Ten tips on writing a book from a 3rd-grader

Last night Shauna & I discovered a page of notes that Meghan had written for herself last Wednesday when we'd gone to the Utah Sports Hall of Fame award dinner to see Shauna's father receive that organizations Distinguished Service Award.

Meghan signed her name at the bottom and dated it "Wed. 2-23-06 [sic] @ Grandfather Cleverly's house." A postscript reads "Note: use while writing" and another "I was doing this while Grandpa wrote the book `Dorothy'."

I'm probably just a proud parent, but this seems like good advice to remember regardless of age. What follows is Meghan's advice retaining her original spelling and punctuation but presenting it in a numbered HTML list:

1. Think about what you know.
2. Take your time as you write.
3. (Don't hurry through it. :-)
4. From time to time review what you have written.
5. Make sure you spell words correctly, your sentences make sense.
6. Make sure you use the right punctuation.
7. Beginning of setence should start with a capital, your proper nouns are capitalized.
8. Make sure there are spaces in between words and make sure you can read your writing.
9. What you would usaly do is when you are finished with your book read through it and think what it is about then name your book. (You don't have to do it this way, but it is easier to do.)
10. Let someone else read your work before you send it to the publisher.

—Michael A. Cleverly
Monday, February 27, 2006 at 20:33