Write Better: Tips and tricks

Young Writers

There's an issue I see a lot on wattpad where people knock young writers, and I just saw it again this morning, hence I'm writing this up instead of proofing my next chapter of Dark Side (a werewolf murder mystery; haven't read it? I suggest you do!). People blame young writers for bad writing and cliches and a number of other issues.

The majority of wattpad writers are young, yes.

So, the odds are high that a lot of young writers just don't write that well. Heck, some of them still haven't had proper classes on grammar and vocab and whatnot!

BUT

Writing is more about experience vs inexperience. Please don't blame bad writing on someone's age! [heavens, some people I know didn't start writing until they were already in their late thirties!]

Things like how much writing you actually do, how quick of a learner you are, how much you want to (and practice) improving, etc, can add to your writing mileage.

Sort of like if you're a kid who has trained for Olympic swimming, over the kid and adults who have not and do not train for such a thing. You can line up this kid and someone his age, but if that other kid doesn't have the same experience, odds are he's going to get soundly beaten in a race. You might need to pair that kid with someone older to get a better match- and not every older person is going to win, either!

Here's an example more closer to home for me:

When I was in high school, I was writing circles around most of my classmates. I read and wrote so much in my spare time (hours after school and my job; I had like two friends for being a recluse), that I had inadvertently given myself a better understanding of writing. One of my teachers (not an English teacher) even told me that they didn't usually bother reading my papers because they were so well-written. Whether or not I got the answer right didn't matter, they were just so relieved to see something advanced.

The same thing happened in college. One of my favorite professors took us (college juniors and seniors) one by one to read and grade our research papers (which we each designed, tested, ran, and collected/analyzed data ourselves) in front of us. I'm telling you, it was absolutely terrifying to sit in silence while he marked up your paper. When he finished mine, he set the paper on his desk and asked me if I'd written these types of papers before. I said no. He failed everyone in the class but me. I got an automatic A because everyone else got to re-write and I didn't need to.

The only thing that saved my ass was the fact that I was a good writer. I had an advantage because my foundation was so strong it was just a matter of me reading up on other research (similar experiments, etc) and I could switch into a scientific voice/style with ease.

[And trust me, having a strong background in writing can really help to make a last-minute assignment sound less crappy than it is! Not that I would ever do such a thing! *ahemahem*]

There can be shitty young writers, and even worse older writers! Just because you're 25, or 49, or older, doesn't mean your writing is better than that 16 year old over there whose biggest worry is getting asked to prom by the wrong person (or no one).

If you're 25, are the odds in your favor that most writers younger than you are both young and inexperienced? Yeah. But not all of them are.

There are just as many older folks who aren't going to be winning any awards for their writing, either! They can have just as many cliches, plot holes, and typos.

*

So are there any differences between older and younger writers? Someone who is older has seen more of the world and their brain is fully developed, right?

Go ask one of my dad's former students, who as a child tortured other children for a militia in Africa. It was that, or die. Or some of his other students, who spent days and nights on the run in the wild while the family that chose to stay behind was slaughtered.

Every writer brings something unique to the table, and their age is not often a good indicator of what they're like as a writer.

When I'm editing a badly written story, I can't often look at the words and go: Oh, this person must be 12. 35. 99. 16. What I can tell is that they're probably inexperienced. [Experienced writers tend to have a different set of issues, usually more subtle, than inexperienced writers]

Where I do often see a difference is in bad attitudes. Any writer of any age and experience level can have a good or bad attitude. We're going to look at two bad ones.

The most common young  writer's bad attitude: Thin skin. Dude, I worked so hard on this story and I'm proud of it. Why do you have to be so mean? Don't hate on me because I'm not perfect and missed some commas. If you don't like it, don't read it.

The most common older  writer's bad attitude:  Arrogance. I've been writing since you were in diapers. I know more than you, so I don't trust what you have to say about my story, which is in my style, which I understand better than you. If you don't like that, don't read it.

I'll say it again: Please don't blame bad writing on someone's age!