Hi, Tamlyn,
Thanks for posting. I’m pleased to hear that you’re such a big fan.
Re: reading and assessing your work. Firstly, I write my own stuff, but that doesn’t really qualify me to critique yours. e.g. I once agreed to comment on the work of a friend’s daughter. She wrote Y/A sci-fi, and I absolutely hated it. But a publisher thought it was pretty good, so it shows what I know, right? I just happen to loathe Y/A sci-fi. But secondly, I get so many requests that I’ve had to make it my policy to decline to read anyone else’s work. Sorry.
But advice is free! Read a lot, and write a lot — those two activities help you develop a facility for the use of language. What you write will come more fluently, and chances are it will read just as smoothly too. And NEVER put down a single word until your work is perfectly planned. You can’t say anything well unless you know exactly what you want to say. And you can’t know that unless you plan. And always remember this: anyone intelligent can write intelligently. The trick is to write something that someone else will want to read. It’s possible that the ability to do that is what people call talent. Whatever it is, I hope you have gobs of it, and I wish you luck!
Best regards,
—-Gordon Korman—-