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Imagine becoming famous at the age of 12 to 18 by writing a full chapter book. Many people write books, but for some their books skyrocket and fame comes early. Lots of people like writing, but most take college or high school courses to learn about writing before they actually write a whole book. For some people who are younger than high school \ college age, they skip the courses and go straight to the writing. These are people like Christopher Paolini, Flavia Bujor and Juliette Turner, who all share a common passion for writing. However, most teen authors have trouble with balancing normality with fame, having low self confidence, getting inspired and connecting with their writing. (Hemley)
Balancing the normality of their personal lives with fame is something most teen authors have difficulty with. Flavia Bujor, age 12 when she wrote The Prophecy Of The Stones, said that school, family and friends came first. She goes to school in Paris and is a normal student during the week, but on holiday breaks, she becomes an internationally acclaimed teen author. She said "I know now that being famous doesn't mean anything, that being a student doesn't mean anything. I am just myself." What she was meaning is that even with the two parts of her lives, she is still just a girl. (Krasov)
Most teen writers have problems with self confidence because of their young age.For example, Christopher Paolini, writer of Eragon at 15, said "Perhaps the greatest challenge I faced was lack of self confidence. I didn't know if it was even possible for a 15 year old to write a book.". (Dragon Tales)
For teen authors inspiration is what starts the road to fame. Lots of different people get inspired by different things. Christopher Paolini was inspired by Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville. Flavia Bujor gets inspired by the things around her, and Juliette Turner gets inspired by her life and what she is doing. (Dragon Tales)
Connecting to the story is the next step after getting inspired.Lots of people just write stories, but authors know that you normally have to connect with it to be good and feel right. One of the people who normally connect to their stories is Juliette Turner, author of 3 books at the age of 18. She wrote her first books in as essays about the Constitution and the U.S. presidents. How she connected to her books was her mom, the TV star Janine Turner, cofounder of a program that teaches kids about the Constitution for 90 days each summer. Juliette wrote her essays at the program, and turned them into books. Her 3rd book, That's not Hay in my Hair, is an auto-biography turned fiction. She wrote the book and then turned it fiction to make it more interesting to the public. (Peppard)
In the end, teen authors have a lot a struggles balancing fame with a personal life, having low self confidence, inspiration and connecting to the story. The best ones succeed in finding that balance. Teen authors are people who are the same as us, just ones who have gotten an early start to their future.
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