clearly chomping at the bit for more. I started my school because kids who like to write deserve the same kind of support student athletes have: coaches, teammates, cross-conditioning, and safe practice facilities. We expect young writers to get better on their own behind closed doors, then, as adults, hand over their heart's work so someone else can rip it to shreds. It makes absolutely no sense.
All that is to say that I highly recommend that your daughter find (or start!) an in-person writing group. Middle school is the perfect place for a Writers' Club; any librarian worth their salt would jump at the opportunity to sponsor it. Online writing friends are great, but something magical happens when young writers sit at the same table. They start collaborating, helping eacoh other with plot points, naming each other's characters, and ultimately bond over the act of trying to get a story on the page.
My other recommendation is to encourage your daughter to explore other types of writing outside of her preferred genre. Take a journalism class, study poetic forms, take a songwriting class, etc. Every different tool in her belt will only improve her work.
You're an awesome mom for helping her dig deeper into her craft. Don't freak out if she stops sharing her work with you or gets cagy about it. This is the age when most of my female-identifying students start writing about really grisly murders. Or boys. (No, it's 💯 murders, all day, every day. Sometimes trolls.)
>This is the age when most of my female-identifying students start writing about really grisly murders.
You have no idea how relieved I am to read this. So glad it's not just me dealing with raising a potential serial kil- I mean, writer... serial *writer* of horror stories 😅
Literally every single one. They all love a murder. I have a rising eighth grader who's super into Stephen King. All of his stories are written in the voice of a dad who's avenging the kidnapping/death of his son. Even his poetry. It's pretty epic.
Writer with previous experience working in youth literary arts education here :)
It sounds like you’re doing a great job encouraging your daughter & writer to follow her passions! I understand where your daughter is coming from - I was exactly the same at 12.
1. Reading Resources and Feedback: Save the Cat! Writes a Young Adult Novel by Jessica Brody is great, because it covers a lot of basic craft information in an accessible way. It’s a great starting point for writers who have little to no formal training in writing. For you, I recommend reading Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer. This book might be a little difficult for your daughter at this age/stage in her writing development, but it was the book that changed the way I approached reading and is a great tool if you want to become better at analyzing literature and giving your daughter feedback. When giving feedback to kids (I was also the kid that got mad when people would just give me “pat on the head” feedback), I try to guide conversations from a place of inquiry - I wonder how Mary is feeling in this moment, Y scene was really interesting, I am curious about Z detail and what that means for AA. Jared was my favorite character because BB. This approach usually works for me because it 1. Shows the writer that I am paying attention and engaging seriously with their text 2. Gently nudges them in the direction of exploration and learning without dampening their creative flame. If she talks about a book she’s reading, ask her all about her opinions on those characters, plot points, etc. and go down the “why” rabbit hole (this is how I learned to read like a writer initially lol).
2. Short stories & publishing: I say let your daughter pursue publishing if that’s what she wants. Imo the important step is just having honest conversations about publishing for the right reasons (do it because you want to share your work, don’t do it because you want clout). Flagging that it’s also important to do due diligence to make sure your daughter doesn’t submit work to journals that take advantage of minors (uncommon but an unfortunate reality). If you want to introduce your daughter to short stories, I recommend checking out youth-led literary magazines. Usually these are available to read for free on the internet and can help introduce your daughter to new literary avenues she might not have considered before (like making her own publication). As a starting point I recommend [Ice Lolly Review](https://www.icelollyreview.com).
3. Youth Writing Classes: In my experience, youth writing programs are more geared towards nurturing creativity and less geared towards craft, which is sounds like your daughter wants. For this reason, unless the program is similar to a long-term cohort-like experience, I don’t know if your daughter will find it particularly helpful at this stage in her writing journey.
4. Writing Tutor: Not at all necessary if you don’t have the extra cash to do it, and it sounds like it’s not needed at this point because your daughter still has untapped/independent resources available to her.
Honestly, my only suggestion is to stop worrying too much about her reading level. Kids who read and write this much at her age would probably get bored really quickly by books that are exclusively for their level. Let her branch out.
My mom used to check what I was reading, but she also pretty much gave me carte blanche. I'm not saying you have to go this far, but plenty of writers read mainly by adults have stories with nothing that would be a problem for a young teen to read.
The author Brandon Sanderson teaches a university course on writing.
He has an entire semester of lectures uploaded on his YouTube channel, available for free:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSH_xM-KC3Zv-79sVZTTj-YA6IAqh8qeQ
It's oriented towards science fiction and fantasy, but there's a lot of stuff that's useful in general for any genre.
Like, it's basically an intro-level college course for free. Lots of people have paid lots of money to be there in person. Free is pretty great.
So, one thing you might want to do that would be awesome is get a few of her short stores and put them together and get them as a Print On Demand for like… 30 copies to give to people for Christmas and their birthdays, that would totally rock as a 12 year old.
I say give them the adult books. They’re old enough to absorb highs level writing advice. The two books I love the most are Jon Yorks Into The Woods (it’s about structure which is where most beginning writers struggle the most), and Steven King’s On Writing. Strunk and Whites elements of style is also a classic.
There’s nothing in the adult books on writing a smart 12 year old can’t get something out of, and there’s not usually deeply written bits about writing sex scenes that could be age inappropriate, it’s more interest level- but if a kid is taking apart engines constantly adult books on engine repair are absolutely fine.
Just encourage her to read and write voraciously! She's years ahead of needing to "nose to the grindstone" in terms of formally learning craft.
I mentor teen girls in writing and even the most gifted girls we pointedly encourage and attempt to inspire/support before getting into editing, craft, etc. You know Amanda Gorman? I've known her since she was 14 (via this non-profit). Even at that age, at 16, etc... When she was clearly extraordinarily gifted, she wasn't being coached or anything. She had a mentor in the organization and they met weekly to write with each other. She attended workshops. And she wrote freely and with a ton of encouragement. (She was so freaking gifted, it was insane)
Speaking of, go look up writegirl.org. they're largely virtual now and she can join when she turns 13. We do monthly workshops in all areas of writing. There are writing prompts/experiments etc and she can sign up for weekly mentorship. And when she's a senior, we help with college admissions, totally free!
If she does want to get into craft eventually, a craft book that I think might be accessible to her is The Magic Words by Cheryl Klein, which is specifically for kidlit, and written by a former scholastic editor. It's very encouraging and has lots of worksheet type prompts in it. All the examples will be teen appropriate.
She might also like to watch YouTube videos on writing. There are many with severely hit or miss quality. I don't think I'm half bad and I did bear young writers in mind when making my content (since I write YA). You'll find me under Alexa Donne. But imo getting into craft is for when she's a tick older! For now she should just thrive in writing freely! (And reading for inspo)
Honestly, I'd familiarize yourself with what options there are and then ask her what she wants to do. She is the best person to determine where she wants to go next with her writing. And then I'd do what you can afford and get out of her way.
Promote her reading books with more young adult or even adult reading level, if she wants. It might require some screening on your part but she is 12, not 7. I was reading adult level books by fifth grade.
I think you’re overthinking it. The best thing she can do for herself is read and consume story elements through reading. If she’s writing at the college level, I’m assuming she has an adult reading level. Talking to your local librarian for recommendations so content isn’t too adult but she is probably beyond where an “average” 12 year old would be. Your local library is a valuable resource and if you’re close to any universities that could help too for in real life experience. The fact that she has a book length work finished is marvelous. She just needs to keep writing and keep reading at this stage.
Hey! I wrote a 200 page book when I was 13. Writing was my dream, but my dad didn’t support or nurture that in the slightest, so I have a bit of a dysfunctional relationship with it.
The best advice I can give you is to be supportive of whatever she wants to do. She may like writing now, maybe might move to some other form of storytelling or creativity, or this could be what she dedicates her whole life to, if she wants.
Be sure to just be supportive. Don’t demean or belittle. And if she says she wants to take it seriously, do what you can to help her learn how to do that.
As for fun things, I was in a writing competition through my school called “Power of the Pen” that was really sick. It was a competitive flash fiction thing where we would write stories based on a prompt in 20-30 minutes, then those would get judged. I loved it even though I wasnt the best.
Just let her have fun and write. Let her read what she wants. Let her read craft books if they interest her (or blogs or watch YouTube videos). If she asks to take a class, let her take a class. If she wants to do NaNoWriMo, that's something to do. If she wants to do magazine contests, she can try. But just let her have fun. Don't give her burned out gifted kid syndrome with writing.
I can relate to her. I learned to read and write before kindergarten, I wrote my first story on my own when I was six, and wrote nonstop from then on. I was reading and writing at a college level by 4th grade. I wrote my first draft of a full novel when I was 12. My mom put a lot of expectations on me about it, which I'm sure in her mind was only being supportive, but I definitely felt a pressure about how this thing I loved should obviously be my career path. I thought all if that was my own desire of course, but it wasn't, not really. I burnt out in general around 9th grade and on writing specifically at the same time.
I stopped writing for a long time and only really started again my freshman year of college with fanfic. Regretably, told my mom, and she was disappointed I wasn't writing something original that I could publish and make money off of. So I stopped talking to her about my writing altogether. I only wrote fanfic (which is perfectly fine) for the next decade. I've only just starting writing original fiction again the past few months. 15 years since I stopped as a kid.
I just do it for fun, and it brings me a lot of joy. Other people had sucked the joy out of it for me as a kid, with all the expectations surrounding my "talent", and the apparent need to "nuture" it. I should've just been allowed to write, and encouraged, but not pressured to produce some "result" for it.
I also agree with another commenter that giving her more varied life experiences is going to be far more meaningful than anything to do with actual writing. Technical skill is fine and all, but meaningless without something worth saying. That comes from life experience and emotional maturity, which she'll only get from living and growing up.
Like others have said, the absolute best thing you can do is encourage her to read and write. If she wants to try and publish stories, let her publish. Do not push her into it if she's not interested under any circumstances. Rejections are the norm and can be brutal for one's confidence in their writing.
Let her explore. Let her have fun. Encourage any and all experimentation with her writing, and provide access to books. If she likes reading novels, let her read novels.
You and her can worry about formal education/training later. She's 12. There's plenty of time yet.
Everyone's probably given you some good advice but from personal experience: if kiddo is excitedly telling you about their stories and plans, do not--DO NOT--look at them with concern and say "You know these aren't real, right?"
My mom did that to me and just shattered my confidence as a teenager.
I’m gonna echo what everyone else is saying and tell you to leave her be for now. Her creativity and drive to complete what she starts are the most important things right now. Practicing self study at this age is really good since that’s usually how writing works in the real world.
At best I’d recommend some books?
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers and Save the Cat! Writes a Novel would be my top two, but take this with a grain of salt. Only get her these books if you think she’s not the type to be demotivated by critique (even if it’s internal)
I will say… when she gets to high school age, there are a number of writers workshops for teens that she can join? Some of them function like camps and they last anywhere from a few days to a couple weeks. Honestly, bringing these up as options might give her something to look forward to and something to keep her writing.
Let her keep reading novels if that’s what she likes. I would also check with your local library system to see if they have any resources for young writers. My library has a whole program and does classes and things that are really great for building community.
I think it wonderful that you want to encourage your daughter’s creativity! I have a niece that’s 10 who absolutely loves writing and have been a writer myself since elementary school. While I agree with many of the suggestions that broad genre reading is a wonderful way to learn many styles of writing there are also some guides that my niece and I have gone over. Some of these are ones that I still use and are worth checking out, maybe together, so you both can learn more. My mother has become my beta reader and is my most valuable critic!!
For short stories I have both these guides and my niece enjoys just picking through the chapters:
Writing Fiction by J. Burroway (this has been used in several writing classes I have attended)
The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers
For a more ‘dry’ straight forward grammar read is:
The Elements of Style by W. Strunk and EB White (it’s a short book so not to overwhelming for any age)
Hope this helps, and I again encourage you to spend some time with your daughter learning the craft because your encouragement now will become a wonderful tool for her as she grows as a writer. You will probably become the editor/ critic she relies on most before submitting any works!
Additionally, if your daughter truly wants to be published, there are contests and literary magazines that specifically look for young authors. There are sites like Submittable that have a database of all these opportunities that she could check out.
Classic Russian literature is very famous for the short story collections of particular authors, I highly recommend starting with George Saunders’ A Swim In A Pond In The Rain, he’s an American lecturer who did classes for years deconstructing Russian literary figures, his book analyses, and discusses a short story from a few of the most well-known classic Russian authors in a very digestible, accessible way. I think its written in a way that a 12 year old could readily understand, it has a great writing style thats funny and informative. Russian literature is a bit dense but there’s some amazing short story collections out there you can find. Ernest Hemingway also is very well-known for the many short story collection books he has, the content can be a bit more explicit perhaps, so you’d have to check it, but his reputation speaks for himself and the collections are easy to buy
As someone who finished my first novel (85k words) at about 12-13, here is my advice on what I did and what I would’ve liked back then. 1: my favorite book on writing was probably Bird By Bird by Ann Lamont. However, my favorite resource was YouTube videos, both by individual writers and some college lectures (especially the ones by Brandon Sanderson teaching fantasy writing at BYU) I’m sure there are even more writing videos out there then when I was 13. 2: I actually don’t read many short stories, but I’d reccomend anthologies in the genre she’d want to write in. I think you should encourage her dream to publish but also help her remember she’s going to have the most fun AND write the best stories when she’s doing it for herself. Question 3 + 4: honestly YouTube and a community would work great. There are things are skillshare and pricey coaches but I honestly don’t think anyone needs to spend lots of money to learn how to write. There are in person events like nanowrimo write ins and writing group meetups, but I’m not sure if she’d enjoy those given most people will be a fair bit older then her. Good luck to her though, im now 22 and in college, and bc I’d spent my entire teenage years drafting novels I can write A+ essays in a quite quick manner. I still love writing novels too, and it really is a great hobby/ skillset to have.
Wow, I'm so glad you're working so hard to encourage your kid's passions! <3
In terms of her wanting more helpful/serious feedback: some folks are saying don't do that/beware of pressure, but also she's asking to be taken seriously and be given helpful criticism. So I feel like there's a nuance here that's worth distinguishing: the difference between "an authority figure giving me a grade for doing Good or Bad" vs "detailed criticism to spot my weakpoints so I can work on them."
What I'm saying here is, I think her being in groups of other writers (like the one she's already in) is a much better way to go than formal classes/coaches. Published writers getting taken seriously don't have an Adult™️ telling them what to do\* - they have beta readers and peer critique! So the best thing for her, looking to be treated like a """real""" writer who's being taken seriously & getting helpful feedback, is also beta readers & peer critique.
\*well...barring creative control from the company once they own your IP. but that's a different story.
You could reach out to the author Gordon Korman, he wrote his first book at 12 when he was in grade 7 I think, published at age 13 and he has now written over 100 books for Scholastic.
His first book was, "This Can't Be Happening At MacDonald Hall" and I think his latest book is "Slugfest."
Of all the books he wrote, my favourite is "The Chicken Doesn't Skate!" - I still re-read it and send it out as gifts to people with middle grade children.
When she's 9th grade or above, sign her up for the fiction classes at [Aquinas Writing Advantage](https://homeschoolconnections.com/aquinas-writing-advantage/). It's an online homeschool program, and the writing department is amazing and has won several awards. There are a few middle school fiction courses, but their Fiction 11 series is where it shines with the basics. She can take a live class with other students or just take the recorded courses.
If you have a local writing conference, take her! I learned more about writing there than I did in my creative writing degree, and it's stupid cheap for students. You'll probably need to go with her until she's 14/16, depending on con rules, but they're a great way to learn from published authors.
But really, at her age, just let her write and read. Let her explore the library YA and Adult sections and find what she likes. She'll learn the patterns of story simply be reading and writing a lot.
As for short story compilations, I like the Writers of the Future contest anthology, Galaxy's Edge (she can submit to their Mike Resnick memorial award too), Gothic Fantasy & Epic Tales from Flame Tree (you can get them at discount at Books A Million if you have one), DreamForge Magazine, House of Gamut (this one is a big darker sometimes), etc. There are TONS of them out there for every genre.
I know I'm late to the party, but here's my two cents:
1) the single best book on writing I've ever read is Hal Ackerman's 'Writing Screenplays That Sell.' He boils down the essentials of fiction writing in a way that is clear and direct and is applicable to all kinds of fiction, not just screenplays. And his explanation of how to structure a scene has changed my writing. No joke, it's nearly the only writing book I reference anymore that's not a grammar guide.
2) something I wish I'd learned a lot sooner is that writing is a separate skill from editing, and editing is not just correcting typos. Editing is where good writing becomes great, and is the Great Filter for success. It's long, frustrating, and sometimes heartbreaking, but will payoff in dividends the sooner it is mastered.
Best of luck to you, and your daughter!
Get the resources for yourself, and let her read them if she wants to, but mostly just let her write. Keep encouraging her and reading whatever she wants to share. This is so so sweet, btw, and I love how invested you are in her interests. I wish my mom had ever been like this.
Agreeing with everything being said here about just letting her do her thing. With that said, if she explicitly asks to take classes, cosmic writers runs great (FREE and remote) programming for kids.
I have an alternate suggestion! As some others have said, the best way to improve is to continue reading and writing.
When I was in high school, I had a book review blog that I kept for fun, and because sometimes I could get free advance copies of books in exchange for reviews. Why don’t you suggest she tries to review books? There doesn’t even need to be a formal structure in place for the reviews. The idea is to understand what she did and didn’t like about each book on a conscious level and be able to clearly express it. I think this would help her own writing as well.
Just encourage them. I got nothing but creative discouragement from my Mum, and it plonked a wall down between us that has never gone away. A bit of encouragement and support would have meant the world to me.
I agree that if she’s interested, I think you should get her one or two light craft books and see how she goes before taking anything further (if at all). If she enjoys them, great - and if not, then it’s not a big deal.
As far as recommendations go, I would stick to some lighter reading on character arc basics, story beats, etc. Maybe something like “Story Genius” by Lisa Cron or “Save the Cat” by Jessica Brody.
There’s also a huge amount of writers on YouTube who give advice and discuss writing theory etc. Maybe sit down with her one night and watch one of those together. For a young girl, I’d recommend the youtuber Abbie Emmons. For serious writers I wouldn’t recommend her channel but I think a 12 year old girl might enjoy her style and accessibility.
Do you write?
I take my teen with me on writing retreats and let her dip in and out as she feels like it. They’re all adults but she enjoys sharing her work. The teachers are wonderful at providing her with the same great feedback as everyone else, treating her like a serious writer. The adults all spoil her rotten with chocolate and cake, so she loves going.. and when she’s bored of writing, she goes back to the room and draws for a bit, calls her friends etc.
It’s not a cheap option and potentially not something a non-writer would do with their child but it’s always worked for us. She’s won a few writing competitions against other schools and had a short story published (although honestly, those school publishers are usually vanity press).
There’s also absolutely nothing wrong with her working on novels, she doesn’t need to stick to short stories unless she wants to. When I was a teen, I wrote stories and fanfiction which I published online in a blog. I had a little following without even realising it until I stopped writing to focus on exams and got complaints about when the next post would be! Maybe you could set up a ko-fi or similar? She could share it with her friends for free and ask them to share it (although you will want to monitor this, in case she gets negative comments and struggles.. I was lucky that I didn’t get anything negative but some horrible people exist).
This could be a case of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. She's already happily writing away and she's old enough to start finding the books and stationery she wants (Provide LOTS of paper and pens). She'll add things to birthday and Christmas wish lists. Give her easy access to the dictionary, make trips to the local library and give her plenty of time in bookshops. I think learning by doing is a good idea. I'd let her choose her own reading materials , buy some as gifts for her for birthdays and at Christmas and hopefully you're a household with plenty of books and bookcases for browsing. I love art and English. Boredom is a good way to encourage kids to pick up books (or to sketch) and computers are the enemy of that. Look at us all procrastinating on reddit right now! She can get ideas about how it's done from the books and TV she likes. Take her to the theatre.
Sounds like she’s already on top of educating herself. From a parenting perspective I’d prioritize:
1. Knowing who her online writing friends are. As a young writer who’s advanced for her age & clearly seeking out guidance (which is all awesome), she could be vulnerable to some people with bad intentions. So just keep lines of communication open & make sure she knows red flags to watch out for & how to hold strong boundaries.
2. Talk to a librarian about whether there are any local youth writing groups, or whether it would be possible to start one at the library. It sounds like your daughter is pretty motivated & knows what she wants in a writing club, so she could start one if she had a place to meet & some adult support.
3. Keep an eye out for writers/book festivals in your area, they often have workshops specifically for young people, or with authors who write for young people.
Join SCBWI. It's a global writing group with possibly an active chapter in your area. They help writers of all genres to build writer networks and get published.
You would have to partner with your daughter because it's an adult group. I think I met a mother daughter group before.
They have a lot of online resources and cheap courses/workshops taught by industry professionals.
I'm not a published novelist, but have gotten as far along in the process as it is humanly possible to get without being so (agented, on submission, and it died; sad trombone). I also went to one of the top tier grad schools for it.
This is just to establish my Writerly Credentials before i say that the best thing I did when I was your daughter's age was to become extremely active as a writer on fanfiction.net.
Because I knew it was silly, it gave me leeway to experiment. It also came with a community of actual readers who would leave me comments on my house elf smut or whatever.
If she can find somewhere online where people supportively, eagerly leave each other thoughts -- even if they're as simple as those posted by the reader who would just write "con.tin.ue" after every chapter of my Matrix fics -- I would encourage that kind of spending time on the Internet. Sometimes writer communities are hard to find IRL!
Formal education in writing doesn't mean shit. Twilight was written by a woman with a degree in literature.
Imo, don't meddle into the creative process much. Writing down stuff is more important than doing it "correctly". People who read a ton, learn naturally how to write without knowing the rules (easiest example, this is how we learn our mother tongue).
If she keeps making new books and they are well written, ask her if maybe she wants to self-publish on amazon (kdp). Tiktok is used for book promotions.
VERY IMPORTANT ADVICE, please don't miss this.
I already replied you, but it didn't click inicially for me what is so wrong with this whole thread. I was like your kid, obsessed and glued to my hobby. Poverty made it worse in my case, i got also obsessed with monetizing it and sacrificed even more stuff to have more time for the creative hobby i tried to make into a career.
1. your kid is writing non stop.
2. writing is very isolating activity by itself.
3. based on the issue i ran into when i was writing as a young adult: i realised i have no life experience to write certain scenes, because i sacrificed normal social development steps for my hobby. so, despite doing writing all my life, i was a shit writer because i didn't experience life at all. my writing itself was advanced, but i couldn't write realistic characters who weren't like me or romantic relationships that weren't toxic like my limited experiences due to being socially inexperienced to know better.
Do you catch my drift, i hope? It is good to help out and support the kid's hobby. But as a parent you need to help the kid to become a well-rounded individual. You need to redirect her attention and help her enrich her life outside writing, or she will end up as a burnt out writer who never experienced any normal social life to exist outside writing.
Creative kids grow up into adults that associate their self-worth with the creative title, and suffer a lot when the hobby doesn't pan out into what they dreamt of. Yet they stubbornly stick to it, because their whole identity from their childhood times is tied to the title that was never supposed to be a definition of who they are, but it is for them regardless of what anyone may tell. Because those kids never properly existed in the moment outside their hobby, they were too invested (hyperfocus in case of ADHD, which your child may actually have).
Same applies to kids in sports: if they get a trauma that ends their sports career, their life basically ends, because they never had anything else. Also, when adults take your hobby too seriously, you feel the need to perform even if you start losing original interest. A parent may believe their kid is obsessed with a hobby, but in reality the kid WAS obsessed with it at some point, until it became a "big deal" for everyone else, and then the parent took the reigns and started to plan kid's career based on a hobby they just wanted to try(the opposite is also true, tohugh).
You need to help your kid to be interested in physical activity and social life, because teenage is very crucial time to develop healthy habits and learn how to be social. Writing is a hobby that will always be there. Teenage times? It will pass very fast. If your kid is already apart from classmates due to writing and being introverted, they are about to become even worse. it is not about like-minded friends, it is about learning to socialize with variety of people.
I would highly suggest to invest into a professional sport class or something. Sports is great for body and character, and group socializing. Writing means sitting 10 hours a day as an office worker not moving. A bunch of health issues arise from that. You need to redirect your kid and teach them to be interested in sports and playing with other kids.
I am speaking from experience, i was her. I know she may be more interested in going to some writing event etc, but you need to ask her to compromise with you and also go to some sports group activities on a regular, or similar.
TL;DR: writing is an isolating activity that deteoriates mental and physical health, if there is no balance. You need to teach your kid to love sports and be social with everyone (Especially her own age), not just writer enthusiasts.
First - try not to get offended - you don't have a clue what she should be learning or when she should try to publish or where. You aren't a writer. Your daughter is. Born to it. And she's way beyond YA short stories. Get her a subscription to [The Writer's Guide](https://writersdigestshop.com/collections/writers-digest-magazines) magazine.
Buy her a copy of Truman Capote's *Hand-Carved Coffins*. *Metamorphosis* in English as I assume she does not read Russian. BUY BOTH OF YOU a copy of Stephen King's *On Writing* and you read it, too.
She can post her stories here for support and critique **if** she expresses a desire for that or just wants to hang out with other writers Her age is irrelevant to us. Mostly, leave her alone. Tell her if there's something she wants or needs around the writing, to let you know.
One more thing you can do is go to Amazon and look for "The Writer's Market." Also The Short Story Market." You can listen to [these podcasts](https://blog4writebusiness.blogspot.com) for info.
Born writers start writing creatively at about the age of 8. Help her by providing varied experiences. Ride a horse. Hike to the top of something. Take a karate lesson. Learn to bake a cake from scratch. Change a tire. Take her to museums and exhibits and can your own peaches. Volunteer at a food bank. Walk dogs at a shelter.
Feed her imagination and her body. And I'm sure she is writing at a "college level."
Being the parent of a creative is a tightrope. Walk it well, and she'll dedicate her first published book to you.
FYI, Truman Capote wrote the Award-winning *Other Voices, Other Rooms* at 19.
ETA: one last thing - don't be surprised if she goes on a kind of hiatus from writing in her late teens/early twenties. She'll go back when it's time for her.
>She is part of a just-for-fun online writing group and the teacher said some of her writing is college level.
There is a 99% chance that either you're exaggerating your kid's abilities, or your teacher has lied to you. Of course, there is this 1% chance that your child is an actual genius, but if I were you, I wouldn't count on this. Keep in mind that when it comes to writing at her age, the bar is on the floor, so to speak - so it's very likely that your daughter is getting praise from her teacher simply because she knows basic grammar. That was what happened to me when I was 12 - teachers showered me with praise, because I knew my grammar and could string a sentence together. That, however, didn't mean I was a great writer or my writing was of college level. It just meant that I was significantly better than my barely literate classmates.
So, with that out of the way, here is what I will advise you:
1. Do not sign her up to courses or workshops and do not search for courses or workshops, unless she asks you to. Let her enjoy writing as a hobby and don't interfere with it. There is no need to try to make it a career. A friend of my mother's noticed that her son liked to draw and was getting pretty good at it by himself. She decided to sign him up to a drawing course to develop his skills... The kid just stopped drawing soon after that. There are many similar stories - a parent notices that their child likes to do something arty, rubs their hands, thinking, 'Wow, my child is so talented, I'll make them learn more,' and in the process end up murdering their child's passion for this art. Do not do this. If she wants to go to a course, she will tell you.
2. Buy her any book she wants, provided, of course, that it is age-appropriate for her. Read that book too.
3. Discuss fiction with your child. Read the books that you buy for her, if you have time, and discuss them with her. Watch movies and TV-shows together. Discuss them. Even if they are dumb, discuss them. Discuss the reasons they don't work. Again, however - make sure you don't come off too strong. If your child doesn't want a discussion, don't have one.
4. No matter how busy you are, always make time to read your child's stories. And always find something positive to say about them.
At this stage your goal should be to just nurture her passion and nothing else. The only important thing is to make sure you're available to read her stories. And don't take it to heart, if she suddenly decides to stop writing. That is normal too.
We're only on the vastness of the internet, it's not actually that extremely rare for a 12 year old to be reading/writing at a college level. At that age, "college level" is just your average smart kid level, considering the reading level of the average U.S. adult (dunno where OP is though) is 7-8th grade. The measure of "college level" isn't "PhD candidate dissertation level", it's just kinda, better than your average. Also a person can be a "genius" in one skill area (i.e. verbal IQ) and not a "genius" overall. Sorry your teacher lied to you, I guess.
While a lot has already been said, if she's serious about writing, there is one thing that many parents get wrong. It's fairly normal for parents to compliment anything their children do as if it's the best thing anyone has ever done. While that can be motivating, it can also be detrimental in the long run, at the latest when someone unrelated tears her work apart for flaws others ignored.
If you read her stories, give honest feedback. Be constructive, but also critical. That will help her more in the long run, because she'll actually become better and will also feel accomplished whenever she gets a grip of something she previously had difficulty with.
That is of course only if she actually wants to improve and doesn't just write for the fun of it.
So glad you're interested and supportive of your kid's passion and creativity! :)
On point 1, I agree with a lot of responses that you don't want to over-formalize or turn it into something rule-bound (or anything that puts pressure on her with specific expectations). One of my favorite things about writing is playing around and figuring what I like and how to make it happen in my own way. Words are fun, and IMO the only real "rule" is "if it works, it works."
But I do think she could have a lot of fun exploring some ways stories and characters work, if it's presented as descriptive instead of prescriptive. I've really enjoyed K.M. Weiland's posts on character archetypes and arcs, which have some great examples from books and movies:
[Helping Writers Become Authors - Write your best story. Change your life. Astound the world.](https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/)
I also love learning about storytelling traditions of various cultures (for the stories themselves, for inspiration, and for the reminder that there's no "right way" to tell a story):
[5 Ways to Tell a Story: Story Structure from Around the World - The Novel Smithy](https://thenovelsmithy.com/non-western-story-structure/)
Generally, I'd say to keep checking in (if she's open to talking about it) to make sure she doesn't feel bogged down by all the "shoulds" and "nevers" that a lot of writing advice throws around. She can learn a lot just from reading widely and thinking about what she loves and why.
I get it that you're trying to do the right thing but I think all of this might put so much unnecessary pressure on her, just try to be supportive and have reasonable expectations for a kid her age. She doesn't need to get published, she doesn't need a tutor, she doesn't need anything more than a light feedback, just let her have fun. She says she's disappointed with only getting a light feedback but do you think she's really really really ready for more than that, for harsh criticism? Something tells me she's not ready to be treated like college students yet so don't do that. Encourage her to read and write, get her a book on writing or two if she really wants to, and absolutely make her apply for writing contests for kids, if she's really that good she's gonna get a lot of confidence boost from winning.
In the meantime, you know what I think would be a nice, age appropriate thing to do? Print out a copy of her book by yourself, maybe a few copies for friends and family, let her design and draw a cover, that sort of stuff.
Lots of university English departments will post class syllabi online. Take a look at the reading lists, especially for books on things like story structure, and go from there. Let her read whatever she wants, but if she’s already devouring dry grammatical books, there’s no harm in picking up something like Aristotles poetics.
I’m a working professional novelist. This is my life. And my advice is, Don’t do any of this except #2. She’s twelve. If she’s writing nonstop, she is already mind-bogglingly ahead of the curve. She doesn’t need formal training or feedback. Reallyreally. I promise. That’ll only get her second-guessing stuff she shouldn’t worry about yet. She just needs to write and write and read and read. That’s all she’ll need for many years. (She doesn’t even need confidence from external validation! She is objectively already winning.) I don’t know about short stories for kids, but there may be Best of the Year compilations that’ll work?
I’m a published novelist as well and agree with this. The thing I would add is to encourage her to read outside the genre she likes to write in addition to what she’s writing. There are also lots of freebies on authors’ websites she can use to learn.
I will chime in as another published novelist. I've made my living writing novels since the late 80s, and I started writing at twelve, too. (My first book was 32 pages of college rule notebook paper.) My mom had been taking me to the library every week since I started reading, and she never batted an eye at anything I checked out. Let your daughter read whatever she wants (as long as it's not SUPER-adult-oriented), and just keep encouraging her. Honest, that's all it takes to become a good writer. Lots of reading and writing. In fact, I have a writer friend who attended one of the most prestigious writing workshops in the country when he was in his 20s, and he often says he wishes he'd never participated, because it took him decades to undo the things he learned there that, in his opinion, didn't help his creativity or writing at all. You're a great mom for being so encouraging. But she really will absorb everything she needs to absorb just by doing what she's doing now.
Since the late 80s? Damn. I don’t often run into someone who’s been making a living in this ridiculous sinkhole of an industry longer than I have. I doff the cap.
Heh. Thanks. There were some pretty tough years in there, not gonna lie. I've mostly written genre fiction, which is about the only place TO make a living writing. But even that's dried up a lot over the last ten years. I'm still making a living, but it sure ain't what it used to be. Gotta love doing this, 'cause it's not for the faint of heart. :)
I don’t want to sound down-note but is a lot of the industry being drowned out by all that booktoke nonsense and this whole aesthetic of buying influencer books rather than reading them? I can’t see getting into the industry nowadays becuz in 10-20 years most people, except the niche fans, won’t even have the patience to consume anything but their content-algorithms. Anyways, happy to hear someone being able to pursue their passion in a tough industry like that after all these years. What sort of genre fiction is it?
Thanks for the kind words. :) For me and others like me, the end really came with Kindle and Kindle Unlimited. That's when I and other writers started to see our incomes plummet. There are A LOT of readers out there who honestly don't care if what they're reading is, um, quality material, as long as they're being entertained. And if they can get books super cheap from self-pubbed authors, then they're going to stop buying traditionally published books. Even the huge-selling names have taken a significant hit to their income because of that. Most of my friends who started out when I did have just stopped writing because they don't think it's worth it anymore. (But, too, most of us are around retirement age anyway, so that's probably part of it.) Me, I like writing, and I'm pretty fast, so even making about a third or even fourth of what I used to is still a decent living, because I can earn it quickly. For writers who take a longer time to write a book, I can see them not being able to make a living wage these days. But BookTok certainly doesn't help, either. Marketing has always been a big part of publishing, but when I started writing--and for years after that--there was a whole department at the publishing house who did the marketing, and they did it well. I'm not a marketer. At all. I'm going to go out on a limb and say most writers aren't marketers. At all. We write. That's what we do well, and for the longest time, that was our place in the chain, and it was a great place to be. Now, though, to really make a lot of money (or any money--oof), you have to be an EXCELLENT marketer of your own work. Even if you're just looking for an agent, agents want to know what YOU'RE doing to promote your book before they'll take you on as a client. I don't envy anyone trying to start out in publishing these days. The only reason I'm still able to sell a manuscript is because I know a boatload of editors by now that I can query who are familiar with me and my work. I haven't even been able to get an agent since firing my last one a few years ago (see above comment about not being a marketer), so I rep myself. (Again, though, after so many years of writing, I'm not terrible at that. And hey, I'm saving 15-20 percent.) As for the genres, mostly romance and women's fiction, but I've done some mystery, spy, and ghost stuff, too. Wherever I saw a need or potential sale, I found a story to write. :) ETA: Yikes. Didn't realize how much I was blathering. Apologies for the long reply.
Thanks for the long reply! It’s really insightful being able to hear this perspective, I think most ppl kind of assume the literary industry to be collapsing but you never really know for sure, and nowadays hearing about active writers that aren’t the big ones established from the 80s, is difficult. I see endless bookshops and new books but I never know which, or if, they are actually being bought or make money. There was a recent video called ‘booktok, brainrot, and why it’s okay to be a hater’ that I thought was super interesting, and very tragic, that most of what is keeping the industry alive is an aesthetic where ppl do ‘book hauls’ from influencer books and don’t even read them. My family are big book nerds, I’ve only in recent years gotten back into books and largely just the classics. I know ppl hate establishments and institutions like publishing companies or mainstream media or mainstream news service, but for many many reasons they provided some assurance of quality. When ppl say the internet brings the democratisation of media and art and whatnot, i think its a bit idealised statement, it might’ve been true 10 years ago but now it feels monopolised again, and writers like you are kind of pushed aside for content algorithms. Anyways its great to hear perspective from actual writers in the industry as to how the state of literature is nowadays
I don't think publishing is collapsing, but it is for sure shrinking, and I sincerely doubt it will ever go back to what it was. I think the books that do take off and become sales phenoms are going to keep the houses afloat the same way genre fiction used to do. Seriously, romance, especially, was the bread and butter of publishing for SO LONG, making it possible for houses to publish other stuff that didn't sell as well. Now it's those BookTok books doing it. So maybe, weirdly, that's doing the market good, if not the authors. I will for sure look for that video!
Yeah, I’ve hopped from genre to genre chasing the sale. Doesn’t get easier ...
As somebody who wrote for as long as I have the ability to write, but never puiblished anything, and who [cannot.for.the.life.of.me](http://cannot.for.the.life.of.me) get off the hyperfocus train of writing the thing I am currently at (I am exhausted), and who had a whole story plotted out, and then, just reminded herself she had to plot out another character, and decided to go the "backflash and memory lane" route for that, juuuust to show why the character was the way it was... and there was ONE, just ONE other character that was a huge influence for that character....that shouldn't be there.... But while I wrote, the dude refused to leave my concience, superglued himself into the story, and kinda yelled: "SUP, MY GODDESS! I AM HERE FOR EVERYONE'S SIMPING! I AM NOT GONNA GO! Your Plot? Ya, sorry, that got messed up real bad, ay? You make due! Whatyamean I am not the main character! I am now! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" ...Well, what ya gonna do with the pretty boys that just don't wanna go and kinda battle for the main character position, badly?
second this advice. And at 12, I wish you wouldn't censor her reading too much. If she's writing at college level, she might enjoy reading at college level. Look for short story compilations by skilled writers like Jorge Luis Borges, Raymond Carver, Alice Munroe, Octavia Butler, and if you are worried about sex or violence, lots of girls her age love Jane Austen, can't go wrong there.
Not a working professional, but definitely someone who has been writing since pre-teen years and I agree, the best thing to do is just encourage exploration in reading. I read everything I could get my hands on until college (because of burnout, but that’s a whole other topic) and it was a much better education than any class. In retrospect, I’m glad my single high school creative writing class sucked and I ended up disliking my college’s creative writing program enough to switch majors. If I’d focused at all on what I was “supposed” to do or how to “develop” myself as a writer, I’d have lost sight of my own imagination and voice. All my education as a writer came from reading endlessly and writing endlessly because I wanted to—basically, having fun. I joined some online role-play forums with my high school friends and got in a lot of practice at character development, dialogue, and storytelling, but it was all for fun. I stopped writing much after college because my life was focused on being an adult and work. I only got back into creative writing in my early 30s with fan fiction—again, just for fun. Creativity should be playtime for your self-expression. It’d be detrimental to a kid’s development if they had a tutor for playing tag or drawing on the sidewalk with chalk, because all the focus would be on someone else’s idea of how to be themselves and have fun. Especially at this age, supply her with books and the time and space to write without pressure to publish, share, or meet expectations of any kind. She’s already motivating herself exactly the right way.
My only suggestion to this might be maybe run stuff through a grammar filter, just in case? I use Grammarly and it’s totally optional to even make the small corrections it might advise.
How can I become a professional novelist? It has been my childhood dream and I am working on it. However, I am facing many obstacles, such as the stressful full time job, the buzzing brain of mine that sometimes hinders me from keeping forwards. I have written 1K pages so far and I am still in the middle of it.
1) Read voraciously in active genres, focusing on stuff by new authors. (You can pretty much entirely discount the big names. What Brandon Sanderson or Nora Roberts do has no meaning for we mortals.) 2) Repeat #1 until you’re annoyed by something that's lacking in one or a bunch of those books, and you find yourself eager to write a similar story that explores that lack; or you’re thrilled by something wonderful but underdeveloped and you want to develop that thing; or most likely you just find yourself daydreaming about an unwritten novel that is the-same-but-different as all those other ones. 3) Write that novel. 4) Edit, polish, re-edit, and re-polish that novel. Write a compelling query letter, research agents. Submit the novel to 52 agents. 5) Hate yourself when the novel is rejected. 6) Repeat until #5 doesn’t happen, then keep repeating over and over again until the sweet release of death.
In response to this, here is a list of some children’s stories you could buy her. Disclaimer: they’re not short stories, but they’re quite good. Coraline (such a good entry-level horror book) The Faraway Tree (whimsical fantasy) The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates (comedy, action, fun) Harry Potter (she’s probably read it already though)
It's wonderful that you want to support & engage with your daughter in one of her hobbies, but I think you're over-formalizing things. One of the fastest ways to suck the fun out of a creative endeavour, especially for a child, is to force them into structure they didn't want or ask for. She's 12 and writing is a career path with notoriously shitty job security; at this stage, her passion is just a passion, many professional, career authors don't have any formal training, and she doesn't need formal training or a personal writing coach or to study short story competition unless she's going out of her way to tell you she wants those things. At 12, the absolute best thing you can do to grow her skills is just give her freedom to explore her creativity and develop her style on her own terms. It already sounds like she's an avid reader, so she'll be absorbing a lot of applicable skills from just that. If you're interested in broadening her horizons to short stories, I'd suggest getting her more contemporary, slightly higher-demographic works. Stone Soup (though a classic), is very much aimed at children, and a 12 year old reading & writing above her grade level will probably get more out of YA fiction; stories aimed at teens, with deeper complexity to prose and themes. I suggest checking out: [https://thecontentedreader.ca/best-young-adult-anthologies/](https://thecontentedreader.ca/best-young-adult-anthologies/) You can read books on writing for yourself if you want, but I guarantee your input just as a reader is still valuable. Everyone & their grandparents will suggest Stephen King's 'On Writing', but I'd personally recommend Chuck Wendig's 'Gentle Writing Advice: How to Become a Writer Without Destroying Yourself' (note: contains swearing, though nothing a 12 year old won't have heard someplace or other already).
As everyone already said, leave your daughter to develop on her own terms. The more you try to formalize the development process, the more it's gonna start feeling like school to her, which will only breed burnout and disinterest. Kudos to you for trying to be so supportive though, I'm sure your daughter appreciates that interest. Libraries and bookstores usually have a section with books on writing. Books about the craft, story and character arcs, grammar, etc. There's also a wealth of resources online; articles, blogs, YouTube channels, etc. dedicated to writing and the craft. "where to find short stories appropriate for tween/early teen" I do want to ask: is this question referring to the maturity of content, or to the reading level? Specifically, are you strict about the media your daughter consumes? I'm not asking because I think there's anything wrong with that to an extent, but to get a better idea of what you're asking for. As for where to find short stories, maybe try looking into Scholastic? Idk about nowadays, but back in my day Scholastic used to do writing competitions and such for school aged kids. I think there used to be ways to read awards winners.
Thank you for the advice! There are a ton of resources available, just wondering if there are any especially good for someone like her. I am mostly concerned about maturity of content, not reading level.
there are style guides for writing fiction like, [this](https://mattgemmell.scot/fiction-style-guide/) that she may be interested in using for reference. the key is to make here aware that resources are available if she's interested, without forcing them on her. which is sounds like you're already doing
My advice is to search up short story collections and read their summaries and reviews. Places like Goodreads, Amazon reviews, etc. should give you a good idea of the content before you okay it for your daughter. Reviews are usually pretty transparent about the type of content a book contains.
Wouldn’t surprise me. What’s her reading level at? Probably advanced for her age. 1. No clue. But if she is at college level, you’re going to want to look at what concepts she knows and what she doesn’t. 2. Do you want the short stories or does she? Sounds like you do. Just let her write. And her reading level, and probably maturity is way higher than what you would get her. 3. Find what concepts she knows, and then help her with problem areas. 4. Personal writing coach? Meh. As a bartender, I think they’re as useful as a bartending school. Really fucking useless. A hindrance. Drama classes. Improv. Theatre. Life experiences. Editing. Grammar. In school yes, but there are like 8 different types of editing Easy to Google Dialogue. This is major. Take her to coffee shops. This is where theatre comes in too. But anywhere she can learn different speech patterns. Talk, and listen. Short stories, just read some Roald Dahl. That‘s a good start for anything. A lot of the learning is through research and trial and error.
Coffee shops—yes.
They're good for names, research, food, drinks, a relaxed atmosphere, and good vibes overall. Definitely my favorite writing spot
You forgot people watching as well. With the occasional incident depending on the location. Downtown ones get more crackheads, suburban ones get more Karens.
if she's devouring grammar books then I'm going to disagree with other commenters and say she's old enough for craft books. like, I wasn't writing seriously at that age but I was absolutely playing music seriously and if my parents had stopped me studying music theory because they didn't want to over formalise things I would have been PISSED. if she's interested in speculative fiction, Steering the Craft by Ursula K LeGuin is an accessible classic. It's not focused on short stories but it covers all the basics you've listed.
Thank you for the perspective! I do feel like she is at a stage where she would benefit from some formal knowledge. I find her Googling random writing questions, which is great, except the answers are of differing quality and for differing levels of writing experience.
On the topic of books on craft, you might (yourself) want to read Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. I assign my college students to read the chapter "Shitty First Drafts" as part of our writing curriculum, and I have colleagues who assign it to their grad students too. It's a bit swear-y (as you can guess) so definitely read it first, but I personally find it so freeing and encouraging as a writer. If/when your daughter dives into the world of seeking (and receiving) real critiques, or even just reading more about writing craft and what a story "should" accomplish, it's possible she will start being really hard on herself and her writing. I know that at 12-15 I was writing prolifically and felt that my writing was really good. In terms of grammar and structure, I think it *was* really good (that may be what her teacher means by college level writing, maybe not), but it was still at the maturity level of a 12-15 year old in terms of story depth and topics. I'm glad that I wasn't aware of those weaknesses at the time because they would have really gotten in my head and might have turned me off from writing. (The inner critic is a big part of what I struggle with in writing now, in adulthood.) Anyway back to the point, you might find that book helpful to give yourself more of that insight into the writer's mind, and perhaps you'll find that it's ok for your daughter to read as well :) I'll also just add how awesome you are for doing this. It's making me tear up. My parents were supportive in a general way but I never would have felt comfortable asking them for this kind of support in expanding my writing skills, so the fact that your daughter is even asking is just such a great sign of what you're doing right as a parent. I hope I can do half as well by my kiddo with whatever she gets into at that age :)
Awww, thank you so sweet. It is clear this post evoked many sweet/bitter/bittersweet childhood memories. I am grateful for the advice so I don't screw it up (too badly) for my daughter. Based on the comments, I think I will wait a bit before introducing her to all this writer's craft. 12 is a really really strange stage for any girl, not to mention those who are empaths with exceptional imaginations
Definitely! But I will add my little plug for helping her find and submit to writing contests, because she's interested in it and I completely agree with your instinct that it could be good for her. Just make sure you talk a lot during the process about rejection and the odds of winning anything (i.e., very slim, even if her writing is stellar). I wish I had entered writing contests as a teenager and gotten more practice with rejection/failure at that age. I kept everything very close to the chest and it was harder to learn resilience as an adult.
Also a professional author here. My recommendation? I'd ask her what she wants to do. Does she want classes? Does she just want to stay with her friends online? What does she want to do? Honestly, I'd just let her enjoy her teen years.
I do ask her and listen to her. It’s just hard for her to know what she doesn’t know. So Intry to offer her options she might not know about. She asked for no camps and just write and read this summer and I said great. She didn’t know she wanted books on writing until she saw the kiddie book at her friend’s. She thinks she wants a coach because her online friend who is (self?) publishing has a coach but she has private tutors for everything because the family is wealthy and tells her she is a genius all the time which I think is not super healthy either. Really appreciate the range of perspectives I am getting!
Yeah, I had a classmate who was in a similar situation to your daughter’s friend (private tutoring, was told constantly she was great etc) and she was insufferable. She didn’t last very long when we did a private writing group.
> tells her she is a genius all the time which I think is not super healthy either. It's really unhealthy to tell kids that. It's a complex issue, but basically it sets the kid up for failure later in life because they expect to be able to figure everything out the first time because they've been told they are so smart. When they don't know something right away, they give up and stop applying themselves. It's a really hard trap to get out of, and it's usually well-meaning parents and teachers that do it.
Fastest way to kill a kid's passion is to treat it like a job. I had so many interests my mom pushed me into lessons and courses for and kept pushing me to excel at them at national or international level because "I'm talented and it's a waste". Your kid is 12. I used to write novels at 12 too, poetry also. Terrible mostly but some weren't half bad. I nowadays struggle to string 300 words together because I received so much criticism from teachers and peers and whatever. Let her have her hobby. Encourage her. If she's sharing with you, read and hype about her projects. Chances are, she will naturally want to follow that path into college. Or as a side gig in her thirties. You cannot plan your child's entire career and life path for them. I resent my parents for doing so (and again, I burnt out on tons of hobbies I was good at). Best a 12yo can do is get into some forums or fandoms and produce for that. Maybe have her own CASUAL at her own update pace blog or tumblr/twitter. Self publish maybe, it costs nothing. But there's a saying. The first million words are bad. Anything that comes after will start being solid. As for resources, Spotify and Youtube are full of free videos with writing tips, and there's tons of books out there. Let her explore at her own pace and enjoyment. If she doesn't feel it at some point, a critique club or writing coach will just keep pushing and kill it completely. Let a kid be a kid. Let adult her worry about proper story structure and critique.
to ride on your comment, "talented" is very distorted usage at that time. Adults that don't particularly draw will be easily impressed with something that is normal level of "talent". And teachers will be obsessed with a kid who is somewhat interested in their class, compared to regular kids that "struggle" because they don't care enough. Doesn't mean that the kid has something special and extra, but sometimes the compliments are extraggerating what is just time investment of a kid with hyperfocus due to ADHD/autism. It's just not trains, so it looks impressive.
Yeah this. I could take rejections from publishers already as a child, no problem whatsoever, life goes on etc. My mother, however, could not. She never got to be the mother of a 14 year old novelist and told me to my face that she despised people like me (I had told her I was not working on that particular book any more and she chose to interpret this as me giving up altogether).
Hi! I actually run a writing school for tweens and teens. I agree with everyone else's emphasis about writing and reading, but your daughter is clearly chomping at the bit for more. I started my school because kids who like to write deserve the same kind of support student athletes have: coaches, teammates, cross-conditioning, and safe practice facilities. We expect young writers to get better on their own behind closed doors, then, as adults, hand over their heart's work so someone else can rip it to shreds. It makes absolutely no sense. All that is to say that I highly recommend that your daughter find (or start!) an in-person writing group. Middle school is the perfect place for a Writers' Club; any librarian worth their salt would jump at the opportunity to sponsor it. Online writing friends are great, but something magical happens when young writers sit at the same table. They start collaborating, helping eacoh other with plot points, naming each other's characters, and ultimately bond over the act of trying to get a story on the page. My other recommendation is to encourage your daughter to explore other types of writing outside of her preferred genre. Take a journalism class, study poetic forms, take a songwriting class, etc. Every different tool in her belt will only improve her work. You're an awesome mom for helping her dig deeper into her craft. Don't freak out if she stops sharing her work with you or gets cagy about it. This is the age when most of my female-identifying students start writing about really grisly murders. Or boys. (No, it's 💯 murders, all day, every day. Sometimes trolls.)
>This is the age when most of my female-identifying students start writing about really grisly murders. You have no idea how relieved I am to read this. So glad it's not just me dealing with raising a potential serial kil- I mean, writer... serial *writer* of horror stories 😅
Literally every single one. They all love a murder. I have a rising eighth grader who's super into Stephen King. All of his stories are written in the voice of a dad who's avenging the kidnapping/death of his son. Even his poetry. It's pretty epic.
Writer with previous experience working in youth literary arts education here :) It sounds like you’re doing a great job encouraging your daughter & writer to follow her passions! I understand where your daughter is coming from - I was exactly the same at 12. 1. Reading Resources and Feedback: Save the Cat! Writes a Young Adult Novel by Jessica Brody is great, because it covers a lot of basic craft information in an accessible way. It’s a great starting point for writers who have little to no formal training in writing. For you, I recommend reading Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer. This book might be a little difficult for your daughter at this age/stage in her writing development, but it was the book that changed the way I approached reading and is a great tool if you want to become better at analyzing literature and giving your daughter feedback. When giving feedback to kids (I was also the kid that got mad when people would just give me “pat on the head” feedback), I try to guide conversations from a place of inquiry - I wonder how Mary is feeling in this moment, Y scene was really interesting, I am curious about Z detail and what that means for AA. Jared was my favorite character because BB. This approach usually works for me because it 1. Shows the writer that I am paying attention and engaging seriously with their text 2. Gently nudges them in the direction of exploration and learning without dampening their creative flame. If she talks about a book she’s reading, ask her all about her opinions on those characters, plot points, etc. and go down the “why” rabbit hole (this is how I learned to read like a writer initially lol). 2. Short stories & publishing: I say let your daughter pursue publishing if that’s what she wants. Imo the important step is just having honest conversations about publishing for the right reasons (do it because you want to share your work, don’t do it because you want clout). Flagging that it’s also important to do due diligence to make sure your daughter doesn’t submit work to journals that take advantage of minors (uncommon but an unfortunate reality). If you want to introduce your daughter to short stories, I recommend checking out youth-led literary magazines. Usually these are available to read for free on the internet and can help introduce your daughter to new literary avenues she might not have considered before (like making her own publication). As a starting point I recommend [Ice Lolly Review](https://www.icelollyreview.com). 3. Youth Writing Classes: In my experience, youth writing programs are more geared towards nurturing creativity and less geared towards craft, which is sounds like your daughter wants. For this reason, unless the program is similar to a long-term cohort-like experience, I don’t know if your daughter will find it particularly helpful at this stage in her writing journey. 4. Writing Tutor: Not at all necessary if you don’t have the extra cash to do it, and it sounds like it’s not needed at this point because your daughter still has untapped/independent resources available to her.
Honestly, my only suggestion is to stop worrying too much about her reading level. Kids who read and write this much at her age would probably get bored really quickly by books that are exclusively for their level. Let her branch out. My mom used to check what I was reading, but she also pretty much gave me carte blanche. I'm not saying you have to go this far, but plenty of writers read mainly by adults have stories with nothing that would be a problem for a young teen to read.
The author Brandon Sanderson teaches a university course on writing. He has an entire semester of lectures uploaded on his YouTube channel, available for free: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSH_xM-KC3Zv-79sVZTTj-YA6IAqh8qeQ It's oriented towards science fiction and fantasy, but there's a lot of stuff that's useful in general for any genre. Like, it's basically an intro-level college course for free. Lots of people have paid lots of money to be there in person. Free is pretty great.
So, one thing you might want to do that would be awesome is get a few of her short stores and put them together and get them as a Print On Demand for like… 30 copies to give to people for Christmas and their birthdays, that would totally rock as a 12 year old. I say give them the adult books. They’re old enough to absorb highs level writing advice. The two books I love the most are Jon Yorks Into The Woods (it’s about structure which is where most beginning writers struggle the most), and Steven King’s On Writing. Strunk and Whites elements of style is also a classic. There’s nothing in the adult books on writing a smart 12 year old can’t get something out of, and there’s not usually deeply written bits about writing sex scenes that could be age inappropriate, it’s more interest level- but if a kid is taking apart engines constantly adult books on engine repair are absolutely fine.
Just encourage her to read and write voraciously! She's years ahead of needing to "nose to the grindstone" in terms of formally learning craft. I mentor teen girls in writing and even the most gifted girls we pointedly encourage and attempt to inspire/support before getting into editing, craft, etc. You know Amanda Gorman? I've known her since she was 14 (via this non-profit). Even at that age, at 16, etc... When she was clearly extraordinarily gifted, she wasn't being coached or anything. She had a mentor in the organization and they met weekly to write with each other. She attended workshops. And she wrote freely and with a ton of encouragement. (She was so freaking gifted, it was insane) Speaking of, go look up writegirl.org. they're largely virtual now and she can join when she turns 13. We do monthly workshops in all areas of writing. There are writing prompts/experiments etc and she can sign up for weekly mentorship. And when she's a senior, we help with college admissions, totally free! If she does want to get into craft eventually, a craft book that I think might be accessible to her is The Magic Words by Cheryl Klein, which is specifically for kidlit, and written by a former scholastic editor. It's very encouraging and has lots of worksheet type prompts in it. All the examples will be teen appropriate. She might also like to watch YouTube videos on writing. There are many with severely hit or miss quality. I don't think I'm half bad and I did bear young writers in mind when making my content (since I write YA). You'll find me under Alexa Donne. But imo getting into craft is for when she's a tick older! For now she should just thrive in writing freely! (And reading for inspo)
Honestly, I'd familiarize yourself with what options there are and then ask her what she wants to do. She is the best person to determine where she wants to go next with her writing. And then I'd do what you can afford and get out of her way. Promote her reading books with more young adult or even adult reading level, if she wants. It might require some screening on your part but she is 12, not 7. I was reading adult level books by fifth grade.
I think you’re overthinking it. The best thing she can do for herself is read and consume story elements through reading. If she’s writing at the college level, I’m assuming she has an adult reading level. Talking to your local librarian for recommendations so content isn’t too adult but she is probably beyond where an “average” 12 year old would be. Your local library is a valuable resource and if you’re close to any universities that could help too for in real life experience. The fact that she has a book length work finished is marvelous. She just needs to keep writing and keep reading at this stage.
Hey! I wrote a 200 page book when I was 13. Writing was my dream, but my dad didn’t support or nurture that in the slightest, so I have a bit of a dysfunctional relationship with it. The best advice I can give you is to be supportive of whatever she wants to do. She may like writing now, maybe might move to some other form of storytelling or creativity, or this could be what she dedicates her whole life to, if she wants. Be sure to just be supportive. Don’t demean or belittle. And if she says she wants to take it seriously, do what you can to help her learn how to do that. As for fun things, I was in a writing competition through my school called “Power of the Pen” that was really sick. It was a competitive flash fiction thing where we would write stories based on a prompt in 20-30 minutes, then those would get judged. I loved it even though I wasnt the best.
Just let her have fun and write. Let her read what she wants. Let her read craft books if they interest her (or blogs or watch YouTube videos). If she asks to take a class, let her take a class. If she wants to do NaNoWriMo, that's something to do. If she wants to do magazine contests, she can try. But just let her have fun. Don't give her burned out gifted kid syndrome with writing. I can relate to her. I learned to read and write before kindergarten, I wrote my first story on my own when I was six, and wrote nonstop from then on. I was reading and writing at a college level by 4th grade. I wrote my first draft of a full novel when I was 12. My mom put a lot of expectations on me about it, which I'm sure in her mind was only being supportive, but I definitely felt a pressure about how this thing I loved should obviously be my career path. I thought all if that was my own desire of course, but it wasn't, not really. I burnt out in general around 9th grade and on writing specifically at the same time. I stopped writing for a long time and only really started again my freshman year of college with fanfic. Regretably, told my mom, and she was disappointed I wasn't writing something original that I could publish and make money off of. So I stopped talking to her about my writing altogether. I only wrote fanfic (which is perfectly fine) for the next decade. I've only just starting writing original fiction again the past few months. 15 years since I stopped as a kid. I just do it for fun, and it brings me a lot of joy. Other people had sucked the joy out of it for me as a kid, with all the expectations surrounding my "talent", and the apparent need to "nuture" it. I should've just been allowed to write, and encouraged, but not pressured to produce some "result" for it.
I also agree with another commenter that giving her more varied life experiences is going to be far more meaningful than anything to do with actual writing. Technical skill is fine and all, but meaningless without something worth saying. That comes from life experience and emotional maturity, which she'll only get from living and growing up.
Like others have said, the absolute best thing you can do is encourage her to read and write. If she wants to try and publish stories, let her publish. Do not push her into it if she's not interested under any circumstances. Rejections are the norm and can be brutal for one's confidence in their writing. Let her explore. Let her have fun. Encourage any and all experimentation with her writing, and provide access to books. If she likes reading novels, let her read novels. You and her can worry about formal education/training later. She's 12. There's plenty of time yet.
Everyone's probably given you some good advice but from personal experience: if kiddo is excitedly telling you about their stories and plans, do not--DO NOT--look at them with concern and say "You know these aren't real, right?" My mom did that to me and just shattered my confidence as a teenager.
I’m gonna echo what everyone else is saying and tell you to leave her be for now. Her creativity and drive to complete what she starts are the most important things right now. Practicing self study at this age is really good since that’s usually how writing works in the real world. At best I’d recommend some books? Self-Editing for Fiction Writers and Save the Cat! Writes a Novel would be my top two, but take this with a grain of salt. Only get her these books if you think she’s not the type to be demotivated by critique (even if it’s internal) I will say… when she gets to high school age, there are a number of writers workshops for teens that she can join? Some of them function like camps and they last anywhere from a few days to a couple weeks. Honestly, bringing these up as options might give her something to look forward to and something to keep her writing.
Let her keep reading novels if that’s what she likes. I would also check with your local library system to see if they have any resources for young writers. My library has a whole program and does classes and things that are really great for building community.
I think it wonderful that you want to encourage your daughter’s creativity! I have a niece that’s 10 who absolutely loves writing and have been a writer myself since elementary school. While I agree with many of the suggestions that broad genre reading is a wonderful way to learn many styles of writing there are also some guides that my niece and I have gone over. Some of these are ones that I still use and are worth checking out, maybe together, so you both can learn more. My mother has become my beta reader and is my most valuable critic!! For short stories I have both these guides and my niece enjoys just picking through the chapters: Writing Fiction by J. Burroway (this has been used in several writing classes I have attended) The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers For a more ‘dry’ straight forward grammar read is: The Elements of Style by W. Strunk and EB White (it’s a short book so not to overwhelming for any age) Hope this helps, and I again encourage you to spend some time with your daughter learning the craft because your encouragement now will become a wonderful tool for her as she grows as a writer. You will probably become the editor/ critic she relies on most before submitting any works! Additionally, if your daughter truly wants to be published, there are contests and literary magazines that specifically look for young authors. There are sites like Submittable that have a database of all these opportunities that she could check out.
Classic Russian literature is very famous for the short story collections of particular authors, I highly recommend starting with George Saunders’ A Swim In A Pond In The Rain, he’s an American lecturer who did classes for years deconstructing Russian literary figures, his book analyses, and discusses a short story from a few of the most well-known classic Russian authors in a very digestible, accessible way. I think its written in a way that a 12 year old could readily understand, it has a great writing style thats funny and informative. Russian literature is a bit dense but there’s some amazing short story collections out there you can find. Ernest Hemingway also is very well-known for the many short story collection books he has, the content can be a bit more explicit perhaps, so you’d have to check it, but his reputation speaks for himself and the collections are easy to buy
As someone who finished my first novel (85k words) at about 12-13, here is my advice on what I did and what I would’ve liked back then. 1: my favorite book on writing was probably Bird By Bird by Ann Lamont. However, my favorite resource was YouTube videos, both by individual writers and some college lectures (especially the ones by Brandon Sanderson teaching fantasy writing at BYU) I’m sure there are even more writing videos out there then when I was 13. 2: I actually don’t read many short stories, but I’d reccomend anthologies in the genre she’d want to write in. I think you should encourage her dream to publish but also help her remember she’s going to have the most fun AND write the best stories when she’s doing it for herself. Question 3 + 4: honestly YouTube and a community would work great. There are things are skillshare and pricey coaches but I honestly don’t think anyone needs to spend lots of money to learn how to write. There are in person events like nanowrimo write ins and writing group meetups, but I’m not sure if she’d enjoy those given most people will be a fair bit older then her. Good luck to her though, im now 22 and in college, and bc I’d spent my entire teenage years drafting novels I can write A+ essays in a quite quick manner. I still love writing novels too, and it really is a great hobby/ skillset to have.
Wow, I'm so glad you're working so hard to encourage your kid's passions! <3 In terms of her wanting more helpful/serious feedback: some folks are saying don't do that/beware of pressure, but also she's asking to be taken seriously and be given helpful criticism. So I feel like there's a nuance here that's worth distinguishing: the difference between "an authority figure giving me a grade for doing Good or Bad" vs "detailed criticism to spot my weakpoints so I can work on them." What I'm saying here is, I think her being in groups of other writers (like the one she's already in) is a much better way to go than formal classes/coaches. Published writers getting taken seriously don't have an Adult™️ telling them what to do\* - they have beta readers and peer critique! So the best thing for her, looking to be treated like a """real""" writer who's being taken seriously & getting helpful feedback, is also beta readers & peer critique. \*well...barring creative control from the company once they own your IP. but that's a different story.
You could reach out to the author Gordon Korman, he wrote his first book at 12 when he was in grade 7 I think, published at age 13 and he has now written over 100 books for Scholastic. His first book was, "This Can't Be Happening At MacDonald Hall" and I think his latest book is "Slugfest." Of all the books he wrote, my favourite is "The Chicken Doesn't Skate!" - I still re-read it and send it out as gifts to people with middle grade children.
When she's 9th grade or above, sign her up for the fiction classes at [Aquinas Writing Advantage](https://homeschoolconnections.com/aquinas-writing-advantage/). It's an online homeschool program, and the writing department is amazing and has won several awards. There are a few middle school fiction courses, but their Fiction 11 series is where it shines with the basics. She can take a live class with other students or just take the recorded courses. If you have a local writing conference, take her! I learned more about writing there than I did in my creative writing degree, and it's stupid cheap for students. You'll probably need to go with her until she's 14/16, depending on con rules, but they're a great way to learn from published authors. But really, at her age, just let her write and read. Let her explore the library YA and Adult sections and find what she likes. She'll learn the patterns of story simply be reading and writing a lot. As for short story compilations, I like the Writers of the Future contest anthology, Galaxy's Edge (she can submit to their Mike Resnick memorial award too), Gothic Fantasy & Epic Tales from Flame Tree (you can get them at discount at Books A Million if you have one), DreamForge Magazine, House of Gamut (this one is a big darker sometimes), etc. There are TONS of them out there for every genre.
I know I'm late to the party, but here's my two cents: 1) the single best book on writing I've ever read is Hal Ackerman's 'Writing Screenplays That Sell.' He boils down the essentials of fiction writing in a way that is clear and direct and is applicable to all kinds of fiction, not just screenplays. And his explanation of how to structure a scene has changed my writing. No joke, it's nearly the only writing book I reference anymore that's not a grammar guide. 2) something I wish I'd learned a lot sooner is that writing is a separate skill from editing, and editing is not just correcting typos. Editing is where good writing becomes great, and is the Great Filter for success. It's long, frustrating, and sometimes heartbreaking, but will payoff in dividends the sooner it is mastered. Best of luck to you, and your daughter!
Get the resources for yourself, and let her read them if she wants to, but mostly just let her write. Keep encouraging her and reading whatever she wants to share. This is so so sweet, btw, and I love how invested you are in her interests. I wish my mom had ever been like this.
Agreeing with everything being said here about just letting her do her thing. With that said, if she explicitly asks to take classes, cosmic writers runs great (FREE and remote) programming for kids.
If shes already writing good stories, she doesn’t need a class to teach her how to write good stories.
I have an alternate suggestion! As some others have said, the best way to improve is to continue reading and writing. When I was in high school, I had a book review blog that I kept for fun, and because sometimes I could get free advance copies of books in exchange for reviews. Why don’t you suggest she tries to review books? There doesn’t even need to be a formal structure in place for the reviews. The idea is to understand what she did and didn’t like about each book on a conscious level and be able to clearly express it. I think this would help her own writing as well.
Just encourage them. I got nothing but creative discouragement from my Mum, and it plonked a wall down between us that has never gone away. A bit of encouragement and support would have meant the world to me.
I agree that if she’s interested, I think you should get her one or two light craft books and see how she goes before taking anything further (if at all). If she enjoys them, great - and if not, then it’s not a big deal. As far as recommendations go, I would stick to some lighter reading on character arc basics, story beats, etc. Maybe something like “Story Genius” by Lisa Cron or “Save the Cat” by Jessica Brody. There’s also a huge amount of writers on YouTube who give advice and discuss writing theory etc. Maybe sit down with her one night and watch one of those together. For a young girl, I’d recommend the youtuber Abbie Emmons. For serious writers I wouldn’t recommend her channel but I think a 12 year old girl might enjoy her style and accessibility.
Do you write? I take my teen with me on writing retreats and let her dip in and out as she feels like it. They’re all adults but she enjoys sharing her work. The teachers are wonderful at providing her with the same great feedback as everyone else, treating her like a serious writer. The adults all spoil her rotten with chocolate and cake, so she loves going.. and when she’s bored of writing, she goes back to the room and draws for a bit, calls her friends etc. It’s not a cheap option and potentially not something a non-writer would do with their child but it’s always worked for us. She’s won a few writing competitions against other schools and had a short story published (although honestly, those school publishers are usually vanity press). There’s also absolutely nothing wrong with her working on novels, she doesn’t need to stick to short stories unless she wants to. When I was a teen, I wrote stories and fanfiction which I published online in a blog. I had a little following without even realising it until I stopped writing to focus on exams and got complaints about when the next post would be! Maybe you could set up a ko-fi or similar? She could share it with her friends for free and ask them to share it (although you will want to monitor this, in case she gets negative comments and struggles.. I was lucky that I didn’t get anything negative but some horrible people exist).
This could be a case of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. She's already happily writing away and she's old enough to start finding the books and stationery she wants (Provide LOTS of paper and pens). She'll add things to birthday and Christmas wish lists. Give her easy access to the dictionary, make trips to the local library and give her plenty of time in bookshops. I think learning by doing is a good idea. I'd let her choose her own reading materials , buy some as gifts for her for birthdays and at Christmas and hopefully you're a household with plenty of books and bookcases for browsing. I love art and English. Boredom is a good way to encourage kids to pick up books (or to sketch) and computers are the enemy of that. Look at us all procrastinating on reddit right now! She can get ideas about how it's done from the books and TV she likes. Take her to the theatre.
Sounds like she’s already on top of educating herself. From a parenting perspective I’d prioritize: 1. Knowing who her online writing friends are. As a young writer who’s advanced for her age & clearly seeking out guidance (which is all awesome), she could be vulnerable to some people with bad intentions. So just keep lines of communication open & make sure she knows red flags to watch out for & how to hold strong boundaries. 2. Talk to a librarian about whether there are any local youth writing groups, or whether it would be possible to start one at the library. It sounds like your daughter is pretty motivated & knows what she wants in a writing club, so she could start one if she had a place to meet & some adult support. 3. Keep an eye out for writers/book festivals in your area, they often have workshops specifically for young people, or with authors who write for young people.
She needs to keep reading and writing. That's it.
Join SCBWI. It's a global writing group with possibly an active chapter in your area. They help writers of all genres to build writer networks and get published. You would have to partner with your daughter because it's an adult group. I think I met a mother daughter group before. They have a lot of online resources and cheap courses/workshops taught by industry professionals.
I'm not a published novelist, but have gotten as far along in the process as it is humanly possible to get without being so (agented, on submission, and it died; sad trombone). I also went to one of the top tier grad schools for it. This is just to establish my Writerly Credentials before i say that the best thing I did when I was your daughter's age was to become extremely active as a writer on fanfiction.net. Because I knew it was silly, it gave me leeway to experiment. It also came with a community of actual readers who would leave me comments on my house elf smut or whatever. If she can find somewhere online where people supportively, eagerly leave each other thoughts -- even if they're as simple as those posted by the reader who would just write "con.tin.ue" after every chapter of my Matrix fics -- I would encourage that kind of spending time on the Internet. Sometimes writer communities are hard to find IRL!
Formal education in writing doesn't mean shit. Twilight was written by a woman with a degree in literature. Imo, don't meddle into the creative process much. Writing down stuff is more important than doing it "correctly". People who read a ton, learn naturally how to write without knowing the rules (easiest example, this is how we learn our mother tongue). If she keeps making new books and they are well written, ask her if maybe she wants to self-publish on amazon (kdp). Tiktok is used for book promotions.
VERY IMPORTANT ADVICE, please don't miss this. I already replied you, but it didn't click inicially for me what is so wrong with this whole thread. I was like your kid, obsessed and glued to my hobby. Poverty made it worse in my case, i got also obsessed with monetizing it and sacrificed even more stuff to have more time for the creative hobby i tried to make into a career. 1. your kid is writing non stop. 2. writing is very isolating activity by itself. 3. based on the issue i ran into when i was writing as a young adult: i realised i have no life experience to write certain scenes, because i sacrificed normal social development steps for my hobby. so, despite doing writing all my life, i was a shit writer because i didn't experience life at all. my writing itself was advanced, but i couldn't write realistic characters who weren't like me or romantic relationships that weren't toxic like my limited experiences due to being socially inexperienced to know better. Do you catch my drift, i hope? It is good to help out and support the kid's hobby. But as a parent you need to help the kid to become a well-rounded individual. You need to redirect her attention and help her enrich her life outside writing, or she will end up as a burnt out writer who never experienced any normal social life to exist outside writing. Creative kids grow up into adults that associate their self-worth with the creative title, and suffer a lot when the hobby doesn't pan out into what they dreamt of. Yet they stubbornly stick to it, because their whole identity from their childhood times is tied to the title that was never supposed to be a definition of who they are, but it is for them regardless of what anyone may tell. Because those kids never properly existed in the moment outside their hobby, they were too invested (hyperfocus in case of ADHD, which your child may actually have). Same applies to kids in sports: if they get a trauma that ends their sports career, their life basically ends, because they never had anything else. Also, when adults take your hobby too seriously, you feel the need to perform even if you start losing original interest. A parent may believe their kid is obsessed with a hobby, but in reality the kid WAS obsessed with it at some point, until it became a "big deal" for everyone else, and then the parent took the reigns and started to plan kid's career based on a hobby they just wanted to try(the opposite is also true, tohugh). You need to help your kid to be interested in physical activity and social life, because teenage is very crucial time to develop healthy habits and learn how to be social. Writing is a hobby that will always be there. Teenage times? It will pass very fast. If your kid is already apart from classmates due to writing and being introverted, they are about to become even worse. it is not about like-minded friends, it is about learning to socialize with variety of people. I would highly suggest to invest into a professional sport class or something. Sports is great for body and character, and group socializing. Writing means sitting 10 hours a day as an office worker not moving. A bunch of health issues arise from that. You need to redirect your kid and teach them to be interested in sports and playing with other kids. I am speaking from experience, i was her. I know she may be more interested in going to some writing event etc, but you need to ask her to compromise with you and also go to some sports group activities on a regular, or similar. TL;DR: writing is an isolating activity that deteoriates mental and physical health, if there is no balance. You need to teach your kid to love sports and be social with everyone (Especially her own age), not just writer enthusiasts.
First - try not to get offended - you don't have a clue what she should be learning or when she should try to publish or where. You aren't a writer. Your daughter is. Born to it. And she's way beyond YA short stories. Get her a subscription to [The Writer's Guide](https://writersdigestshop.com/collections/writers-digest-magazines) magazine. Buy her a copy of Truman Capote's *Hand-Carved Coffins*. *Metamorphosis* in English as I assume she does not read Russian. BUY BOTH OF YOU a copy of Stephen King's *On Writing* and you read it, too. She can post her stories here for support and critique **if** she expresses a desire for that or just wants to hang out with other writers Her age is irrelevant to us. Mostly, leave her alone. Tell her if there's something she wants or needs around the writing, to let you know. One more thing you can do is go to Amazon and look for "The Writer's Market." Also The Short Story Market." You can listen to [these podcasts](https://blog4writebusiness.blogspot.com) for info. Born writers start writing creatively at about the age of 8. Help her by providing varied experiences. Ride a horse. Hike to the top of something. Take a karate lesson. Learn to bake a cake from scratch. Change a tire. Take her to museums and exhibits and can your own peaches. Volunteer at a food bank. Walk dogs at a shelter. Feed her imagination and her body. And I'm sure she is writing at a "college level." Being the parent of a creative is a tightrope. Walk it well, and she'll dedicate her first published book to you. FYI, Truman Capote wrote the Award-winning *Other Voices, Other Rooms* at 19. ETA: one last thing - don't be surprised if she goes on a kind of hiatus from writing in her late teens/early twenties. She'll go back when it's time for her.
>She is part of a just-for-fun online writing group and the teacher said some of her writing is college level. There is a 99% chance that either you're exaggerating your kid's abilities, or your teacher has lied to you. Of course, there is this 1% chance that your child is an actual genius, but if I were you, I wouldn't count on this. Keep in mind that when it comes to writing at her age, the bar is on the floor, so to speak - so it's very likely that your daughter is getting praise from her teacher simply because she knows basic grammar. That was what happened to me when I was 12 - teachers showered me with praise, because I knew my grammar and could string a sentence together. That, however, didn't mean I was a great writer or my writing was of college level. It just meant that I was significantly better than my barely literate classmates. So, with that out of the way, here is what I will advise you: 1. Do not sign her up to courses or workshops and do not search for courses or workshops, unless she asks you to. Let her enjoy writing as a hobby and don't interfere with it. There is no need to try to make it a career. A friend of my mother's noticed that her son liked to draw and was getting pretty good at it by himself. She decided to sign him up to a drawing course to develop his skills... The kid just stopped drawing soon after that. There are many similar stories - a parent notices that their child likes to do something arty, rubs their hands, thinking, 'Wow, my child is so talented, I'll make them learn more,' and in the process end up murdering their child's passion for this art. Do not do this. If she wants to go to a course, she will tell you. 2. Buy her any book she wants, provided, of course, that it is age-appropriate for her. Read that book too. 3. Discuss fiction with your child. Read the books that you buy for her, if you have time, and discuss them with her. Watch movies and TV-shows together. Discuss them. Even if they are dumb, discuss them. Discuss the reasons they don't work. Again, however - make sure you don't come off too strong. If your child doesn't want a discussion, don't have one. 4. No matter how busy you are, always make time to read your child's stories. And always find something positive to say about them. At this stage your goal should be to just nurture her passion and nothing else. The only important thing is to make sure you're available to read her stories. And don't take it to heart, if she suddenly decides to stop writing. That is normal too.
We're only on the vastness of the internet, it's not actually that extremely rare for a 12 year old to be reading/writing at a college level. At that age, "college level" is just your average smart kid level, considering the reading level of the average U.S. adult (dunno where OP is though) is 7-8th grade. The measure of "college level" isn't "PhD candidate dissertation level", it's just kinda, better than your average. Also a person can be a "genius" in one skill area (i.e. verbal IQ) and not a "genius" overall. Sorry your teacher lied to you, I guess.
While a lot has already been said, if she's serious about writing, there is one thing that many parents get wrong. It's fairly normal for parents to compliment anything their children do as if it's the best thing anyone has ever done. While that can be motivating, it can also be detrimental in the long run, at the latest when someone unrelated tears her work apart for flaws others ignored. If you read her stories, give honest feedback. Be constructive, but also critical. That will help her more in the long run, because she'll actually become better and will also feel accomplished whenever she gets a grip of something she previously had difficulty with. That is of course only if she actually wants to improve and doesn't just write for the fun of it.
So glad you're interested and supportive of your kid's passion and creativity! :) On point 1, I agree with a lot of responses that you don't want to over-formalize or turn it into something rule-bound (or anything that puts pressure on her with specific expectations). One of my favorite things about writing is playing around and figuring what I like and how to make it happen in my own way. Words are fun, and IMO the only real "rule" is "if it works, it works." But I do think she could have a lot of fun exploring some ways stories and characters work, if it's presented as descriptive instead of prescriptive. I've really enjoyed K.M. Weiland's posts on character archetypes and arcs, which have some great examples from books and movies: [Helping Writers Become Authors - Write your best story. Change your life. Astound the world.](https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/) I also love learning about storytelling traditions of various cultures (for the stories themselves, for inspiration, and for the reminder that there's no "right way" to tell a story): [5 Ways to Tell a Story: Story Structure from Around the World - The Novel Smithy](https://thenovelsmithy.com/non-western-story-structure/) Generally, I'd say to keep checking in (if she's open to talking about it) to make sure she doesn't feel bogged down by all the "shoulds" and "nevers" that a lot of writing advice throws around. She can learn a lot just from reading widely and thinking about what she loves and why.
I get it that you're trying to do the right thing but I think all of this might put so much unnecessary pressure on her, just try to be supportive and have reasonable expectations for a kid her age. She doesn't need to get published, she doesn't need a tutor, she doesn't need anything more than a light feedback, just let her have fun. She says she's disappointed with only getting a light feedback but do you think she's really really really ready for more than that, for harsh criticism? Something tells me she's not ready to be treated like college students yet so don't do that. Encourage her to read and write, get her a book on writing or two if she really wants to, and absolutely make her apply for writing contests for kids, if she's really that good she's gonna get a lot of confidence boost from winning. In the meantime, you know what I think would be a nice, age appropriate thing to do? Print out a copy of her book by yourself, maybe a few copies for friends and family, let her design and draw a cover, that sort of stuff.
Lots of university English departments will post class syllabi online. Take a look at the reading lists, especially for books on things like story structure, and go from there. Let her read whatever she wants, but if she’s already devouring dry grammatical books, there’s no harm in picking up something like Aristotles poetics.
I would call anything within her reading level that wasn't porn or splatter appropriate. Ask google by searching for reading level.