Love to Write

Question:

 I’m thirteen years old and I love to write. I wanted to ask you some questions about writing. I read your autobiography How I Became a Writer and loved it. It really inspired me to keep writing and I see a lot of myself in you. Like any writer, I have trouble writing everyday. You, however, seem to have it come so easily. I think the ideas come to me fine–the characters, the plot, and setting. But its the persistance that gets me. I’m the type of writer that will write a few pages, come back to it later and read over it only to realize that it sounds ridiculous so I throw it out. I’m sure it’s not the healthiest way to go about writing a novel but it keeps me going.  

Phyllis replied:

I seem to be getting a lot of mail these days from readers who want to write a novel and get it published before they have written short stories or tried to get anything published in magazines or in teen writing contests.  It’s fine to write a novel for yourself, for fun, even with the idea that some day you may want to rewrite it and send it out for publication.  But at this point, age 13, you should not be thinking about writing a novel and having it published.  You should be writing for the joy of it, the fun of it, the look and sound of words on the printed page–testing yourself on how well you hold up, how excited or unexcited you are to get back to your project, how it appeals to you after you put it aside for a few weeks or months, then get it out and read it over again.  Writing is hard work; there’s no getting around it.  I’m getting too many emails from young readers who ask about writing something that will become a movie, or asking about getting an agent.  The craft, the art, of writing comes first.  You need to first persuade yourself that what you might lack in talent, you will make up for by persistence.  Your talent will grow as you keep reading other people’s books, seeing how they do things, and then writing your own.  What you need to work on first is planting yourself in your chair and keeping at a story until it’s something you truly like.  THEN test it out on other people, including editors.