So, as you may have guessed, I'm currently writing a novel. And-like most, I presume-I'm having a few problems: I think it's one of the worst things ever created in the history of the vast universe and deserves to be tossed into the sun to burn for all eternity. That might be the harsh, cruel editior inside me speaking, my own self loathing talking, or the actual truth. I'm not sure of any of these assumtions, so I was wondering: can you tell if your writing is good or bad? I'm writing what would be a YA novel. I myself am fourteen, but I'm not sure if my own perspective and preference would be the same as others my age. Am I in the right mind set? Any advice would be helpful.
"I'm the next big novelist!" Am I?
- Thread starter Mistress of distress
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To answer you more seriously... I started writing short stories when I was 12. Then I fell into journalism at 16. So, you're by no means too young.
It's not nessacarily that I'm too young, but do I think like other teenagers? I'd like to think so, but a lot of times, from other expreiences, it's been known that I really don't.
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I'm afraid there's no way to tell if your writing is good or bad. You can ask others to read it and offer their opinions, but that's really it. Beyond that it's just a gut feeling.
As for your mindset--you're 14. I recommend that at this age you just just write for fun, practice as much as you can, and entertain your friends. Publishing will likely be a few years in the future, if you eventually decide you want to go through with it. I don't think you need to stress about that just now. I'm not saying you can't be good, just that at this point in your life there's no need to stress yourself about being the "next big thing."
Best of luck.
As for your mindset--you're 14. I recommend that at this age you just just write for fun, practice as much as you can, and entertain your friends. Publishing will likely be a few years in the future, if you eventually decide you want to go through with it. I don't think you need to stress about that just now. I'm not saying you can't be good, just that at this point in your life there's no need to stress yourself about being the "next big thing."
Best of luck.
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Totally not. Everybody your age feels "different." Just trust me on this. Don't worry about that. Write from the heart.
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Quoted for truth.
And no matter how much older someone else may be, we *all* remember 14. Even if we are decades removed from it. It is a very special time of life. Revel in it - enjoy it - and write from the heart.
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You're 14. Everyone's totally different at 14.
But do you write well? I don't know. Can you learn to write better? Of course. Requirements for learning?
1. Be able to take criticism, live by the rule "Hear what you need to hear, not what you want to hear."
2. Write a LOT
3. Read a LOT
4. Be able to take criticism, and so on...
Point 1 and 4 is really important. Writing is a tough business, and it's easy to get discouraged.
I think writers in general often think differently from other people.
(Kinda a joke, but kinda not.)
You come across as exceptionally articulate for your age, and you're posting here and not sticking out like a sore thumb. I guess that's a bit unusual. But it's probably a good thing.
If you do think differently from average, I doubt it's enough that you won't understand what the average YA reader wants. And heck, a lot of YA authors are two or three times your age and can still figure out how to write for the target audience.
EDIT: And Maxinquaye's advice is really good, I think. The main thing I've seen younger authors (and some older authors) have a problem with is getting too defensive when they get critiques they don't like.
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The stuff I wrote when I was fourteen was crap. Most people write crap when they're just starting out. You will as well. Don't let it stop you. Writing is like any other skill; it requires practice -- years of practice.
I suggest you get cracking.
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You're already ahead of the game by trying to be objective about your work, and being on this site can't hurt. Also, reading your post didn't make me want to scratch my eyes out, so that's something.
Keep at it. If you have the time, check out the Uncle Jim threads in this here Novels section.
Keep at it. If you have the time, check out the Uncle Jim threads in this here Novels section.
Just do it. No, your novel probably won't be full of accurate and universal observations on the futilities of mankind. That takes some experience of life there is no way you could have had. So what? You can still fill it with cleverness and pretty language. You can still touch people in other ways. If you put out a half-decent story now, you increase your chances of writing a master piece down the road. The sooner you start, and the more your write the better. Zadie Smith wrote White Teeth when she was twenty one. It wasn't her first novel.
Being self critical is a good thing. The opposite is worse. Just don't be so critical it stops you from writing. Just do it.
Being self critical is a good thing. The opposite is worse. Just don't be so critical it stops you from writing. Just do it.
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Yes. This.
Writing a novel isn't about pounding out a great first draft. It's about pounding out a first, a second, a third, a fourth...until the book is exactly what you want it to be.
EVERYONE'S writing sucks when we're 14 - it's new, we're learning, it's totally cool. Just keep plugging away, reading, studying, writing - you'll be fine.(From us old farts who find stuff we wrote from then, and either laugh or cringe, or both.)
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I'm 16 and I love the work that I do. I think my current novel is one of the greatest things I've ever written, but when I first started 9 months ago I couldn't write for **** and that showed in the critiques. I eventually hated my first works and got rid of them, but now I'm rewriting them all and making sure they're perfect.
So if you think that your novel's a piece of crap, then try putting it down for a moment, working on something else, and then come back to fix it up.
So if you think that your novel's a piece of crap, then try putting it down for a moment, working on something else, and then come back to fix it up.
Yes. And I don't think there's a specific age you should start writing seriously.
In my head, I'm Stephen King or Ernest Hemingway. On paper, I'm more like Charlie in Flowers for Algernon before his operation.
Everyone learns and matures differently, and in their own time. We have a few authors on the board who sold books in their teens. We have a few authors on the board who sold books in their fifties and sixties.
You're still young, so your life experiences will be vastly different from someone who is three times your age. But that doesn't mean you don't know the pain of loss or the ache of heartbreak. And you can use those emotions in your writing.
If I'd asked myself at fourteen if I thought I had talent, I'd have said no. Personally, I needed to get out there and live a little before my writing as able to shine. But that was my journey.
You're still young, so your life experiences will be vastly different from someone who is three times your age. But that doesn't mean you don't know the pain of loss or the ache of heartbreak. And you can use those emotions in your writing.
If I'd asked myself at fourteen if I thought I had talent, I'd have said no. Personally, I needed to get out there and live a little before my writing as able to shine. But that was my journey.
I remembering writing short stories when I was young, but never thought about being a professional writer, I wanted to be a doctor. During my early teens I went mad into science.
Around 15 I started writing poetry - and getting published. Then at 17/18 when I started by A-levels and I felt an urge to start writing fiction [still for fun, no intention of publication] Within a few months it was getting obvious my talents lay more in English Lit than Science [some horrific grades acted as a 'smoking gun.']
It was only when I was watching a tv programme that was interviewing a novelist that I started thinking may be I could write something good enough to be published.
That was ten years ago. I've yet to publish a debut novel, but I have published: poems, essays, and articles. Critters tell me I'm a good writer, so hopefully one day a novel of mine will make it.
Around 15 I started writing poetry - and getting published. Then at 17/18 when I started by A-levels and I felt an urge to start writing fiction [still for fun, no intention of publication] Within a few months it was getting obvious my talents lay more in English Lit than Science [some horrific grades acted as a 'smoking gun.']
It was only when I was watching a tv programme that was interviewing a novelist that I started thinking may be I could write something good enough to be published.
That was ten years ago. I've yet to publish a debut novel, but I have published: poems, essays, and articles. Critters tell me I'm a good writer, so hopefully one day a novel of mine will make it.
A beginning writer writes like a beginner, regardless of what age they start at. Writing experience will make you a better writer. As for the experience comes with age thing...you've already had 14 years of experiences that are vastly different from my own, I'm sure you've got something to write about in there. And I don't really want to read about experiences similar to my own, most people read to escape the usual and experience something different.
In regards to your thread title, while we all secretly hope we might be the next big novelist (until we hear what happens to those who fame hits hardest like Sylvia Plath, Jack Kerouac, Hemingway etc.), but it's better, at least when writing the first couple of drafts, to write for the writing and not with the hope of getting published. Publishing is a business, it confines a writer to produce something that will sell. Your first draft should reach for the core of the idea, be fearless and unafraid to make mistakes, and try for things that might not end up published at all. That'll make you a better writer. Learn how to edit for publication later, learn how to write from the heart now.
In regards to your thread title, while we all secretly hope we might be the next big novelist (until we hear what happens to those who fame hits hardest like Sylvia Plath, Jack Kerouac, Hemingway etc.), but it's better, at least when writing the first couple of drafts, to write for the writing and not with the hope of getting published. Publishing is a business, it confines a writer to produce something that will sell. Your first draft should reach for the core of the idea, be fearless and unafraid to make mistakes, and try for things that might not end up published at all. That'll make you a better writer. Learn how to edit for publication later, learn how to write from the heart now.
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