Many have asked, and so I will answer.
First of all: I
suspect some of you really mean to ask me for advice to writers
generally, because a young writer is not some strange species of writer
that can't benefit from general writing advice, and fortunately I keep a
blog full of my thoughts for writers generally, with a small database
of posts about various topics. I will copy that database at the end of
this post so you can poke around my blog if you feel like it.
And
if you want advice about how to get published, you'll have to
frequently ask that question separately, my dears. (That is sort of a
joke. You only have to ask once.)
Young writers! Guess what? I
am one of you. Despite no longer being an adolescent, I am still 24,
which is on the way low end of the writer age spectrum. I am not a
source of great wisdom, because great wisdom develops over time, and
quite frankly, I haven't had a whole lot of that. But I'll do my best.
When
I was a teenager, I was in gifted/extended/whatever you want to call it
English classes, which meant two things: 1. I had gotten external
affirmation of my writing skills, so I was kind of arrogant, and 2. I
was very defensive and insecure, because pretty much everyone in my
classes was smarter than I was. (No, seriously.)
Maybe you are
not like that, my young writer friends, but I know that at least some
of you are, because I just do. It's okay, don't worry, I feel the utmost
sympathy for your position! And I still like you. And in fact, it's my
intimate knowledge of your position (well, our mutual position) that
leads me to give you the following advice:
Cultivate humility, patience, and courage.
Oh look, three words. Let us see if they can form a list!
1. Cultivate Humility
Humility
is a word that people are not sure how to define, I think, because for
some it reminds them of the word "humiliation." When I say the word
"humility," I am not talking about beating yourself up or convincing
yourself that you suck. For our purposes, I am defining humility as
"seeing yourself the way you truly are."
What I mean is: you are
young. You have not had a lot of time to develop your skills. You may be
advanced for your age, but that doesn't mean that your writing is well
developed. I can say this because MY writing is not usually well
developed! It's okay. It is okay to say that you are simultaneously
talented and in need of help, because that's the truth of where you are,
and it's the truth of where you
always will be. You will never, ever get to a place where you don't need help or work or development as a writer, no matter how old you are.
So
when your English teacher writes critiques all over your creative
writing assignment or papers, don't spend your time after class bashing
him or her and defending yourself against those critiques. Instead, hold
these two ideas in tension in your mind: your work is not worthless.
Your work could use improvement.
Become like a sponge that
absorbs every piece of advice or teaching or criticism or praise that it
can possibly hold. Realizing that you have a lot to learn is
cultivating humility. The actual act of learning cultivates humility.
When you hand your writing over to a friend or teacher to get their
feedback, and you do it with the attitude of "here is my work. I love
it, but I need your help to make it better," you are cultivating
humility. And when you are proud of yourself for writing something you
think is good, or happy when you get an A on an assignment, that is not
NOT cultivating humility. It is embracing the truth of where you are,
which is that you and your writing have succeeded in some way.
2. Cultivate patience
Sometimes
young people are in a big hurry to do everything. You think, "If I
don't get a book published at 17, I'm a failure!" Even if you know
that's irrational, you might still feel it, and my advice to you is to
ignore that feeling of urgency as much as possible. Basically, apply the
brakes and give yourself some time.
I was always pretty good at
patience, mostly because I was terrified of showing my writing to
anyone. But I sometimes get messages from young writers saying "help! I
can't finish a manuscript, what do I do?" or "how do you stay interested
in a manuscript long enough to finish?"-- very perplexed people
wondering what's wrong with them, that they can't stick it out until the
end.
There is nothing wrong with you! I just went back and
counted, and I have 48 unfinished manuscripts in my writing folder. 90%
of them are from before I reached age 18. Some of them are two pages
long and some are 150 pages long. Yes, that's right, it took me AT LEAST
48 tries to stick with an idea long enough to finish it, and I didn't
worry about it, because I wasn't in a hurry.
Cultivating patience
doesn't just mean that you're patient while you wait for query
responses or critique partner feedback or what have you. It means that
you are patient with yourself, and with your plan for your life. There
are so many paths to take, and so many definitions of success, and so
many second, third, fourth chances to get it right. Don't pressure
yourself or badger yourself or other people to make things happen now
now NOW. Go at a pace that feels comfortable, and that makes you love
the process of writing-- because if you hurry so much to get to the
finish line, you may not enjoy getting there, and that's where the
writing IS.
In writing and publishing, you cannot usually control
how fast things happen, or if they happen. What you can do is fall in
love with writing, and that way, if the success doesn't come when you
want it to, you still have something truly valuable, which is the time
spent doing something you love.
3. Cultivate courage
The thing is, if you spend
all
your time trying to be humble and patient, you may never take any
risks. And there must always be risks. All these things I'm telling you
are like juggling balls-- it's a constant fight to keep them all in the
air without dropping one. So seriously, don't drop courage. Courage will
urge you to send your writing to people you trust to get their
feedback. It will motivate you to send your writing in to contests. It
will tell you to apply for tough schools or programs. It will make it
possible for you to accept people's critique and still keep writing. It
will help you to brave the bad critiques, the disparaging remarks, the
raised eyebrows, and the internal doubts that tell you that you are not
good enough and it's not even worth trying.
It is
always
worth trying-- and it's always worth failing! Courage will arm you
against failure in a way that nothing else can. It is the little
stirring inside you that says, "that person who hated my writing or told
me it would never happen for me, or that bad grade, or that little
voice in my head that thinks I suck, can all kiss my butt, because today
I am going to try again." You need courage to face what's ahead of you,
young writer, because it won't be easy. But if you love to write, and
you love books, you can do it. So be brave and take risks.
So
that's my advice for young writers. I can guarantee that even if you
agree with it and want to take it, you won't follow it all the time.
What I'm saying isn't, "Do this perfectly!" it's, "hey, here are some
things that are worth trying to do." I hope it helps! Young writers, I
salute you.
---
Here are the links I promised. They are also on my FAQ page on this blog:
Concrete Writing Advice The Backpack, a.k.a Some of the Most Useful Writing Advice I've Ever Gotten 1st Person, and Why It's Not As Easy As It Sounds Detachment From Your Writing Trilogies Are Like Long-Term Relationships Trilogies Are More Like Polygamy, Actually World-Building Dialogue, and How Grey's Anatomy Isn't So Great At It On Sequels Advice for Young Writers Rules: Friends of Creativity Redundant Sentences Advice I Haven't Taken How I Revise (Insurgent Edition) Writing and Not Making Decisions Draft-Writing Advice: Don't Look Back Reducing Word Count
Characters:
Backstory and The Maze Runner, by James Dashner Basic Human Priorities and Story Momentum Thoughts About Villains Knowing Characters vs. Knowing About Characters Insta!Love and Convincing Your Reader Abstract Writing/Life Thoughts Genre Shame is a Waste of Time Writing and Courage A Christian Take on Banning Speak Writing the Ordinary Sonnets and Failure Writing and Anxiety Grow Thinner Skin The Gift of Upheaval About Notwriting Freedom and Life in Stories The Writing Life (Querying, Beta Readers, Etc.) Rejection and Hating the Book Beta Readers Reasons Why Your Non-Writer Friends Think You're Crazy Patience Is A Habit, Not A Virtue The Line Between Modesty and Self-Deprecation Advice For New Writers (Who Want to Query) Conference Tips On College and Being Young
