With tween and teen writing tips, you can become a writer today.

What tween and teen writing tips do you need to begin? Try these:

• an active mind
• a block of time
• discipline
• an idea or two
• some tools.

Let’s start with the tools.

A very basic tween and teen writing tip are to Buy a writer’s notebook. It’s bound, large, with plenty of space per page. Avoid the spiral binder kind of paper holder (You don’t want to lose your precious pages, do you? Nooooo.). Buy your notebook at a “dollar” store, or go fancy and buy one at a stationery store.

Alright, you have a notebook. Now what? Another tween and teen writing tip is to Write. Write about what? Anything and everything that’s important to you. Help needed? Try these topics:

sports, pets, friends, family members, relatives, important people, interests, hobbies, imaginings, worries, concerns, fears, annoyances, hopes, love, and friendship.

Another tween and teen writing tip is Write every day. A few sentences will do to get you started. Keep on. Each day a little more. Or if you can’t think of anything to write, try something WEIRDO:

Write over and over: I can’t think of anything to write today. Why does this help? ‘Cause sometimes writing that sentence frees you up, like a warm-up before you jump into a sport. And before you know it, you’re sprinting … through ideas. GET IT?

Another tween and teen writing tip is to Decorate your writer’s notebook. Decals, drawings, wild lettering, photographs, cut-paper collages, and so on and on. LET THE DECORATIONS REFLECT Y-O-U. Special you. The special writer you. Unique you.

Another tween and teen writing tip is Use a special pen or pencil. Many writers, I know, myself included, must have that special pen or pencil. Can’t write by hand without it. Freak out if it can’t be found. Jitters, oh, if the lead or ink runs out. Soooo, become a friend with your very special writing instrument. Maybe you’ll choose to use it only for the writing you do in your notebook ‘cause it’s that special. Maybe it’ll only be for your notebook entries …or … a pen or pencil for your JOURNAL entries.

What journal? It’s the other ‘cheapo’ or ‘expensivo’ bound notebook you bought the other day, You’re gonna spend some time daily writing in your journal. Too much? —- Okay, then every other day. Take a few minutes to write your observations and feelings. Observations and feelings that day, the day before…the here and now stuff happening in your life. Good, bad, neutral stuff. Some writers and teachers of writing like to call this a “diary.” Whatever. Observations and feelings. And this might happen: Stuff you write here becomes the ideas you chase into your writer’s notebook. Get it?

Let your writing journey begin. Good luck.

What does it mean to read like a writer?

Begin to read like a writer and you’ll become a better writer. Really? Why? How?

Allow the professor to explain. But ya’ gotta stay awake…

You’re a writer, right? If you say, “NO,” then I’m inviting you here and now to pretend you’re a writer.

You’re a reader, right? If you say, “NO,” then I’m inviting you here and now to pretend you’re a reader.

Now, invite your writer self to meet your reader self. “Howdy, writer, and hey ho, howdy reader.”

Now, you can be a writer who reads and a reader who writes.

Maybe, you’re still wondering what I—Professor Tonio—am talkin’ about? Follow me—play it forward.

 Do you have a sport or hobby you really like—a whole lot?

You’re a gymnast, skateboarder, a basketball or baseball or soccer player, a LEGO guy or gal—like my grandsons Lucas and Anthony—or, you love to draw, dance, pole vault (WHAT??)—any activity that makes you happy even though it takes a lot or at least some effort—practice—commitment— to “stay in the game.”

Effort, yes, and this: You watch guys and gals who are in top form, who are experts, and winners. You observe their skill and learn from them. Maybe you even practice their moves and you get better at the sport or the hobby or at making jewelry or dancing or drawing or photography. Get it? Got it?

Now, follow me, dear readers who like to write and writers who like to read. You can read and observe the way writers of mystery, fantasy, science fiction, humor, historical fiction, informational books do the following:

• describe a character The Orphan: A Cinderella Story from Greece
• invite you into a place, a setting Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems
• create humor Fairy Tale Comics: Classic Tales Told by Extraordinary Cartoonists
• develop conflict Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods
• build suspense The Girl Who Drank the Moon
• make a sport interesting Everything Soccer 
• describe an important historical moment Towers Falling
• write about a famous person Martin Rising: Requiem for a King
• reveal information Awesome, Disgusting, Unusual Facts About Animals
• make you believe the unbelievable The Graveyard Book 

And what do you—the reader who writes and the writer who reads—what do you do when you observe a writer’s technique—that is, what the writer does to tell a story or introduce factual information in an interesting, awesome way?

You observe the technique and learn from it. Maybe you even practice the technique and you get better at writing.

[pssssst:: Are you still awake?]       [Good.]        ‘Cause I have two examples to show you from a book many of you have read and enjoyed: Percy Jackson and the Greek Gods by Rick Riordan

Example #1: p. 103, in the chapter titled “Persephone Marries Her Stalker (Or, Demeter, the Sequel)”: “I will make you moral, little one, Demeter thought. It’s the least I can do for your kind mother. I will make you so strong no one will ever abduct you the way my poor daughter was abducted.”

Now, what’s this, and what did it teach me as a writer who reads: It’s those slanted words—called “italics”—to show a character ’s thinking. Such a simple technique, right? Yes, indeed. It’s a cool technique I use in my most recent story called Loukas and the Game of Chance ‘cause the italics get my readers inside my character’s head where they observe his thinking. [psssttt…It’s not a technique I use a lot. Only when the character’s thinking is intense or radical. Get it, a reader who writes and writer who reads?]

Example #2: pp. 226 – 227, in the chapter titled “Athena Adopts a Handkerchief”: “So about a million pages ago, I mentioned Zeus’s first wife, the Titan Metis. Remember her? Neither did I. I had to go back and look….”

And this: “As you can imagine, this gave Zeus a splitting headache.”

What’s the technique that I like here: The writer—the storyteller—carries on a conversation with the reader. I love that. I love the relationship that creates. Someday, I’ll try using this technique: “talking” directly to my readers. Someday I’ll experiment with this technique to see if I can make it work. Cool, Professor Tonio.

My example of how I might step outside of myself as a narrator who’s sort of hidden and talk directly to my readers: “You know, reader, it wasn’t easy getting Keeper of the Forest to talk in a weird way. I wanted to do that ‘cause an accent or dialect of some sort seemed like such a good thing to make his character unique. I had to give his way of speaking a lot of thought until I came up with his strange accent. See for yourself in the next scene in Loukas and the Game of Chance.” That’s that. I’m curious. I wonder if I can pull that off … some day. Experiment with talking directly to my readers; that’s what I’ll do. Writers often experiment with different techniques until they find one that feels right.

Readers and writers. I gotta go. So do you, no doubt. But, listen up, please: My grandfatherly advice: When you find a writer’s technique that you like: Make sure you write a brief note about it in your writer’s/reader’s journal. Click this link that’ll bring you to my website (www.anthonymannabooks.com) where you’ll find suggestions about using a Reading or Writing Journal:

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Calling all teachers, parents, advocates. Do you want to encourage your readers and writers to read as a writer reads? Try using mentor texts with your kids, tweens, and teens. What is a mentor text?

I found an inspiring description of mentor texts when my Google search for “mentor texts” led me to (www.teachmentortexts.com):

“WHAT ARE MENTOR TEXTS?

Mentor texts or anchor texts are any text that can be used as an example of good writing for writers.  Writers use a mentor text to inform their own writing. Ralph Fletcher explains that mentor texts are, “…any texts that you can learn from, and every writer, no matter how skilled you are or how beginning you are, encounters and reads something that can lift and inform and infuse their own writing. I’d say anything that you can learn from – not by talking about but just looking at the actual writing itself, being used in a really skillful, powerful way.” To read or listen to Ralph talk more about mentor texts, you can listen to this great Choice Literacy podcast.”  Posted by Jen Vincent

Also, let Ralph Fletcher be your mentor text guide in Mentor Author, Mentor Texts: Short Texts, Craft Notes, and Practical Classroom Uses by Ralph Fletcher

Find two other good guides:

Teaching Writing With Mentor Texts in the Primary Classroom: 20 Lessons Based on Favorite Picture Books That Introduce Story Structure, Nonfiction Text Features & Author’s Craft by Nicole Groeneweg.

More About the Authors: Authors and Illustrators Mentor Our Youngest Writers by Lisa B. Cleaveland

Mentor texts rock. When I work with mentor texts in elementary and secondary classrooms I am awed by the skills writers experiment with whether in their reports or their stories. And their poems, as well, according to Mr. Ralph Fletcher who wrote Poetry Matters: Writing a Poem from the Inside Out.

Find Your Character’s Voice & Listen to Your Character’s Voice

When you find your character’s voice, you’ll begin to know how you want your character to act, speak, sound, talk, react, dream, and so much more.

Think about this:

When you hear a story character say: “Howdy, pardoner. What cha’ doin’ in these here parts?”

From the way this character talks, what do you think you know about this character? What might this character be wearing? In what part of the USA might this character live or work? Do you have an idea about the work this character does for a living? Give the character a name. WHEW!

Let’s try to begin understanding another character from the way they talk: “Alas, thou dost besmirch my honor with your loathsome regard for my command.”

No way am I, Professor Tonio, gonna repeat the questions I asked you to answer above. Sooooo, answer those questions about this “Alas, thou dost…” character. And give HIM or HER a name. [What fun, thinks Professor Tonio.]

Hey, ho, I made up another character for you to think about~~ but are you still thinking? Sure hope so.

This character says, “Eye shore do wont ta speak ma mind to that feller.”

That’s right. Answer those same questions and give the “Eye shore” character a name.

Ready to hear another character? Good. ‘Cause this one is from a story I wrote. The minute this character came into my mind, my life, my story, I named him Keeper of the Forest. At once, he talked like this:

“Ah, ah. Destiny, Destiny,” Keeper cried. “Oh, har favor not so easily gained dah. Mortal upon mortal have passed thees way desperate for Destiny’s cure,” continued Keeper. “Just as many have returned more, oooh, more and more wretched than when they set out tah. Crestfallen wahr they for having failed to receive Destiny’s guidance to change the course of thar tormented lives sah.”

I wanted Keeper of the Forest to have a drawl, to speak in a slow, lazy way with prolonged vowel sounds. His way of talking seemed so right for the kind of character I made him become? What kind of character is he? Ah, you need to read the story to find out about him and all the other characters that live in my story.  My story is called Loukas and the Game of Chance, and it will be published in 2019. Stay tuned.

Here you go again. Answer those same questions. You already know the name.

Another character speaks. Actually, two characters speak. A father and his son. The author of the story is Neil Gaiman. You may know him as the author of Coraline (https://amzn.to/2RJbVl0), The Graveyard Book (https://amzn.to/2PV3vty). and The Sandman series of graphic novels.

You say you never heard of these books? If you like strange, weird, mysterious, frightening happenings, you’ll love Mr. Gaiman’s stories.

Alright, back to a character’s voice. The characters speaking here are in Gaiman’s novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane (https://amzn.to/2PNtovt):

“Dad? Where’s the car?”

“In the drive.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“What?”

Pretty ordinary, right? I mean, the way these two characters talk sounds like so many people—fathers and sons—you may know. Except that there’s so much to think about—so much suspense—in so few words. Answer the same questions. Remember? From the way these characters talk, what do you think you know about them? What might these characters be wearing? In what part of the USA might these characters live or work? Do you have an idea about the work this character does for a living? Give the character a name. WHEW!

Go ahead now: Get together with a friend and have a conversation about how the two of you answered the questions.

That’s enough, Professor Granpa Tonio! Gotta life? Gotta go.

WRITERS, CALLING ALL WRITERS. DO THIS: Here’s a writing idea:

The way a character handles disappointment reveals a great deal about what is important to him or her.

Write a story or a short scene or simply write down some notes that show what happens when your character faces a disappointment. How does she or he act? What does he or she say? Ah, yes: How does your character speak?

My grandfatherly advice: Make sure you store your writing in—TAH DAH—your WRITER’S NOTEBOOK. What’s that? On my website, there’s a blog titled “Tween and Teen Writing Tips.” That’s where I introduce a writer’s notebook.

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Calling all teachers, parents, advocates. Do you want to encourage your readers and writers to create characters who have a distinct way of speaking? Search google.com: dialect in children’s literature and dialect in literature. Wow! You’ll find a lot there.

You’ll find useful examples like these:

This list provides examples of children’s books on dialect variation.

• Diverse Voices/Dialects | Read Aloud Picture Books

And for high school readers and writers:

• Popular Dialect Books – Goodreads

Happy Reading.

Happy Writing.

Visit my website: www.anthonymannabooks.com

#Read. #Write. #Act. #Draw. #Play. #Explore.

It’s all happening at Professor Granpa Tonio’s website: www.anthonymannabooks.com.

Kids, teachers, parents, grandparents, partners~~oh, that’s anyone who’s wild about books for kids, tweens, teens, and beyond. Come on over and hang out. You’ll find a very special place for watching funny videos, acting out stories with friends, writing like a pro, making story art, going deep inside different kinds of literature with really cool questions and reading guides. See you there. Don’t forget to tell me what you’re reading and writing these days. And, hey, be sure to leave your comments and suggestions and interests about—you got it—reading and writing.