i am a young writer myself and ive noticed a lot of the time its restlessness that gets me to stop working on a project...which is i think why many dont get published, because they never finish what they started!
Just know that usually younger writers are related to publishers. The author of the dreadfully boring Eragorn, I hear, is one such instance. The issue with young writers is understanding the human condition. They have a hell of a lot more to live to write something I feel is worthy. But old authors were young writers at one point so it's a matter of practice and observation. And by young I'm assuming teenage.
well i think thats a bit unfair, im a teenager and i can write better than a lot of people who are older than me, it all comes down to creativity/how long youve been writing, and I think it makes no difference if your 17 and youve been writing since you were 7 or 40 and writing since you were 30 personally. i think the main issue and i said it earlier is actually because kids are usually more interested in games and other stuff than writing, and many who do write never finish because they lack the willpower...theyll get up to say 10000 words in a 50000 word book and theyll say "meh" and quit.
I have often been surprised to find out that a story I'm reading and enjoying (online) was written by a young teen - and I mean some of them have been 14 or 15. I don't think it is necessarily about life experience or writing style, it's about being a storyteller. I truly do believe that you're either born a storyteler or not. The ability can be honed and improved, but it has to be there to begin with. You know the ones who have it - they're the 8 year olds lying through their teeth to get out of all the mischief their overactive sense of adventuire gets them into. ;-)
not all young 'writers' are only writers of fiction... in my teens i wrote as well as adult professional writers and journalists, was editor of the school newspaper; wrote news articles and a weekly gossip column and was crossword puzzle editor, turning out a weekly themed puzzle [dumbed down, sorry to say for readers who didn't do the ny times puzzles in ink, as i did]... i also won an american legion essay award and pulled A's on all term papers... thus, i have to assume that if i'd been writing fiction then, i'd have most likely been writing marketable/publishable fiction, as well, since i'd been a voracious and constant reader of all genres of fiction since i first learned to read [starting w/ little golden books and the bobbsey twins, gobbling up the iliad and odyssey along with shakespeare, by age 9]]... so, what i think of young writers is that if they have the inborn talent for wordwork and the passion to write, along with the passion to read, some may actually be much better writers than many adults who get their works published more by luck and pluck, than by talent... and i salute them!
I don't really care how old a person is when they wrote something. If someone is young and wrote something groundbreaking I'd find it more a pleasant surprise than anything else, though I do know not everyone is as talented as others - and I can't really speak from personal experience. While I've been reading a long time I've only been writing for 5 - 6 years or so, and for the first 4 years I wrote nothing but Lovecraft-copies, which would shame anyone.
I think I completely agree with all of you I'm 17, and I know that I have sooo much to learn still. For a start, I've still got a lot of experiences ahead of me that could be put to good use one day. Secondly, I still don't understand what my writing style quite is and I'm quite vulnerable to falling in with the writing style of which ever Author I'm reading at the time. It's all about finding yourself, I think, and sometimes I look back at something I wrote just a few months ago and think 'wow, that was crap'. Being young means that you're changing all the time, but because you're going through so many emotions all the time, it's probably good to note them down. I know that I want to get published some day but I feel nowhere near ready. I only write for enjoyment and storytelling, but I want people to be able to escape in one of my stories one day which is my main reason for publishing (or hopefully, anyway!) Last night I read Dear John by Nicholas Sparks and by the end of the book, I felt like saying Thank you to Nicholas just for publishing this amazing story. I want to be able to do that for others, so I figured the only way I would be able to do this is by a lot of practice and read a lot of books and with a bit of help from you guys on the forum
As a young writer going on to highschool, I know my work is still developing and someday I want to be a published successful writer! My writing is still in amateur mode, but what should I do with my writing until then?
Write a great deal, and read a great deal. Participate in the Review Room; both reviewing and getting reviewed will improve your ability to analyze your writing. But mostly, write a lot. If sitting down and writing stories feels cold and boring because they're not ready to be published, try blogging, participating heavily in forums, engaging in extended email conversations, anything that has you producing multi-paragraph pieces of writing regularly. And try to make everything you write clean and correct, not relaxing your standards because it's "just a forum" or "just an email". That doesn't mean that you can't experiment with informal voices and deliberately ungrammatical writing, just that you should be aware of the nonstandard writing choices that you make, rather than choosing not to correct mistakes that you already have the ability to easily detect. I say "already have the ability to easily detect", because I'm trying not to drive you all the way into perfectionism. Producing a piece of writing with some mistakes is far better than not producing that piece at all. As you find errors and bad writing habits, you can correct them one by one, but that process won't happen if you're not doing a _lot_ of writing to feed it with.
I actually write fanfiction to develop my writing... If that's your thing. But basically, everything ChickenFreak said. Practice, practice, practice. And I would also tell you to revise old writing, even if painful. I am able to spot some bad addictions I have now much more stronger in my writing back in a few months or so -- like the habit of adding speech tags after every character says something -- and correct them. I'm trying, I'm trying...
Besides the "read a lot, write a lot," which is the best possible advice, check out some "how to" books on writing fiction. I picked up a Sparks Notes "How To Write Short Stories," and yeah most of the things I have already known, but they have a some exercises you can try out; like the one mentioned by Cassiopeia Phoenix.
I mostly agree with ChikenFreak's recommendations with the caveat that having a blog, while improving your writing skills, will not improve your ability to write a novel.
Write as much as you can, review and review! Never lose sight of your goal and keep trying! Write every day until you feel you improved enough to start a project.
I think Chicken Freak naild it. I also think that as young writers, we should read as much as other people's writings as we should. And to be honest, when you review, you are trying to find your weak spot with a fresh pair of eyes. It helps you improve as a better writer to review someone else's work, while the reviews you receive gives you a rodmap of what you are improving in. I think that the reviews you receive helps you develop your voice, while reviewing other people's work helps you to add more color to your writing voice. Think of receving reviews from people as the TV you're watching is in black and white, while reviewing other people is the setting you're adjusting to add color to the screen.
Keep writing! Maybe ask some people you trust who are knowledgeable to help you revise. And keep writing some more!
Learning to write fiction is a lot like learning to play the guitar. It is something that takes a huge amount of time and effort. And it's something that you never stop learning from. The three bits of advice I can give to anyone starting out is this: 1) Always try to make your reader feel his/her time has not been wasted, especially if their time is being wasted. 2) Keep learning and remain modest - I read somewhere that Eric Johnson (maybe the best guitarist I've ever seen) still considers himself a student of the guitar, and is still learning about it all the time. This is a guy who has been playing guitar for nearly 50 years. So even 10 years of experience writing does not mean you are a master, not by a long way. 3) Think critically! - Keep writing is good advice, don't get me wrong, but think critically about your work, and develop your own critical skills. Think critically about everything you read. If you found something you hated, try to think of a positive, if you find something you love, find something not so good about it. And I have been published.
Write for the pure joy of it and write write write, read some great books and study how they do it and read some trashy ones and study how NOT to do it, and write write write some more. Give yourself space to just write without a care in the world, nurture that passion. And then have some pieces that you're serious about, write, re-read, edit, tweak and tweak and tweak til you think it is perfect. The first time I got serious about writing, I would study the same sentence for hours, aching over whether it is better as two sentences or to be connected with a comma, or what about a semi-colon, or a colon? Full stop here, verb there, or should I restructure the entire sentence? Is this sentence even needed? I got past that stage and now it flows naturally and I don't do that very often anymore, but I still re-read over my stuff every 5 pages or so, looking for the best way to make it work. But most of all, just write, and never ever be afraid of criticism. Take every comment - if it is negative but constructive, take it on board and grow with it, and if it is negative but does not build you up, feel free to move on and ask someone else's opinion. But never be afraid - it's more of an attitude. I've told myself since the age of 9 that I must be prepared for and never be afraid of criticism and rejections, and I will change and improve and come back for a second round til I'm where I need to be. Build up your persistence, perseverance and I guess, most of all, your faith/confidence in your own ability, while being absolutely realistic and humble.
As far as what you should do with your writing, I think one of the best things you can do is show it to others. Too often, advice is given to young writers to just write for the joy of it and not worry about others seeing. While that's a noble idea, I think most writers write not JUST for themselves. You want to see how others react to your writing and what they think. So get it out there. Submit as much of your writing as you can to contests, especially contests that will give you feedback.
My advice is: Always keep reading and writing. Analyze other people's writing. Get honest critique--and try to understand and learn from it. Read a bit about writing. If you are not sure about something, "google is your friend"--or just ask someone! Make use of the many online resources available. There are resources for learning grammar rules (e.g., "Grammar Girl"), building your vocabulary ("WOTD" type twitter feeds, websites, mailing-lists), there are podcasts about writing, etc.,
Good advice from everyone. I'm trying to go from nonfiction writing to fiction, and I'm pleased to see the rules are similar: read a lot, and write a lot. Apparently, Tolstoy would write a paragraph, and not move on to the next one until he was one-hundred percent happy with it.
Everyone gave some great advice. Find your writing style and what works for you and run with it. What works for someone else won't work for you. Take me for example, I often will start a story in the middle, because I got an idea for a particular scene. I don't worry about characters or the whole plot start to finish when I first start something - for me that comes naturally as I write. One thing I do that someone suggested years and years ago is to keep a notepad on hand at all times. I keep one in my purse and if I'm out and about and an idea strikes from out of nowhere, I whip out my notebook and jot it down. I came up with the main climax/scene in my book at a Home Depot. As I was with one of my kids at the time, I bought some food, sat down and spend twenty minutes scribbling away so I wouldn't forget key details. Oh yeah, don't forget to back up your work. Maybe back up your backup. I lost a 1000 page document once, along with half of another book I was working on and never quite got over it. Cried for a week straight.
Write, write, write! Join writing contests, write 'readers letters' to newspapers, start a blog (and consistently write a post) etc. Writing is a process of trial and error, as is almost everything in life Success!
