College Students Writing For Teens

I find it's more winter/summer breaks that get people writing hehe, but I agree that part of it is that sophomore year you've finally (sort of) gotten the hang of balancing school, other things (job, activities, etc.), and writing.

Yep, I also got into it more Sophomore year and agree, it is probably because Freshmen year you are still settling in.

I turned 21 on Saturday so finally an adult all over the world now, yay! Also went bungee jumping on Sunday, got that crossed off my bucket list

Happy 21st Kat!!

The Illusionist said:

Yep, I also got into it more Sophomore year and agree, it is probably because Freshmen year you are still settling in.

I turned 21 on Saturday so finally an adult all over the world now, yay! Also went bungee jumping on Sunday, got that crossed off my bucket list

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Yipee for birthdays and crossing things off bucket lists!

I got into writing in high school, but for what it's worth, I'll be a sophomore in the fall, and I've just started writing again this summer after a break of a year and a half. I find writing while going to school really disheartening, TBH. I love writing, but I feel like I owe it to myself to put it aside when in school and concentrate on getting a degree so that I can get a good job. I'm getting an arts degree, and I'm seriously considering majoring in Philosophy, which guarantees me the best chance of getting into law school. I'm always so worried about money and security in my future, and writing is no assurance of having money and no guarantee of security, either.

...Totally didn't mean to turn this into a rant about my frustrations with a creative life, lol. I wish I could just live off doing what I love, but I realize that is neither realistic nor pragmatic in this day and age (well, was it ever?... I guess I'll never know).

Thank you Rachel & Chancery!

& savagelilies, don't get disheartened! It is wise to plan an alternative career but never give up on writing! It may take a while but if you are determined you can make it

The Illusionist said:

& savagelilies, don't get disheartened! It is wise to plan an alternative career but never give up on writing! It may take a while but if you are determined you can make it

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I sure hope so. It helps a lot to be on AW, and surrounded by fellow authors, who are so encouraging in their endeavor to make their dreams come true. It's actually sort of restored my faith in my own writing, just to be here, surrounded by so many awesome writers.

savagelilies said:

I got into writing in high school, but for what it's worth, I'll be a sophomore in the fall, and I've just started writing again this summer after a break of a year and a half. I find writing while going to school really disheartening, TBH. I love writing, but I feel like I owe it to myself to put it aside when in school and concentrate on getting a degree so that I can get a good job. I'm getting an arts degree, and I'm seriously considering majoring in Philosophy, which guarantees me the best chance of getting into law school. I'm always so worried about money and security in my future, and writing is no assurance of having money and no guarantee of security, either.

...Totally didn't mean to turn this into a rant about my frustrations with a creative life, lol. I wish I could just live off doing what I love, but I realize that is neither realistic nor pragmatic in this day and age (well, was it ever?... I guess I'll never know).

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^THIS. Same here!! I just dropped my second major to focus on my English and Writing, and now, major freak out since I just got rid of my back-up plan/security, haha. That and I'm looking at internships and going crazy. All of them are unpaid, take up all the time, and in a state far away from Texas--meaning, I'm going to go broke.

Somehow, when I think of the future, I always end up a penniless hobo...

savagelilies said:

I got into writing in high school, but for what it's worth, I'll be a sophomore in the fall, and I've just started writing again this summer after a break of a year and a half. I find writing while going to school really disheartening, TBH. I love writing, but I feel like I owe it to myself to put it aside when in school and concentrate on getting a degree so that I can get a good job. I'm getting an arts degree, and I'm seriously considering majoring in Philosophy, which guarantees me the best chance of getting into law school. I'm always so worried about money and security in my future, and writing is no assurance of having money and no guarantee of security, either.

...Totally didn't mean to turn this into a rant about my frustrations with a creative life, lol. I wish I could just live off doing what I love, but I realize that is neither realistic nor pragmatic in this day and age (well, was it ever?... I guess I'll never know).

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I wrote on and off in high school starting my sophomore year, but bounced around genres/formats a lot. And I tend to go on writing sprees and then take long breaks in between (which works for my editing style anyway). The thing about writing is fortunately it's not a race.

It definitely is hard to balance writing and academics during the year. Does your school give you any flexibility in taking a few writing courses outside of your major? My major is not writing related, but fortunately I can still take writing classes at my school, which forces me to actually sit down and produce work (not my YA, but still). I would also recommend maybe going to a writer's group or something like that. That might help you find the time to write more!

chancerychislettII said:

I wrote on and off in high school starting my sophomore year, but bounced around genres/formats a lot. And I tend to go on writing sprees and then take long breaks in between (which works for my editing style anyway). The thing about writing is fortunately it's not a race.

It definitely is hard to balance writing and academics during the year. Does your school give you any flexibility in taking a few writing courses outside of your major? My major is not writing related, but fortunately I can still take writing classes at my school, which forces me to actually sit down and produce work (not my YA, but still). I would also recommend maybe going to a writer's group or something like that. That might help you find the time to write more!

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I very much relate to the academics-writing struggle. My major, History, involves a ton of writing... but not the fictional type! I took an online writing course last fall, which turned out to be a lot of stress on top of school-work and not much reward. But this past semester I found a much better balance between writing and schoolwork, so, we'll see how the next one goes!

In other news... general rant at the query-writing process. That basically sums it up for me right now. Anyone else suffering with queries right now? I feel like mine is taking an unusual number of drafts to get right... I'm up to 7 or 8 now, and I'm still not there! TBH, it's making me doubt my entire story. Maybe I should move on, but after all this time and effort, I really want to at least try and get my story out there. Even if it ends in rejection (which I'm 98% positive it will).

While I'm not currently querying, I know your pain. I'm guessing you've tried the Query SYW forum already? It was incredibly helpful my first query-go-round. Even though I never ended up agented, I definitely contribute the fact that my query got any attention to the forums here. One of my requests actually came from an agent who posts(-ed) on here (not too many of those, but a few pop in).

The public query slushpile is also a fun resource, though maybe not quite as helpful.

casualrungal said:

I very much relate to the academics-writing struggle. My major, History, involves a ton of writing... but not the fictional type! I took an online writing course last fall, which turned out to be a lot of stress on top of school-work and not much reward. But this past semester I found a much better balance between writing and schoolwork, so, we'll see how the next one goes!

In other news... general rant at the query-writing process. That basically sums it up for me right now. Anyone else suffering with queries right now? I feel like mine is taking an unusual number of drafts to get right... I'm up to 7 or 8 now, and I'm still not there! TBH, it's making me doubt my entire story. Maybe I should move on, but after all this time and effort, I really want to at least try and get my story out there. Even if it ends in rejection (which I'm 98% positive it will).

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Krissy Reynolds said:

^THIS. Same here!! I just dropped my second major to focus on my English and Writing, and now, major freak out since I just got rid of my back-up plan/security, haha. That and I'm looking at internships and going crazy. All of them are unpaid, take up all the time, and in a state far away from Texas--meaning, I'm going to go broke.

Somehow, when I think of the future, I always end up a penniless hobo...

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Same here, same here.

chancerychislettII said:

It definitely is hard to balance writing and academics during the year. Does your school give you any flexibility in taking a few writing courses outside of your major? My major is not writing related, but fortunately I can still take writing classes at my school, which forces me to actually sit down and produce work (not my YA, but still). I would also recommend maybe going to a writer's group or something like that. That might help you find the time to write more!

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I've only just declared my major, but yeah, I have to take a certain number of... option classes (?) I think they're called (I ought to be more informed about this stuff, TBH), that are outside of my major/minors. Unfortunately, while the university I'm going to be attending is one of the best in Canada/best in Quebec in terms of academics, it's not as artsy as other universities in Montreal, so there aren't very many creative writing classes, only a few here and there, and I'm not sure that there are any on offer in fall semester. I haven't checked, and anyway, I made my schedule already, so... yeah. (Once again, I ought to be more informed... but my uni's site is just so hard to navigate!) We'll see, though! I'd like to take a creative writing class, though I've heard from some--like yourself--that it actually detracts from their writing time so they can focus on producing writing for the class. I dunno. We'll see! The writing group definitely sounds like a good idea, however.

It's definitely difficult to manage everything. I have school, two separate jobs, officership in an honor society, and writing a book all at the same time. Even now, in the summer (although I'm only taking one class right now.) It's certainly a challenge. It makes it so much more rewarding when you finish, though.

Um I may or may not have skipped studying for midterms when I was writing VD. *looks around, eyes shifting* Okay, good...no one's gonna hunt me down

Today I found out some unfortunate news (college related I kinda promise). My first roommate (freshman year)'s mother passed away from a long battle w/cancer. Though I didn't know her mom well, it's still so heartbreaking.....we're 22 yrs old. We just graduated. I'm so thankful her mom was able to come to graduation and see her walk

Smiley0501 said:

Today I found out some unfortunate news (college related I kinda promise). My first roommate (freshman year)'s mother passed away from a long battle w/cancer. Though I didn't know her mom well, it's still so heartbreaking.....we're 22 yrs old. We just graduated. I'm so thankful her mom was able to come to graduation and see her walk

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Aw!! I'm so sorry. My best goes out to her and her family.

So, I've gotten to that point in my writing process where I want to stop writing my current draft and start over...again. This would be my fourth draft. I've stopped at different points with all my drafts. 17k. 32. 54k.

They get progressively longer with each one and the writing tighter, but I'm still not happy and want to begin again.

I'm a linear writer, so I can't write any scene before I write everything that comes before it. Hence, why if I start to want to tweak the beginning...I can't move forward.


Any suggestions/tips/tricks on how to power through and finally complete 1 draft. That is all I want. 1 full draft.

Krissy Reynolds said:

So, I've gotten to that point in my writing process where I want to stop writing my current draft and start over...again. This would be my fourth draft. I've stopped at different points with all my drafts. 17k. 32. 54k.

They get progressively longer with each one and the writing tighter, but I'm still not happy and want to begin again.

I'm a linear writer, so I can't write any scene before I write everything that comes before it. Hence, why if I start to want to tweak the beginning...I can't move forward.


Any suggestions/tips/tricks on how to power through and finally complete 1 draft. That is all I want. 1 full draft.

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Since they're improving, you should be able to proceed as you're going and eventually end up with a satisfactory version.

What I suggest you do is to look through your past drafts and figure out what you dislike about them. Is it your style? The plot? The characters? If you find that element, you can focus on strengthening that part of your writing.

As for powering through: don't worry about revising while you're still writing. Everyone has different opinions about this, and you might like doing small tweaks, but don't get so overwhelmed with editing that you stop writing altogether. Finish the book first, and then edit. It's much easier to revise a finished manuscript than an incomplete one.

Kayley said:

What I suggest you do is to look through your past drafts and figure out what you dislike about them. Is it your style? The plot? The characters? If you find that element, you can focus on strengthening that part of your writing.

As for powering through: don't worry about revising while you're still writing. Everyone has different opinions about this, and you might like doing small tweaks, but don't get so overwhelmed with editing that you stop writing altogether. Finish the book first, and then edit. It's much easier to revise a finished manuscript than an incomplete one.

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I wish it was just small tweaks! Haha, I want to rework my entire first 4-5 chapters. With that, I have to redo the rest. My story is very intermingled? I have details thrown in everywhere that aren't important until later. I change one, I have to follow it and change the rest. Part of me thinks I bring this on my self,haha.

I agree w/Kayley, Krissy.... But good luck. YOU CAN DO IT!!!

Krissy, I suggest that instead of going back and rewriting chapters 4-5, hold what you want to change in your head and pretend you've changed them already, then just leave them as they are and continue plowing through the rest of your novel. After you're completely done the first and rough draft, it's time to go revise those first 4-5 chapters. After all, if you always backtrack to fix the beginning, then you'll never get to the end--just concentrate on getting to the end for now, and hold the new beginning in your head. The beginning of my current novel has changed about... oh, three times now. But I'm only going to change it during revisions, otherwise, it'd stall my current progress.

...And with that said, I'm not following my own advice at all, because I totally backtracked to deepen the relationship between my MC and LI. But the LI did something in the middle of the novel that really required their relationship be deepened earlier on, so... Take my advice with a grain of salt, I suppose! Sometimes the most important thing is getting to The End, but then again, maybe it's developing a relationship or altering a plot point. Just as long as you don't get stuck in a pattern of never finishing anything! (Trust me on this one.)

Yes, I am of the opinion that one must always go forwards, not backwards! Upwards, not forwards! And always twirling, twirling, TWIRLING towards freedom!

Me, I'm writing something new.

It has time traveling Russians, ape-men with AK-47s, pissed off aliens and an MC whose three favorite things in the world are boys, the Beatles and weed.

She was conceived in 1968 and born in 2,000,000 BC!

Haha, thanks everyone!! I've actually moved forward by about 5k without changing the beginning, but I've mentally restructured and combined most of the beginning to make it move quicker.

I think I just want to keep revising because I am at the point in my book where it has to start really moving and I'm a bit stuck catching up to it since I kept pushing plots points back and moving other less important ones forward. The joys of writing

But, I think my need to finish ONE complete draft will win over my need to tweak and fix...hopefully.

If you keep at it, eventually, you will. It took me YEARS, and many, many unfinished drafts (all different novels, mind you) to finally get to the end of just one draft. Breaking the not-finishing-drafts cycle is tough, but if you figure out what sets you back every time, you can totally get past it and to The End (eventually.)

It took me over two years, on and off, to finish the first draft of Obsessed. It's the longest thing I ever wrote, and in the end I forced myself to finish because I was getting annoyed with knowing how I wanted it to end but it not being written. I think figuring out why you're not finishing drafts is key, I know mine was lack of routine and boredom with the plot, so I started writing out of order parts and then filling the gaps later.