Stephanie writes young adult contemporary novels and is the creator of GoTeenWriters.com. Her novels include The Reinvention of Skylar Hoyt series (Revell) and The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet (Playlist). You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and check out samples of her work on her author website.
Jill and I had great fun reading through all the comments from the Go Teen Writers survey. Thank you for taking the time what you love about the blog and ways that you think it could be improved.
Many of you said you would love more opportunities to connect with other teen writers. While Jill and I continue to look for more ways to connect you all, I thought I would go ahead and post a list of what we have in place already.
This is a really active and wonderful group. With 400+ members from all over the world, there's almost always somebody available to answer your question or offer thoughts on your writing.
I'm very careful about who I let into the group, and we're not afraid to bounce people who are causing issues or who disregard the group guidelines.
Because I'm so careful about who I let in, I often deny access to people who I don't know so you can speed up your approval by sending me an email when you apply to the group: http://www.stephaniemorrill.com/contact-me/
This is an email list that's set up through Yahoo groups. We started it when we had our virtual writing retreat, and it's been a nice way for those who are participating in the 100 for 100 challenge to encourage each other along the way.
This is an unofficial hangout spot for teen writers, with the stated purpose of, "We're here to offer support for writing. Writer's block, flat characters, horrible dialogue, can't get from point A to point B. Post a question and hopefully the rest of the community will help."
I hope these links are helpful! Many thanks to all those who wished me a happy birthday yesterday (it was awesome, especially because of the very generous surprise many of you contributed to) and you can still win a copy of the Ellie Sweet books!
Wow! :) I haven't heard f the GTW google+ group. I have to check it out!!!! :) The email loop has been helping me so much, thanks Stephanie andy Jill!!!! And I hope more will join. **looks at other writers reading posts** ;) Thanks again!!
ReplyDeleteI'll have to look at the G+ page. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI love the Facebook group, it's always helpful when I need an opinion on something + its good fun hanging out with all of you and discussing anything writing/reading related ^^
ReplyDeleteWhat do you suggest for teens who don't have Yahoo! or social media? I'd love to be able to connect more, but it's always been so hard for me!
ReplyDeleteFrom Amo Libros:
DeleteDo you have any friends/neighbors who write, or at the very least, love to read? If so, have you considered forming a group with them?
Local groups are a great idea. I know my library has a few. For a while, my Barnes and Noble had a teen writers group (or they were trying to get one going), so you can check bookstores too.
DeleteI see a lot of you connect here in the comments, which is great. I love seeing that :)
@Anonymous I've tried and failed. :) No one's really serious about it like I am. It's just a hobby for them, while I'm actually trying to get honest feedback. I still have a lot of fun with them when we do get together and write, though.
Delete@Stephanie I'll have to check out my bookstores. :) Thanks! :D
I'm just curious, but is there anything in place to connect individual teen writers? I mean, I've applied to the Facebook Group (not in yet), but I feel like having 400 eyes who briefly comment on something aren't nearly as valuable as one person who can give individualized feedback to me and I can also focus on helping them. Just looking around the Internet, the "official websites" are really intended for adults. Is there something intended for that purpose on the FB page or elsewhere?
ReplyDeleteOn the FB page, you can put out the call for someone who would critique for you. They do that a lot, actually. Let me go approve you real quick :)
DeleteI'll have to like the Facebook page! :) Sadly, I'm not sure I could figure out how to get in the e-mail loop (I'm not that with-it for computers...:( )
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you made a google+ page. I don't do social media, but my brother's teaching me a little about google+ now, so I should be able to handle that. :) I have a friend that I talk about writing with, but it'll be nice to get more opinions. Quick question: Do I have to be accepted onto google+ or do I just join? (Like I said...I'm a little technology-challenged.)
ReplyDeleteSince that's an unofficial group (meaning I didn't start it) I'm honestly not sure. Google+ is a foreign language to me.
DeleteOh, my gosh! I had no idea there was a Facebook group! Now I'm so happy! :) I never really knew how to connect to other writers. *Scurries off to apply*
ReplyDeleteHappy to help!
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