At Writers Day, Discussing the Path to Publication

How do you become a professional writer? Practice, practice, practice.

 

Four published authors brought this message to NCS students on Monday in conjunction with the school's annual Writers Day, discussing their work, the commitment required to complete a manuscript, and the dedication to see it through rounds of feedback and editing.

 

Novelists Lillian Li '09, Jessica Spotswood, and Hena Khan joined poet Alan King to meet with students throughout the day, and each talked about the path that delivered them to publication.

 

Spotswood, the author of eight young-adult novels, talked about how she went about finding a book agent, and she showed Middle School students her first query letter. Khan discussed how rewrites allow an author one last chance to tweak her manuscript storyline, and she reviewed some of the risks she took in writing her debut children's novel Amina's Voice.

 

King talked with the Middle and Upper School about the choices he made in pursuing poetry, which has resulted in two published collections, and the role readers can play in educating the writer about his own work. "We all bring our own perspectives to it," he said.

 

He also advised future writers, "Part of the writing life is putting yourself out there. Be prepared to be your own PR person."

 

Li, an NCS alumna who was returning to Writer's Day for the first time in nearly a decade, recalled how she always loved writing and would create stories "in the margins of my life." Still, only when she took a creative writing class and loved it did she realize that writing might be her calling. Li entered graduate school at the University of Michigan and enrolled in the Helen Zell Writers' Program. There, she wrote and then honed her debut novel, Number One Chinese Restaurant, which will be released this summer.

 

"My path seems really linear, but the whole time I was full of doubt and anxiety," Li said. "Ignore that fear and keep going. It takes bravery to be a writer."

 

Thank you to all four writers for taking part in Writers Day!