I have a former student interested in becoming a published writer (paid) Any advice or help would be appreciat

Question

She dropped out of school a couple of years ago and really hasn't written anything since. She was always a wonderful writer, very gifted and I was very sad to see her go. Out of the proverbial blue this week she contacted me and asked for some assistance. She's very good, but she and I need some guidance about how to proceed. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

She should get a copy of Writers Market to see who is accepting what. I suggest she start out with short stories and articles because the process is much faster than for novels.

If she wants to improve her writing, she should pick up some books from Writers Digest Books. The Fiction Writing Series is excellent.

A quick exercise she can do to improve her writing is pick up a book she really likes and copy the first three pages by hand. She'll see every bit of plot development, characterization, dialogue and setting that way. She can apply those lessons to her own work.

Answer 2

Every writer wants to published. She should try to get a job as a writer with a newspaper, magazine, etc. If she want's to get published, (1) needs a Literary Agent to read her material. Tell her to purchase a copy of the "Writer's Digest, there is a list of Literary Agents. She can mail her material to a Literary Agent she finds in the Writer's Digest. More than likely she will not here from them, if she wants her submission returned, she has to include a large envelope with her query letter. If a literary agent is interested, they will contact her, otherwise her material goes in the trash can. (I know the ropes, I was a reader at a Literary Agency.)