Anne and Ellen's Top Tips for Young Writers

photo by Anne MazerWe've been giving a lot of writing advice over the last few years, so this week we put our heads together to come up with some of our top tips for young writers. Here they are. Hope you find them helpful! -- Anne and Ellen 

Anne Mazer:

Get out of your reading comfort zone. 

If you’re serious about writing, every writer will tell you to read as much as possible. If you love paranormal romances, dystopian novels, or science fiction, you are probably gobbling them down like popcorn and thinking that, as an extra bonus, this will help your writing. True. Whatever you read will feed your writing. But it’s important to stretch a little now and then.  If you only read one kind of book, your understanding of books, writing and language will be limited.

When my mother was young, she had to memorize poems and passages from Shakespeare, among others. By the time I was in school, we weren’t reading Shakespeare, much less memorizing him. Imagine having that language in your blood as a young child. It would never leave you. It didn’t leave my mother; it gave her a lifelong love of words and literature. Even if she only understood one word in ten, she still had the rhythms of his speech in her head. What a great training for a writer! I envy it.

Not that I’m telling you to memorize Shakespeare - unless you want to, of course. But once in while, crack open a book you wouldn’t normally think of reading. Tackle fiction that challenges you, or that seems out of your league. You’ll build your reading and writing muscles.

Take it s-l-o-w-l-y.

 Over the last few years, Ellen and I have noticed that many of the kids who write to us seem to want – or even expect – success as a writer to come immediately. Before they’re even out of their teens, they want to produce professional quality work. Hey, everyone, what’s the rush? Writers take a long time to develop. In fact, if they hatched in the wild, they’d have one of the longest gestation periods in nature. Not only that, but ideas are slow hatching, too. I’m working on one right now that I’ve had for over twenty years. Many writers begin to hit their stride in middle age or even later. So if you’re not an international success by the time you’re eighteen, there’s still hope for you. Nice thought, isn’t it?

Do lots of things other than writing

 If you want to be a writer, you have to write. But if you only write, will it make you a better writer? In my opinion, no. It won’t make you a happy camper, either, to shut yourself in your room, taking breaks only for meals and the occasional shower. Living a full life can include writing, but it shouldn’t exclude anything or anyone you love.  Like friendships and family, or following your passion for tai chi, raising llamas, clay ovens, permaculture, ancient languages, or volleyball. Everything that you do and love and experience will flow into your stories and make them richer.  Nothing is wasted in writing. Which makes it one of the most eco-friendly activities around.

Ellen Potter:

 Treat your story like a birthday wish 

If you tell someone your wish, it won’t come true, right? When you are writing a story, try to keep it to yourself.  When you tell someone your story before you write about it, it can take the excitement out of working on it. Also, you open yourself up to negative reactions, or the wrong kind of responses, which can discourage you from writing.  If you need to show your work to someone before it’s finished, be very picky. Choose someone who is sensitive to the fact that your work is still in a rough stage. Choose someone whose opinion you trust and who has your best writing interests at heart. Give your story a chance to “come true” just like that birthday wish.

Don’t worry about getting published

Write because you love to write. Really, it’s that simple. Write because you can’t get that certain character out of your head. Write because you want to take readers on a wild joyride of an adventure. Write for any reason at all . . . but don’t write because you just have to get published. It will paralyze your creativity.

True, seeing your name in print is thrilling. But when you are worrying if your story is publishable while you are writing it, you are getting in your own way by preventing yourself from being totally immersed in your story. You’ll keep second-guessing yourself, as in “Has this been done before?” “Will editors think the storyline is exciting enough?” It’s hard enough to write a story without your inner voice pestering you every three seconds.

Once you have finished your story, and if you still feel a burning need to publish, you can submit it to magazines or web sites that specialize in publishing the works of young writers (have a peek at the Inspiration Library on our web site for some ideas: http://www.spillinginkthebook.com/inspiration-library/)

Or enter a writing contest for kids. Here’s the latest Spilling Ink contest posted on our site: http://www.spillinginkthebook.com/contests/