Hi!
My first draft is done! I finished it on March 7th. This draft has 18 chapters so far but I can't even estimate the number of pages it will be. Since my book will still need a lot of editing and work, I won't be posting a part of a chapter today. But, I did write a short paragraph about the first chapter. Here it is:

Matt and Teresa Jones are headed to Camp Lakeside, a summer camp run by their aunt and uncle and Rusty’s going too to be the camp dog. Trouble starts immediately when Matt, who’s trying to make a friend, gets caught doing something wrong with another boy. Teresa, on the other hand, notices a very shy girl in her cabin. She happens to notice some interesting things written in the girl’s journal and this is what sets the stage for another Matt and Teresa adventure.
 
Thanks for all your feedback! I hope you enjoyed this post.
Sydney

Hi!

If you enjoyed Part 1 of The Process of Writing a Book, here’s Part 2.

After you’ve written your first draft, there will most likely be chapters you love and chapters you dislike. To start the editing process, I print out and read aloud my book either to myself or a friend, family member, etc. When I notice something that doesn’t make since, I mark it on the page.

At this time, it’s always good to have a friend or family member or even a person you don’t know very well, read your book and edit it. The reason for this is because you know your writing so well, that you could easily just not notice a missing word or not see a major plot error. I even ask my mom to read over the blog posts that I write. I want to thank all the people who have edited my books. Their feedback as been such a gift.

Sometimes, when you get your book back from someone after he or she has edited it, you might be surprised at all the things that are marked, even if you've received lots of really good feedback. But, the way to keep positive is to know that by taking the suggestions, you’re making your book as good as it can be. Here’s an example of a page my mom edited a few weeks ago.

Here's a short list of things for you to look for when reading aloud your book:

Hi!

I’m going to do a two part “The process of writing a book” post. In this one, I’ll give some tips on how to start brainstorming and writing the book. In part two, I’ll explain editing.

Before you start writing, it's always a good idea to know what you're going to write about. Before starting my books, I would always be thinking about who my characters would be and what they would look like and act like. After I knew a lot about them, I'd think of a setting for my book. Using those two things, I would begin to create a  plot roller-coaster.

The plot roller-coaster helps develop the major events of the story. For the setup...

Hi!

Last post, I said I’d let you know when my Global Girls piece was out and that’s what this blog entry is about. I hope you check out my story on the Global Girls website. The principle I chose was vision. I told the story of envisioning my dream to write from when I was young. Also, my mom’s post should be up in a week or so and I hope you read that too. I will send an email out when it is up.

Thanks to everyone who commented or replied after the last post! And I look forward to hearing your feedback after this one.

Sydney

Hi everyone.

 I haven’t written on my blog in a while so I thought I’d do an update post. My life has been very busy right now with schoolwork and lots of extracurricular activities including basketball, acting classes, piano and much more. I am still working on the first draft of my novel, but have a goal to finish the draft within the next month. It’s a little later than normal, but I hope to publish my book in the summer.

I also wanted to let you all know that both my friend, Lauren-Kate (see her website) and I were asked to do a guest post for the Global Girls project. It's an international site that was designed to empower women around the world. I invite you all to check it out. Lauren-Kate’s post was published yesterday. She did a great job of sharing the challenges she faced and overcame in the process of writing her books. My post, which will be out soon, (I'll let you know when) is about my vision to write from when I was young. My mom was also asked to write a piece, and it will be out a week or two after mine. All of our posts are based around one word (a principle), mine being vision, Lauren-Kate’s being confidence and my mom’s being purpose. I hope you read all of them on the Global Girls website.

Thanks for your interest!

Sydney 

Hi! I'm Sydney and I'm 12 years old. I'm the author of a series called Matt and Teresa Mysteries - the books, so far, being The Mysterious Birthday Gift and Mystery on the Trail. I'm working on a third, but haven't decided on a title yet as I'm only a few chapters into the first draft. In the future, I will post updates, news and much more about books I'm writing. Enjoy exploring my website and be sure to check out my friend's page (Another young author.) I will also enjoy your comments and feedback as well as your posts on the forum.