School, Red Pens, and Potential: Thoughts on Young Author-dom

By K.T. Bryski

I’ve thought a lot about being a young author over the past few days. At first, I thought I’d just share my “road to publication” story. It’s a cute little anecdote that I sling around at cons: Gmail cut the preview for Dragon Moon Press’s offer of publication at a terribly inconvenient place, so it looked like they’d rejected me, but really, they wanted my book!

It’s a cute little anecdote. It didn’t seem to fit, somehow.

Being a young author is much like being a grown-up author. You write, you finish your work, you submit, and then hopefully, you publish, promote, and write something new. But youth brings its own challenges (you knew this wasn’t going to be easy, right?).

If you’re a young author, that means you’re probably still in school. Dragon Moon Press acquired Hapax halfway through my third year of university, and released it during my fourth-year midterms. Obviously, academics eats into writing time—both the actual writing, and the promotion, networking, and adminisitrivia that come along with it.

You still have to do your homework. My parents were pretty firm on that—I spent most of Ad Astra studying for an exam. School can’t really fall by the wayside. Trust me, you will regret it later. Communicating with my profs was helpful. Apparently, launching a book is a good excuse for essay extensions, as long as you’re prepared, organized, and give advance notice.

But school has a subtler effect, too. My editor has said in interviews that she is not “a teacher with a red pen.” But when you’re a young author, that dynamic can be hard to shake at first. Up until now, you’ve been surrounded by teachers with red pens, and hey, this is a Real Adult telling you things.

Guess what? In publishing, you’re an adult, too. No matter how old you are. That means you don’t get marked by editors and agents, you collaborate with them. You take responsibility for your work and your behaviour: online, at cons, wherever. Age has only as much meaning as you give it—if you act like an adult, you’ll be treated as one.

That being said, young authors often lack both writing and life experience. This is ok. This is natural. So cut yourself some slack. There are things I wrote in the distant days of my early youth that I would do very differently now. There are things I’m writing now that I will probably do differently in ten years (I hope so). I’ve made gaffes because I didn’t know better. Youth and inexperience can’t be an excuse for everything, but it’s important to bear in mind: all you can do is make the best judgments you can with the information you have. And apologize if you judge wrong.

And I’ve not touched all the benefits to being a young writer! You’re ambitious and fired-up. It’s exciting, and cool, and there’s a wonderful sense of potential. Plus, you don’t have any dependents. This is your time: a time to learn and develop. And think of this: if you’re in your teens or twenties, you may have a good 60-70 years of writing ahead of you. That’s a lot of stories.

What are we waiting for? Let’s write!  

Website: www.ktbryski.com

Twitter: @ktbryski

 

 

 

Why I Applied for a Youth WRITE Now Mentor by Brooke

I found the Young Writer’s Program from my aunt. She is a new author and her first book will be published in August. My mom had emailed her about my books and she’s been reading them. A week or two ago she emailed us about her opinion on them and told me about a program she had heard about for young writers. 

I looked it up and signed up. I’ve gotten an author who writes crime, my favorite topic, and she has recently started communicating with me. The biggest part of me joining the mentoring program is because I thought it would be “cool” to talk with established authors about my books. I wanted to be able to talk to other writers and possibly authors with books since the closest things my friends do is read or write short stories for school. Another thing is being able to have other people who understand writing more than a kid. I would like to learn from them so I can improve my writing skills. It’s hard to improve when you already know what they’re teaching in school or what your friends tell you. 

I also would like to see my writing through other peoples’ eyes. Everyone interprets things differently. Plus, it’s great to have help or someone to rely on for support. After all, the best people had help from someone along the way and getting help or thoughts from others will only make me a better writer.

Want to learn more?

Volunteer Mentor Program
http://youthwritenow.org/young-writer-mentor-program/

Volunteer for Youth WRITE Now by Stacey Ritz

Stacey Ritz is the Founder and Executive Director of Youth WRITE Now, Inc. As a freelance writer, author and philanthropist, Ritz founded YWN in 2013 as a national writing initiative for today’s youth. *Come back tomorrow to hear from Brooke, a young writer in the Youth WRITE Now Mentoring Program. 
 

STACEY RITZ, M.Ed.

Founded in 2013, Youth WRITE Now, Inc. is a national writing initiative to motivate today’s youth to use their unique voices to inspire positive change in our world. After earning a Master’s Degree in Education from Antioch University, as an author and freelance writer for countless print and online newspapers and magazines I wanted to create a non-profit organization enabling children and teens to utilize their writing abilities. 

Statistics confirm that strong writers are strong readers—and whether or not you are interested in a future career in the world of writing, developed writing skills can assist in countless future aspirations. Whether you enjoy creative writing, short stories, novels, essays, non-fiction, fiction or poems—writing allows you to develop your own voice, it allows you to share your imagination and to cultivate ideas that have the power to make a positive difference.  Strong writing skills are beneficial when writing college admission applications and when writing resumes. Using our words through the medium of writing, we give power to what exists inside of each us—words that can start a movement, change perceptions or simply provide laughter or insight to the masses.

Youth WRITE Now, Inc. has implemented a nationwide young writer-mentor program to assist writers ages five through seventeen to develop their writing skills. As a new non-profit organization, we are in the process of accepting applications for writing mentors. Writing mentors can be freelance writers, teachers/educators, published authors or journalists. Volunteer mentors are paired with youth who express an interest in the program and are given the ability to discuss and provide feedback to their mentee’s writing, via e-mail. As a mentor with Youth WRITE Now, Inc. you have the power to be a positive inspiration for a young writer looking to develop their unique voice. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer mentor, please contact us.

In addition to our writing mentorship program, YWN provides a Community Give Back Program— donating countless books, notebooks, pens and pencils to schools from coast to coast—to further motivate today’s youth to write! Youth WRITE Now, Inc. shines the spotlight on writing! Through promoting the parent (teacher)/child relationship by enhancing the creativity of today’s youth via writing and other artistic outlets, we strive to empower each child to use their unique and powerful voice to develop self-confidence, imagination and creativity.

While our main focus is on writing, many of today’s youth report back that they build on that creative foundation of writing through other artistic outlets such as painting, play-writing/theater, music/song writing, public speaking, sculpting and so much more. We believe there are no limits to what can be achieved when you are true to yourself and possess self-confidence (which can so often be found through writing!)- your creativity becomes limitless once you tap into the words inside of you.

Please consider signing up to become a volunteer writing mentor for Youth WRITE Now, Inc. – let’s work together to encourage today’s youth to write the next chapter in our ever changing world—a chapter of positive growth, change and development.

Youth WRITE Now Website 
www.youthwritenow.org 
Volunteer Mentor Program
http://youthwritenow.org/young-writer-mentor-program/
Facebook Page 
https://www.facebook.com/YouthWriteNow 

Contact Us - http://youthwritenow.org/contact/

Overheard at... the beach

“My son wrote this really clever, funny story when he was in fourth grade. I’ve held onto it thinking maybe someday he’d want to publish it.”

I am convinced when we look back someday we will find this is the age of the writer. There is such promise in the opportunity to make our work available to readers. And nowhere is this clearer than with young writers and poets (or sometimes those who are both!)

July on Romancing the Genres will spotlight young writers. Young writers bring their own perspective and voice to writing. They also bring fresh content that can sometimes seem controversial to adults. It is a fine balance, I think, between promoting their writing style, their academic learning and their freedom of expression.

It is fitting for this post during our charitable subject month, that I get the opportunity to thank some wonderful organizations out there who are helping kids learn to walk this balance while supporting and building their motivation to write:

-          Our very own, local, Willamette Writers has a nationally known program for kids, Young Willamette Writers (http://www.willamettewriters.com/YWW/yww.htm)

-          826 National aims to “provide under-resourced students, ages 6-18, with opportunities to explore their creativity and improve their writing skills…” and much more! (http://826national.org/about/)

-         Another local organization, Write Around Portland, “…Bring(s) free 10-week creative writing workshops to hospitals, schools, homeless youth shelters, senior centers, low income apartments, prisons, social service agencies and treatment facilities…” (http://www.writearound.org/index.html)

-         The Association of Writers and Writing Programs takes the learning back a level, by supporting those who teach kids how to express themselves (showing how to build a well, so to speak rather than building it for them) (https://www.awpwriter.org/about/our_history)

-         Young Writers Society is an online community for young writers age 13+ (http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/)

-        The Young Writers Project out of VT and NH has a great format for others to use in supporting young writers (including developing fun writing prompts to kick start imagination) (http://youngwritersproject.org/)

-         Who hasn’t heard of NaNoWriMo? But did you know they have a special Young Writers Program: (http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/)

The list could go on and on. Whether you are an established author, or a new writer, getting involved in one of these organizations helps all of us, kids and adult volunteers alike, continue to grow as writers.

Deanne
Journeys Inspired by Love
www.deannewilsted.com
Follow me - @dwilsted
or     https://www.facebook.com/DeanneWilstedAuthor