Kane

My advice: Save writing about adult things for adults. Write children's books, or teen based novels. Nothing is more annoying than 15 year olds trying to write adult literature as if they have the slightest clue what it is like being an adult.

Anarkos

A lot of writing comes from experience. Both in terms of experience at writing and experiences in life.

So, one, write a lot. Churn out words. Write short stories about nothing. If you find one part of the writer's art - dialogue, say, or imagery, or whatever - then focus on building and developing that skill.

And, two, experience life in all it's fucked up shit-eating glory. Travel. Go out at night. If you want to write an action novel where there's a lot of fighting, take up a martial art, and hope that somewhere along the line you've taken at least one good kicking, so you know what you're writing about.

Oh, and stay in school and go to university. Why? 'Cause most people can't make writing a full time job, and working for a salary in a profession is a whole lot better than earning a low wage in a shitty job.

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My latest work: Bags - The Hooker - Going Rogue - Flashing Out - The Problem with Being a Grifter
I always appreciate fair criticism, and will endeavor to reciprocate.

Saponification

Don't let anyone tell you you're too young. As has been said, no one knows everything. You can always learn more. Experience is not always tied to age.

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Metta.

Kane

The responsibities, experiences, and emotions of being an adult are.

Achilles

I'm a young writer, so I'll have a different set of tips than some of these adults...

I get frusterated by publishers who only accept submissions by adults. Writing should not be based on age but talent. But don't let it get to you, keep trying.

Read. Life experiences can be partially learned from accounts of others. (With respect to those who think kids can't ever know adult emotions...).

Don't watch a lot of TV. Was that a bombshell? Anyway, it wastes your mind and gives false impressions of life. Life is so corrupted by media...there is so much more to live for and write for. I've read stuff written by TV junkies...it's generally horrible.

Find your voice. Don't imitate other writers. Write until you are completely unique in your style. That is something that I've seen a lot of teen writers struggle with.

I profess to be no master of teen wisdom. But these are some things I've encountered and attempted to overcome. Hope it helps somewhat...

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The Palace Flophouse

When Newton closed his eyes beneath a tree
and took the apple from the serpent, he
conceived the urge of humanity, plea, plea,
procreant desire and tendency.

Saponification

I still vote that's a generalisation. I've had friends who've grown up in war-ravaged countries. They matured pretty quickly... as you do when people are firing weapons vaguelly in your direction.

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Metta.

Black Riven

Be attentive to the flow of your prose, overstretching an idea/act/whatever with too much words is a diversion from the story, scrambled writing makes the reader stumble mentally as he tries to get through the sentance, finishing an idea too soon makes you feel like something just slipped through your fingers. These things are felt when you re-read what you have written. There's no need to start reading microscopically though, that is paying too much attention, just read and see where you feel that something read differently than you expected or didn't feel 'in the moment' with the rest of the sentance.

suzakugaiden

"Nothing is more annoying than 15 year olds trying to write adult literature as if they have the slightest clue what it is like being an adult."

If you write about how teenagers are, you'd get something pretty NC-17. It's nothing but rampant sex, drug usage, and swearing. That's why it's really ironic that the legal age to look at porn in a lot of places is 18. Most kids are having a lot of sex by that point.

"trading card game, anime, RPG, and perhaps even an R-rated movie"

Buh?

Ilan Bouchard

Having a gun fired at you doesn't mean you'll be able to relate with strictly adult feelings, such as the feeling of intense debt, parenthood, or whatever else I, as a child, can't relate to.

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Ruthless comments encouraged!

Gauda

I am also a teenage writer. I'm not trying to tackle anything adult-based because I have to say that I really have any experience to say so yet (I would just make myself sound stupid if I tried that...) But is this valid:

Trying to write about a teenage girl who is in a very tough situation? Not with school or "fitting in" or anything, but a time of demise or anything? Or should I save it for when I'm older?

That is what my current novel is based on.

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We live; we love; we learn; we soak it in; we spit it out; we run in circles and then sleep face down, with our heads buried in our pillows, trying to shut it out.

http://farfromnirvana.blogspot.com

Saponification

True, I guess. Depends on the situation. Some children had to become parents for their siblings. My grandfather did.

But plenty of people write straight genre fiction. Sure, some genre fiction needs that whole adult experience thing to be convincing, but I find it hard to believe you need a lot of... experience to write pulp.

You want to do something with lit. merit? Sure. You want to write as a parent? Sure. You want to write about Robert Langdon chasing after Catholics? No.

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Metta.

bobothegoat

How does that help?

English teachers have been very helpful for me in the past. Then again, elementry school teachers inflicted this strange idea that one must use a lot of adverbs and adjectives to describe stuff.

To them, "The red, shiny, bouncy, inflated, spherical ball that was held by the skinny, short, red-haired, eight-year-old, male boy was thrown quickly so that it flew horizontally and quickly through the damp, gray, heavy air and then landed on the muddy, grassy, freshly-cut lawn," would have been taken as a supreme example of literary greatness.

(and yes, that sentence was as exhausting to write as it probably is to read.)

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Bobo the Goat

Kane

That's why they're teaching elementary school. =)

Anarkos

By this logic, of course, someone not brought up in a warzone would be unable to relate to uniquely-warzone type things, like being shot at and joining militias and watching your friends chest get turned into a fine red mist.

Of course, many novels about war are not written by those with first-hand experience. Firsthand experience is not necessary, although it certainly can help. Understanding is the key.

__________________
My latest work: Bags - The Hooker - Going Rogue - Flashing Out - The Problem with Being a Grifter
I always appreciate fair criticism, and will endeavor to reciprocate.

suzakugaiden

"someone not brought up in a warzone would be unable to relate to uniquely-warzone type things, like being shot at and joining militias and watching your friends chest get turned into a fine red mist."

Uh, no, they probably wouldn't be able to relate.