Ana Júlia asked Alwyn Hamilton:

My boyfriend use your book and your characthers for everything he did. He wants to become a big writter (in his words "A famous story teller") like you and sometimes he doesn't like the things that he write. I love his stories and always help him with grammar. He don't talk much english, so i came here to ask you to say some words for him. He's name is Gabriell. And I wanna know: When hero at the fall come to brasil?

Alwyn Hamilton So here's some advise that I think all aspiring writers should know: Those of us who are published, most of the time we don't like our writing in the first draft either!

It's really really important for any aspiring writer to remember that what you are seeing when you buy a published author's book is a finished product. It has gone through months of drafting, and revising, and editing, and fine tuning by us. And then AFTER us, it has gone through our editors, editorial assistants, line editors, and copy editors. It has been worked and reworked until it is the best it can be.

Comparing your first draft to our finished books is deadly! It will kill your inspiration and your love for your work. So my best piece of advise would be: work at it, make it the best that you can make it and don't compare yourself, just enjoy what you are writing, love your characters and it will come together.

And also: Always remember that writing, like anything else, takes practice. You wouldn't expect yourself to sit down at the piano for the first time ever, and be ready to play a concert the next day. You wouldn't expect to walk onto a football pitch the first time ever and then play in the world cup that same week. You have to practice to get to a professional level. So why would you expect yourself to sit down at a computer and write a perfect book immediately. I wrote 6 bad books before REBEL OF THE SANDS. They were all practice. I learned something from all of them. They were all bad. But they were all necessary for me to write to become skilled enough at writing to do it professionally.

So that is my advice for your boyfriend, and for anyone else who might want to write, but hesitates to do it because they're afraid their work isn't good enough!

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