Am I Too Young to Write?
I’m sure many young writers struggle with this thought. Maybe you have students or children that look up to you as a writer and you want with all your heart for them to feel confident to write.
For those asking, “am I too young to write?” The answer is an empathetic no! Definitely not! In fact, the youngest person to ever publish a book was Dorothy Straight. She published her first book, “How the World Began,” in 1962 and still holds the mantle of youngest published author.
Granted, that was in 1962, but if that makes you doubt, ask yourself if there weren’t plenty of highly skilled writers then competing against her for that publishing spot?
Write now even if you’re worried your writing isn’t as good as it will be when you’re older.
This is a common doubt among young writers. They might say to you, “but my writing isn’t as good now as it will be.”
This is the natural problem for all writers no matter what age. Maybe every once in a red moon a writer “is born” with an innate ability to just write.
But for the rest of us shlubs, it takes years of work, practice, and discipline to get good at writing.
In fact, if your young writer starts writing now they will be better than writers that choose to wait and start later in life.
It takes time to work through writing immaturities no matter what age you start. Might as well start now!
You may feel alone in your writing.
You might be keeping your writing a secret because you’re afraid to share it and get ridiculed.
There is some wisdom here. You really shouldn’t show your first drafts to just “anyone.”
Don’t get me wrong. We all definitely need to let others read our writing and speak into it. Is helpful to not feel alone and do not make easy mistakes. We want to know if our devices are working correctly and other writers will help with this.
My point is, you want to choose the people you let read your first drafts for input. You wouldn’t want to give to someone that has malicious intent or just wants to make fun of you.
Examples of people you’d want to share it with:
- Other writers
- Avid readers
- People that love storytelling
- People you trust
- People that want you to succeed
- Writers group
- Editing group
These people can be found in your life or online. Don’t share too much with complete strangers but find the right communities for you.
“When I look back at my writing when I’m older I’m gonna cringe.”
Preach!
I look back at some of my writing when I was younger and I shiver with feelings of cringe.
The thought of anyone reading it…😱🤮
It would be one of those traumatic embarrassing moments that I would think back upon for the rest of my life 😂.
But then I read some stuff and it takes me back to a time and place I cherish and I wish to know more about.
It’s hard to capture how we think and feel at each different age in our life, especially between our teen self and our 20s and 30s.
So if anything, as someone who wrote when they were young and diving even more into writing now, I personally wish I would’ve written more as a young adult.
So personally, I wouldn’t worry about cringe writing later. I would encourage writing it now, and then you’ll have it to work with later.
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You’ll miss out on what you can capture now, which you might not be able to later.
Whatever age you are now, it will be almost impossible to capture the same way you would write something 10 or 20 years from now.
Ha! To further that point it’s almost impossible to write something the same way between this month and next month.
So many things come into our lives on a daily basis that affects the way we think and thus write.
So don’t miss the opportunity to write the way you think now, because very soon you won’t be able to write this way.
Tweet- So don’t miss the opportunity to write the way you think now, because very soon you won’t be able to write this way.
If you write it now, you can revisit it later.
You really have nothing to lose writing down your story ideas now.
You definitely will lose most of your story ideas if you don’t write them now.
If you write it down you can revisit it as much as you want and do whatever you want with it. Turn it into a million short stories or turn it into a novel later.
If you don’t write it down today, you are missing out big time on being able to look at it later when you’re older and having that thought or ideas to work with.
Start a blog to capture your ideas.
If you own your own blog then you can write whatever you want on there and keep it as your own.
If you start a free blog, they can cancel your account and all your ideas whenever they want.
Starting your own blog won’t mean that no one can creep in and take what you have, but that’s just life in a finite world where “thieves and robbers can break in and steal.”
But at least Blogspot can’t just take down your post because they feel like it (if you own it yourself.)
With your own blog, you can start to experiment with building an audience that one day you can share your books with.
Write everything.
Don’t cringe away from writing down anything that inspires you.
For example, write:
- Songs
- Poems
- Short story
- Notes
- Feelings
- Journaling
- Important events
- Fun facts that inspire you
- Quotes
- Etc.
I personally went through years of depression that God helped me get through, and something amazing that came out of those wretched times is songs that I wrote that were inspired from that time.
I would never want to go through that depression again, but many beautiful things came out of it with God’s help and those songs are something I’m so glad I wrote and will cherish forever.
So don’t be embarrassed about what you write and what inspires you, just do it anyway.
“I read a lot. Isn’t that good enough?”
It is very good. Reading other’s work will definitely help you become a better writer than those that don’t read, but, to be honest, in order to find your own voice and style you must start writing your own stuff.
If it were as easy as reading a lot alone then every good reader would instantly be a good writer.
To start figuring out your own voice, start writing short stories.
See if your writing sounds too much like your favorite author.
If it does, try broadening your reading selection to get more input that doesn’t sound the same.
After some time and practice, you will start to feel more confident in the way you sound when you write.
Get through your “junk” writing while you’re young.
One of the biggest reasons to start writing young is that it takes time to work out the “bad writing” most of us suffer from.
Our first drafts as well as many of our ideas are not great, to be honest, and it will take time and much writing to work through the bad bag to find the good gold.
Starting young is better than waiting till you’re older. Might as well get going and get good now. 🙂
If you enjoyed Am I Too Young to Write, take a moment and consider sharing this social-friendly image to say thanks, and feel free to comment with your thoughts on the post below! 🙂
Want to get paid to write? Check out Writing Paychecks
- There is a simple method over 30,000 people use to get paid for freelance writing online.
- Opportunities can get started in just minutes a day, all from your home couch.
- It’s easy to get started! No previous experience or degree required to start.
- Exclusive job listings for writers, updated daily.
Check out Writing Paychecks to see if you can start getting paid to write today.
That’s all for the moment.
Hope this helps!
Happy writing!
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