The final revisions are posted for our May round of the First Five Pages workshop. Please read them below and share your thoughts and impressions. Are you hooked? Are you eager to buy a book that starts like this? What else needs some work? What are some of the things you loved?

We’ve been very lucky to have Kat Zhang with us as a guest mentor this month. Kat is an amazing young writer, with the first book of her mega-hot trilogy coming out in September: WHAT’S LEFT OF ME.

Here’s a quickie interview with her to enjoy in the meantime.

Q.       How
long have you been writing and what sort of writing training did you receive
before writing WHAT’S LEFT OF ME?

I
started my first (unfinished) novel when I was twelve, but I didn’t actually
complete a book until I was seventeen. I started WHAT’S LEFT OF ME that same
year, so I didn’t really receive any fiction training before then. I did read a
ton of “How to Write” books for a while, though, and I’ve always been
a voracious reader 🙂

Q.       What
two mistakes do you see young or novice writers most commonly making?

1.
Worrying too much about what comes after finishing a book before actually
finishing the book. Finishing the book itself is a big step (at least it was
for me, if you can’t tell by the 5 years it took me, haha). It’s okay to take
things one step at a time. In fiction, at least, you need a finished manuscript
before any of the rest of it matters.

2.
Querying too soon. This is totally me superimposing my own mistakes on other
people, but for the longest time, I did not understand what
“revision” really meant. My idea of “revision” was
basically what the publishing industry calls “line edits.” The first
project I ever queried (the MS before WHAT’S LEFT OF ME) was
“revised” but not actually revised. Again, take your time! A first
draft is made to be cut up and rearranged and stitched together again. Don’t be
afraid to make big changes. 

Q.       If you
could give a young or novice writer one piece of wisdom, what would it be?

Write.
Keep writing. It’s your craft, and it’s a skill, and the more you write, the
better you get. Also, it’ll distract you from all the things in the industry
that you can’t control. You can spend forever fretting about trends and things
like that (and don’t get me wrong–they are worth consideration), but in the
end, don’t waste *too* much energy on it. 

Q.       What is
the most important thing  you have learned on your journey to publication?

Enjoy
every step of it 🙂 

—