Young writers are amazing people. If you have dreams of becoming a published author, this is the article for you. Check out my tips and start your journey today!
In this Young Writers article, you will find advice in these areas:
- To believe in yourself so you can write more confidently and produce better stories,
- To write as often as possible, setting aside downtime to escape and free your mind from stress,
- To experiment and have fun while you write stories, so you fill creative time with writing to relax,
- How to share your writing with others, both online and in person so you can get feedback and develop as young writers,
- Accepting that you are unique can help understand that your voice in writing is important and can help you write stories from a different perspective.
Read the rest of the Young Writers article to learn how you can develop as a creative. Also, if you know a young writer, please share this article with them on social media.
Young writers are amazing! As someone who worked in education for many years, I love to engage with young people and help them follow their dream of becoming a published fiction author one day. While writing this article, I hope that one of you young authors can find help and inspiration in these words that can help you get one step closer to achieving that goal.
There are multiple creative writing blogs out there offering tips and advice for young writers, but, at times, they can get too technical and speak to the young author as though they are an adult. The technical terms and structure of the writing process are not required to help you get into creative writing. Reading a blog that gets too technical could be a turn-off writing altogether.
You are the focus of this blog. You, as young writers, are the people I aim to help. I am not here to talk in technical terms and come across as an incredibly intelligent academic. If you click on the ‘fiction author’ link above, you can learn about me and what I have done and the novels I have written. However, I am here to help you.
I am here to help you as a young author, poet, dramatist or scriptwriter and I want to give you some practical, straightforward advice that you can take away in the next fifteen-minutes and apply to your writing. By finding what works for you as a young writer, you will be able to build a toolkit of techniques that can help you craft stories that will grip any reader.
Please share this article on your social media with fellow young writers. I will soon be offering creative writing courses online, and the links will be available in due course. Until then, you can contact me on scott@sgfiction.co.uk for advice and information on how I can help you further.
Let’s get into this!
Young Writers: Believe In Yourself
Something I found incredibly hard to do in the early days as a writer was to believe in myself. This is one of the hardest things for all writers to do, but it is a pivotal step in becoming one of those young writers who see writing as being more than a hobby someday.
I remember writing my first play at the University of Ulster as an undergraduate, third-year student, and feeling terrified to ask one of my English Literature tutors to read it. I walked up the stairs towards her office with sweat beading on my brow with nerves. Kathleen McCracken is a poet as well as a lecturer, and I knew I could trust her advice as she was paid to shape us as students rather than tell us we’re fantastic all the time.
Young writers need someone like this to believe in them, but, more importantly, you need to see yourself as a writer. If there is one piece of advice you take away from this article, it is to look yourself in the eye and tell yourself you are a writer. Even if it is while brushing your teeth before bed, do it!
When you take that seemingly small step, you are bounding forward as young writers. This is a paradox, I know, but you will see your journey as young authors. You have to believe and, by saying, ‘I am a writer’, you start the journey.
Write As Much As You Can
This point is yet another obvious one, but it is something that needs to be taken in context along with the next point. If you are young writers, it is critical that you set aside a short time every day to write. This is fundamental for several reasons:
- Downtime – As a teaching professional who has undergone mental health training as a teacher, downtime is vital for you as young people. Taking time away from people, technology, noise, and fuss is something that you need to settle your minds,
- Thinking time – Like coffee, stories need time to percolate and develop their intensity. Taking twenty minutes to think about your characters, their backgrounds, the story and how you will tell it is time well spent,
- Bite-sized chunks – Young authors will likely find it challenging to sit down and write 2,000 words a day in an instant. By setting some time aside to write every day, you may write 2,000 words in a week, which is incredible for young writers!
When I worked with young authors in my writing workshops last year, I explained this process to them. Of course, one jumped in to ask if they didn’t need to do their English homework that night. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. Your school work and studies are always the priority. Therefore, the short, bite-sized chunks of writing time are escapism from those stresses and worries.
Experiment & Have Fun
Speaking of writing as often as you can as young authors, it should also be a case of having fun when you write. When you sit down with a notepad, iPad, cell phone or a laptop, you should look to make that short amount of time you have set aside as fun as possible. By making the process of writing a chore, you will kill all enjoyment you see in your creativity.
Pairing the previous point up with this one means that young writers will write often, see it as ‘downtime’ and as a fun exercise. As a former teacher, this is music to my ears!
Another course of action to take is to consider your favourite books and rewrite them from a different viewpoint or tone. This can completely transform some of your best-loved classics that were read when you were little! Think about retelling The Gruffalo or possibly George’s Marvellous Medicine in a darker manner, where it appeals to a teenage or YA audience.
If you think this is an unrealistic idea that young writers should practice, think again! Just look at Disney Studios‘ remakes of:
- Rapunzel – Tangled,
- Sleeping Beauty – Maleficent, or
- Alice In Wonderland (1951) – Alice In Wonderland (2010).
The animation studios do this al the time, whether with their works, like The Lion King, or children’s classics, such as Alice In Wonderland. By taking a children’s book that you loved, young writers can blow the story up in a way that has never been seen before!
Share Your Work
As young writers, there is not much need for me to share how to use social media networks as an author. You guys already know the latest media, trends and networks.
Yet, I doubt many of you will feel 100% confident or comfortable in sharing a personal short story or poem that you have written, especially if many of your school-friends or work colleagues follow you. Don’t worry. You’re not alone.
This is an area that I would always advise some caution when approaching, especially as young authors – some of whom will be impressionable minors. The world is a scary place on social media and, as a former teacher who was trained in online safety, I know the real dangers that many of you guys may fail to acknowledge fully.
If you are a minor, sit with an adult at home and make them aware of your passion for writing and that you want to share your work online. If they are aware and supportive, they could even search for some online writing communities that could benefit your work.
Instagram, Twitter and Facebook have thousands of writing communities where you can use hashtags to showcase the best of your work. Also, the majority of the members within those communities will share and like your work. Some may even offer some constructive criticism but, as always, be aware of those you talk to online as they may not be who they say they are!
Young Authors: You Are Unique
Before I close this young writers article, I want to give you all a word of encouragement to push you that bit further. When you enter the world of creative writing and take that massive step to tell yourself that you are an author, you have an entire world out there in which to express yourself and your creativity!
As young authors, you are unique! You have:
- A unique voice – No one has ever written like you or will ever write like you.
- A unique perspective – Your points of view are unique to you. Therefore, you will express them creatively in an entirely new way.
- A unique vocabulary – Yes, you will beg, borrow and steal from the authors who have inspired you, but how you use that vocabulary is fantastic and solely yours.
- A unique platform – With the multitude of media out there for you to share and publish your writing, you live in a particular time to allow everyone around you to read what you have to say. Say it!
To close this point, young writers, I want to encourage you not to let anyone change how you express yourselves creatively. Yes, take constructive advice by those who you value to shape and mould your voice, but never let anyone take it away. That voice is yours, it is your way of sharing your creative thoughts, and it is what makes your writing unique!
Young Writers: The Takeaway
Young ladies and gentlemen, I have come to the end of this article, and I just want to say thank you for reading, if you got this far!
I have sat with a smile on my face as I put the words onto the page and thought about the purest forms of advice I could give any young writers out there. I don’t want any of you to go away from this 1,700-word blog feeling anxious or worried. I want you all to pick up a pen, pencil, notepad or iPad and write a story today!
As a teacher, one of the processes I loved and disliked was creative writing. I disliked the marking when I had children writing epic stories that JK Rowling would be proud of. However, I relished the chance to sit on the recliner in my lounge and lose myself in thirty worlds, with tens of characters. All of which came from the minds of nine and ten-year-olds in my class. It was truly magical!
One of these young writers was the spark that lit the fire of Inside Iris. That fire made me change my career and follow my dream of becoming a writer. Her handshake led me to write a second novel, Anna’s Awakening, and soon to be a third to finish the IRIS Trilogy. I owe that little girl a lot because, if she hadn’t made me a deal to exchange a story that she’d written for the first chapters of Inside Iris, I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this to give you the push you may need!
Young writers are amazing! Don’t let anyone tell you anything otherwise. Now, go and write!
Inside Iris & Anna’s Awakening are available from Amazon on Kindle & paperback. The IRIS Trilogy should be your next dystopian sci-fi thriller. Get your copies via the links above today!
