#submitted this to my siblings for peer review and got no feedback so now it's being thrown into the tumblr wilderness

[poisonandpages]

I sometimes think of that awful Scooby Doo Loch Ness movie, and how I would set a story in Scotland that more accurately reflects my country. I wind up losing it at the idea of Fred accidentally starting a fight by walking into a Celtic pub wearing white orange and blue on Old Firm match day, Shaggy and Scooby unable to help as they're busy scranning a whole Blue Lagoon out of business.

Velma and Daphne take a museum tour; Velma pesters the guide about all the different ways to say mystery-related words in Scots and Gàidhlig, Daphne wields a broadsword with one hand and tans a whole 2 litre irn bru with the other.

In the countryside Scooby gets accidentally carried away by a flock of sheep and is taken across 3 fields before the gang get him back. In the city Shaggy gets accidentally carried away by a flock of ravers and is taken across 3 nightclubs before the gang get him back.

They go to Edinburgh so Velma can get lost in the National Library archives and Daphne gets into a fistfight with some snobby university students.

Fred really struggles with the narrower roads and the Mystery Machine winds up in a hedge.

[blogwritetheworld]

Featured Writer: Sarah Feng

Californian Sarah Feng has wasted no time getting busy with the craft of writing. By the age of twelve, Sarah had written two novels, racked up over 155,000 reads on Wattpad, and earned her first publishing deal. Since then, the now 14-year-old has gone on to be recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and serves as one of our current Write the World Peer Review Ambassadors. While it’s true Sarah has accomplished a great deal in a few short years, she’s also a self described “normal” teenager who enjoys romping around her quiet suburban town—boba tea in hand, with her closest friends in tow. In our Q&A with Sarah, she talks more about her surprisingly relaxed approach to the writing process and where she sees her writing taking her in the future.

At the age of eleven you wrote your first book, Beneath. What pushed you to tackle a huge task like this?

It's hard to pinpoint the exact reasons for starting Beneath, but even when I was 11, there was just something so compelling about being able to detail a full, complex story, from start to finish.

It was like someone handed me silk, yarn, and needles, and the whole tale just unspooled itself from there on out. Of course, Beneath was nowhere near perfect (plotholes, two-dimensional characters, and amateurish writing galore!), but although the task of writing it seemed so simple, it proved itself to be much trickier than I thought. I had to map out characters, sustain their personalities, try and evolve their relationships, propel the plot along with a fresh range of characters, and juggle all these different factors in the back of my mind while writing each sentence. For an 11-year-old with the attention span of a ladybug, it was tough, but in the end, it made the closure that much sweeter.

After writing Beneath, you subsequently wrote your second novel, Chiaroscuro. How did your writing improve between books? What lessons did you learn from writing the first book that you tried to incorporate in the second book?

I was 12 when I started writing Chiaroscuro. Since then, it's collected about 155,000 readers on the online reading platform Wattpad. I was (and still am) 14 when Chiaroscuro was self-published in paperback and eBook this March. Soon after, I received a publishing offer for Chiaroscuro from Pulse Publishing and accepted it.

As for what I learned from writing Beneath–definitely, planning out helps. That's my biggest advice to any writer who's looking to write a novel with lots of twists. With Beneath, I didn't work out any outline or plan, so there were more plot holes in that book than hairs on my head. With Chiaroscuro, I paid meticulous attention to every detail of the character's backstories–what color was the gun? Why did James say x, y, and z on page 37? Although they're small, they make a world of difference. Fixing these small issues and making sure every piece of dialogue and description fit with what was revealed later on infinitely helped stitch my story into one cohesive body.

You've submitted to—and been honored by—a number of writing awards, you work as the prose reader at Glass Kite Anthology, and you've served as a Write the World Peer Review Ambassador. Suffice it to say, writing is a huge part of your life. What advice do you have for other young writers who want to incorporate writing into their lifestyle on a more consistent basis?

Definitely, don't force yourself to write just to follow a rigid writing schedule. Write when the inspiration is so strong it electrocutes you down to your bones. I am in no way a prolific writer, nor am I really accomplished compared to thousands of teen writers out there, but one thing I have realized is that creativity doesn't arrive every other day from 6-7:30. When it hits you, take it, cherish it, and milk it. However, when you don't feel very inspired, try for a few small writing drills–describing what's around you, capturing sensory details, sketching a friend's personality without ever using the names of emotions, etc. Do these exercises just to lubricate your thoughts, but never make yourself write just for the sake of doing it. If you work with creativity instead of trying to summon it, you'll find your writing portfolio expands pretty rapidly.

And definitely get feedback from others. Ask your parents, ask your friends, post it on Write the World, anything. Praise and constructive criticism are sure to keep you going.

What was it like being a WtW Peer Review Ambassador?

Being a Peer Review Ambassador for Write the World has been a truly enlightening experience. Not only did I get to meet a team of talented writers, but I also got the opportunity to read such a varied, thoughtful, and culturally rich range of written pieces. The exposure and different perspectives helped make me a more well-rounded and open-minded writer.

Additionally, critiquing the works of others has helped me become a better editor for myself, too. Now when I write, I apply a much more meticulous revision process to my works pre-submission, knowing that someone on the other end is going to review it the same way I've done for many works on Write the World. I have also gotten better about looking at my writing more objectively and strip away bits that may have worked well in my personal thoughts but not for the piece itself.

To all those Write the World members who might be reading this article, when the next quarter opens for ambassador submissions, apply. It's such an incredible experience, and I promise you won't regret it.

What are some of your longterm goals as a writer?

High-school-wise, I want to write two more novels and get published in a handful more literary magazines. I would love to become a Scholastic Art & Writing Awards national gold medalist sometime before I graduate, though this is highly unlikely.

As ambitious as it sounds, by the end of college, I'd like to have my novel(s) published professionally and in actual bookstores, along with a poetry chapbook. I'd also like to work as a reporter for some period of my life, as I recently got into journalism. I report for the town newspaper and am the incoming Arts editor for my school paper. I would also love to be nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

How would you describe your hometown in California to someone who's never been?

People riding horses, CEOs living down the street, relatively quiet, soft sunsets, smart people everywhere.

In all fairness, though, Los Altos and its sibling city Los Altos Hills are the epitome of the quiet suburban life. There are a lot of stereotypes surrounding the cities in Silicon Valley—rich people, genius students, rich genius students, etc., and while they may apply to some students in Los Altos, most of us are just normal. We make up a small town. We get boba at the mall, watch Netflix. We buy silver trinkets from downtown, laugh while stumbling over leaf-carpeted sidewalks. We go hiking in the dusk and drink tea and laugh too loud. This is us. This is Los Altos.

About Sarah

I'm Sarah Feng, a high school freshman who attends Pinewood School (Los Altos, CA). I lived in China for 4 years until I returned to the states to start school. Currently, I'm studying the chemical composition of words, the flight of birds, and the distance between pu'er tea and nighttime. My works have been recognized by the regional Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the California Coastal Commission, the Write the World Novel Writing Prize, and more. My young adult novel Chiaroscuro recently came out in paperback. I've been writing for as long as my memory goes. Writing helps me strip away the clutter of the world and cut to the bone of my thoughts. For me, it's a way of summarizing. It's how I tell my own truths. Outside of my amateurish writing, I make art, figure skate, run track, and talk to my friends. My experience as a Peer Review Ambassador at Write the World helped me get a job as a prose reader at Glass Kite Anthology, and I am ever grateful to Write the World for giving me the opportunity to review for them. To learn more, visit www.sarahfeng.weebly.co