Tips for Young Writers

Guest Post by Aidyl Ewoh,  @aidylEwoh

Serious young writers are a lot more common than most people seem to realize, although maybe that’s because we’re all hidden away writing! I am part of an on-line writing group that has over 450 members; almost all of them are in their teens and early twenties (I’m twenty-one). Several of these teens are already published authors.

Being a young writer has a host of challenges just like any other part of life, but there are things you can do to make writing more successful for you. Here are a few things I’ve picked up over the years:

Surround yourself with positive people. The journey to publication is a difficult path and you don’t want to let negative people or ideas crowd into your subconscious mind and discourage you. This doesn’t mean you should try to please everybody; there will always be someone who doesn’t like something you do. When you do hear naysayers prattling, don’t let it dishearten you! Instead, let proving them wrong be the boost you need to keep going.

Practice writing every day, and remember that consistency trumps often times quantity. Sure, it’s great if you can write for an hour, but if you always write something – if only for a few minutes – it will help to keep you in the groove and improve your skill. Plus, you’ll soon have a file of short segments you may draw from, and you never know when they’ll be useful! (It helps to set a word amount; I write at least 100 words each day, and I’ve done that for about 15 months now.) Just make sure to set a reasonable goal that you’ll keep up with.

Read a lot. And don’t only read from the genre you’re writing, but also read books about writing, and read self-development books. John Maxwell, Zig Ziglar, and Art Williams are some great authors in this category. Sure, they might not talk specifically about writing, but they teach principles that will help any communicator learn the dedication, positive attitude, and information they need to make it in the world. And besides, who isn’t inspired by a guy who’s sold 12 million copies of one book?

Find a writing community. I didn’t do this until about a year ago, and it has made such a huge, huge difference! My writing community is called Go Teen Writers, and besides having a blog, they also have a Facebook group that I hang out on all the time. It’s a great place to discuss writing, celebrate victories, find support, get advice, critiques and a laugh. Where else can you have a brainstorm that goes from, “Young siblings rescue princess from dragon”, to “Dragon rescues princess from young siblings”?

Of course, we could go over a lot more, but that actually brings up one last thing – you don’t have to focus on everything at once, and you don’t have be good at everything, overnight. Find one thing to work on, and build from there. Believe me, it’ll save you tons of energy and stress. So keep up the writing, folks, and never give up!

About the Author: 

Whether she’s building life-sized models of dinosaurs with her adopted family, trying her hand at cooking at a private retreat, or living in a barn, author Aidyl Ewoh (aka Lydia Howe) seems to have adventures follow her wherever she goes. Check out her book, Cave Secrets of the Pterodactyl and find out more about her at her Blog, Facebook, and Twitter.

About the Book:

Cave Secrets of the Pterodactyl:Traveling with her parents brings Lydia, daughter of explorer and singer Buddy Davis, plenty of adventure and mystery – from hidden clues in bookstores to cave paintings deep underground.