Guestopia: Jordan Link

Today we have a guest post from 16-year-old Jordan Link, author of The Sacrificed. Take it away, Jordan!

Author at 15: Breaking into the Elusive Industry

by Jordan Link

Since being contracted with Entranced Publishing for my young adult fantasy novel, The Sacrificed, two questions in particular have caught my attention: why start so young, at the age of fifteen? Why not wait until you have more experience in the literary world?

I have enjoyed reading since I could remember, long before the time in elementary school when I received my first book log. There was something alluring about a book, fresh from printing, or dusty from weeks spent on the shelves. I fell in love with the odysseys, the adventures that lay before me as I turned each crackling page. But it soon became clear, around grade eight, that something was missing. My own characters, the quests and kingdoms trapped in my own mind, hadn’t yet found their place on the pages of a book.

There is somewhat of a stigma toward young writers in the industry. There is always uncertainty about their level of maturity, and how they will react when they receive their first criticism. They may lack experience and work ethic. The details of their contracts may be more exquisite, since many teen authors are under the age of eighteen. All of these points, under many circumstances, can be proved valid. Thus, it is often times difficult to find a publisher that will overlook ones age, and focus instead on their ability to cast a reader into a world that they will never forget. Luckily, I found Entranced to be that publisher.

But even before one embarks on the strenuous search for a publisher, or, if you’re really looking to submerge yourself into the literary world, an agent, a document of an extraordinary word count must be produced. No, it is much different than the five-to-ten-page research papers that every student, no matter how much they may protest, is required to produce in high school. Writing a novel is a journey in itself, and if a writer is truly entrapped in the mystical worlds that they create, the words will flow easily from their fingers and onto the glare of their computer screens.

My advice for any teen writers who are currently struggling to complete their manuscripts, and who may be reading this now, is quite simple: focus on the quality of your work! Though NaNoWriMo is a great way to fill the blank space of a Word Document, and to gather the confidence needed to pursue a full-length novel, an unedited piece will be the bane of many editors, and, as you will soon see when the rejections begin to pile up, the bane of yourself. However, outlining in excess can restrict your imagination. It may discourage and bore you: often times when I find myself outlining, I end up recycling the novel soon after. Instead, focus on major plot points that you need to fulfill, and keep tabs on questions that the reader might ask throughout your novel.

One big, often-addressed obstacle that can grow in size, brick by brick in the way that a medieval fortress would, is writer’s block. Many writers suffer from it, and writers with lesser experience are even more prone to resignation because of it. They allow it to escalate to an impassable blockade, one that is armed at every possible gate. The little black line that follows every word they type will blink, waiting, until their mouse hovers over the red ‘X’ at the corner of their screens.

No matter what people may tell you, or how much they will discourage you, a true writer will never stop trying. Just imagine where you could be in five years, ten years: typing away in the threshold of apartment with the skyline of a city down below; relaxing on a beach while embracing the sound of an endless ocean.

One person determines where you’ll end up in life: that’s you.

Be sure to check out The Sacrificed now available from all major retailers.

Emerald Hayden lives in the City of Centsia, a half-winged among the other walkers. She has no family, friends, or food: only a grim future filled with tiresome labor in the upper level’s factories. But everything changes when she meets Dusk, a winged from the place that she previously scorned. He opens her eyes to a new possibility: the possibility of the unity of winged and walkers, of freedom, and of love. Together, they decide to challenge the upper level’s supreme, winged council. But when a friend betrays them, they must choose whether to sacrifice their beliefs and save their own lives, or to remain along the thin line that divides the city in two. Success could mean liberty; failure, death.