Age, or Time Spent Writing? - Page 3 - Writers Forum

TSMaloy · 03-01-2006, 05:51 PM

How about this:
Just give us a sample of your writing so that we can give you an honest opinion on your work.

My two cents on the subject:
It all depends on the audience you want to sell to. If you are aiming your book toward YA readers, go for it! However, I agree with the others that it would be VERY hard for a teen the break their way into the market of adult readers.

Mike C · 03-01-2006, 06:09 PM

Quote:

I don't think that it would be possible for a teenager to write of emotions such as love, lust, sexual desire, longing, anguish, grieving.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwellerofthedeep

The first sentence seems odd to me. Why couldn't a teenager have experienced such things?

Of course a teenager can experience these things. But to process and assimilate and to output them as quality adult fiction - because, let's face it, when a teenager says "Am I good enough to be published?" what they're saying is "Am I good enough to compete on equal terms with people 2 or 3 times my age?" - is something else again. Which is why (no disrespect to those that like that kind of thing) so many teenagers write so many dire, trite, angsty, sub Plathian poems about how depressed they are because their boy/girlfriend dumped them.

To write emotionally mature fiction you have to be emotionally mature.

Look at it this way; you're 15, and you write pretty well. How much has your writing improved in the last 5 years? How much do you think it will improve in the next 5 years? Equate it to sport. You don't get on the team if you're not at the top of your game.

I read a lot, at all levels. I worked as a senior editor for NFG, a pro print fiction magazine. I've also run SF & F workshops for gifted children, sponsored by the local education authority. My own son writes. I've seen some outstanding talent in the making, but I've never yet read anything written by a teenager that didn't read like it was written by a teenager. That's not being derogatory or dismissive. You may one day write a best-seller or get the nobel prize for fiction, but right now you're developing a skill and learning a craft. Be patient.

mammamaia · 03-01-2006, 08:01 PM

excellent observations and advice from mike... you should listen to him... i couldn't have said it better...

hugs, m

FloridaJay · 03-02-2006, 08:25 AM

I can't add a whole lot to what has already been written. Each person here seems to make valid points for in the age and the time arguments. My humble opinion is that it's a mixture of both your age and your time writing that effectively nourish the writer's skills. Each year you're on this Earth (or whatever plane of existence you happen to habitate) you gain more experience and each time you put words to paper you develop style and writing prowess. For example, the What I Did Last Summer paper that was written in the sixth grade pales in comparison to the final paper written in Senior year creative writing. Not just because of what you learned in school, grammatically speaking, but what you felt, did, experienced, etc. all those years between. A story about your first date probably can be more easily written and expressed in your twenties than in elementary school. What I'm conveying now is redundant to what all those have sadi befofre me, hopefully my simple point was made: An equal mix of your age and your time spent writing are important factors in developing a good writer (and even a great one).

Verago · 03-04-2006, 11:48 AM

Strangely, this leaves me almost as confused as I started out...

Meh. I'm going to write. And if it's well-received and well-liked, I'll see if I can get it published; if not, I'll continue to hone my craft until it's good enough...

Thanks.
Ethan.

Hawke · 03-04-2006, 12:29 PM

I agree with Mike C and the others. And I'll add TDLT (talent, determination, luck, timing) into the mix.

Teens do get published. So do horrid adult writers. Sometimes it's all in the TDLT.

ReikiMeg · 03-05-2006, 01:44 PM

After reading through many of the replies here, two thoughts came to mind. When I was in my teens, I looked up people who were published in their teens, that is published in any substantial form, and what I found was they are far and few. Plus, they were usually promoted for their age and the fact that they actually wrote an entire novel rather than their writing skills. The one, who was a pretty reasonable writer wasn't as well known. I'm sure there are people on here who can pinpoint young writers, who had their popularity blown up past their deserved amount. They got this during their first book release and never felt the need to really work on improving their skill so their next books were worse. So, you really need to take into account how much you want to tell people you're only 14. You have a much better chance for a lasting career by focusing as much on your writing skills as possible.

My other thought pertained to an old saying that many of us know - "Write what you know." Despite what some people may think, this does not mean you can only write about say the life of a young person in a small town, because you live that. With good research you can write about anything. What it really pertains to is your emotions, what sets them off, and how people react to each other. You need to experience life in order to be able to write about it. So, I have to agree with others when they say that you can't write for 20-somethings or beyond until you grow up a bit. But that doesn't mean you should stop writing or put it off. I for instance am still young and I will never base my story around a person in their 50s, because I can barely imagine what it feels like to be that age.

I say write and write and write some more, but write about what you know. People will respect you much more for that.