Have you ever found something you wrote in high school and nearly died of simultaneous laughter and mortification? Spoiler alert: I HAVE!
Revisiting an old story of mine, last week I came up with some simple tips that could have vastly improved my writing as a teen and posted them in this Letter to my Teenage Self.
What was your writing like as a teen? What would have made it better?
What starter tips would you give teen or novice writers today?
To move forward with determination and the willingness to work really hard. I didn’t realize it could really be done.
Write on. Every story has a beginning and it is the ending that passes judgment.
Write honestly. Don’t fuss over big words, but write what moves you. Put away the thesaurus and read read read. Harness the language, learn the rules, and when you find your voice, don’t be afraid to break them. And always love what you do.
As a teen, I filled journals with complete nonsense, even expounding on how I would do things differently as a parent. The joke was on me, in that one. I didn’t know or care about all of the guidelines surrounding the craft of writing, I simply wrote. I wish in some ways, I had held on to that innocent abandonment in my writing. What I would say to a teenager writing, is write – all the other you can learn along the way, just enjoy the process and freedom of putting your words in print.
Hi Julie! I too have found writing from when I was a teen and some of it was pretty funny. I’d probably tell myself not to get discouraged when my first attempts at writing novels didn’t always pan out the way I had imagined…determination is the best way to be successful!