New Release & Review: The Life and Lessons of a Young Author by Sunayna Prasad

The Life and Lessons of a Young Author 

by Sunayna Prasad

Category: YA Non-fiction, 19 pages

Genre: Writing

Publisher: Amazon KDP

Release date: Sept 1, 2018

Tour dates: Aug 13 to 31, 2018

Content Rating: G

Whether you are young or old, The Life and Lessons of a Young Author can offer those who dream of finding the right path in the world of writing and publishing. Sunayna Prasad shares her experience as a young author and discusses what went well for her and what she suggests to those who long for success.

Talking about her life as a published writer, Sunayna Prasad teaches you the rules of the writing craft and the standards of the publishing world, as well as additional tips and tricks. The Life and Lessons of a Young Author can help you choose your own writing and publishing paths.

To read reviews, please visit Sunayna Prasad's page on iRead book Tours.

Describing Characters in Books: My Unique Views on That

I am not like many readers when it comes to reading physical descriptions of characters in books. A lot of readers dislike the author telling them what the characters look like. They want to picture the characters their ways. In fact, some readers rebel against what the authors say in describing the characters.

However, my views are different. Recently, I’ve been acknowledging that the characters in books are, indeed, somebody else’s creations. So I think it’s silly for me to get upset if a character doesn’t look the way I want. I support character descriptions greatly. I like to describe my book’s characters and encourage other writers to do so. In fact, I cannot really picture a character or keep a consistent image of him or her in my head unless they’re described with at least one trait. Otherwise, they don’t feel real enough to me.

I also wondered why people are accepting of character appearances on movies, TV shows, comics, and more, but not novels. That is because novels are not visual, so the idea is to use your mind to visualize the images. But I see it as the same. Visual works and non-visual are someone else’s creations for my entertainment. Just because novels don’t have pictures in them (with the exception of chapter books or graphic novels), that doesn’t mean the characters become mine to own. If I were to declare their physical appearance and promote that, I could get sued. But that’s a whole different topic.

Because the author created the characters, I believe they have every right to tell me, as the reader, what the characters look like with whatever descriptive traits they want—as long as it’s not too many (because that’s too much to remember and bogs down the narrative-up to a few are good enough) or offensive (you can figure that out).

But other than that, I accept descriptions of any trait. What I usually describe is a character’s hair and one or two other key features (i.e. glasses or beards). I never do eye color, because there are just too few choices, in my opinion. I also don’t do nose shapes or face shapes.

You can continue to approach character descriptions your way. This is just how I view them.

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I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

4 Stars

I found The Life and Lessons of a Young Author to be a quick and informative read. The author walks you through the publishing steps of both self-publishing and traditional publishing, but she doesn't just load you up with information. She addresses how certain steps will make you feel, like seeking out criticizing reviewers, and gives you assurance that steps like that are normal and your feelings are normal. She lets you know that you aren't alone in your feelings about writing and/or publishing. The whole process can be daunting. I'm currently in the overwhelming/daunting phase of writing my first draft and accepting that it's not going to be perfect from the beginning. The author encourages you to re-read and proofread your drafts several times (upwards of 15 or more times). She mentioned a new-to-me tip for editing/proofreading: print your draft out on paper and read/edit that way. She said that your mind will pick up more errors on hard paper than a computer screen. Little tidbits like that are what pushed my rating from 3 to 4 stars. On the topic of editing, I found a couple of missing words but it didn't deter from my reading experience. I would definitely recommend this book to any young, aspiring author. My kids' school librarian has a few writers who pick her brain apart for tips and I'm going to recommend she give this book to them to read. 

Sunayna Prasad has been writing since she was six. She continues to write fiction and non-fiction today and has even won a Pacific Book-Review award. She lives in New York, and when not writing, likes to create art and cook.

Connect with Sunayna: Website ~ Facebook