Tips for Young Writers

"We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to." ~Somerset Maugham

Is writing your passion? Then there are lots of things on these pages that will help you get better at what you love to do. The more you do it, the better you'll get.

Seven habits for young writers:

1. Write every day. Write in your journal. Write a great letter to your grandmother. Write a love letter. Write nonesense. Write a story or a poem or part of a bigger work. Write the same word over and over again. Do a writing exercise. Just write.
   
   
2. Write from your heart. "In art the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can inspire." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
   If you don't really care about it, no one else will either.
   
   

Write in your own voice, your own style. "Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures." ~ Henry Ward Beecher
It is fun to experiment with different styles and voices while you search for your own. But you have a unique voice, and it should be heard.

Write what you know. That is not a prohibition against writing about a place you make up—after all, who will know it better than the person who created it? But it is a reminder that if you don't really know something, your writing won't ring true. If it is something you want to write about but you don't know it, do your homework. Learn everything you can — the look, the taste, the smell, the feel, the sound, every nuance of movement, temperature, location, history, inner thought. Everything.

Revise. OK, maybe not your journal, and maybe not the gibberish that is better thrown away, but pretty much anything else. And remember, sometimes the best part of revision is tossing out. Think of is as "Spring Cleaning."

Learn the rules. Don't use words that you don't understand. Don't use a $100 word when a $1 word works fine. Use Strunk and White. Use a dictionery. Use a style book (e.g. the "Chicago Manual of Style"). If you are submitting a piece of work to be published or for a contest, read the guidelines. Follow them. Treat your work with respect — clean, correct, typed, unwrinkled, no typos, no misspellings.

Learn the rules you can break. If you are writing a piece of fiction, you don't have to tell the truth. If you are telling a story that takes place over time, it doesn't have to be linear. Don't let minutia or irrelevant facts get in the way of a good story.

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