Young Writers Society

Hello, I'm new here. I haven't wrote much but I've done work before. I watch alot of anime and have always enjoyed it which lead me to writing for the first time. This was back in 2010. I'm only 17 years old so I'm not really that old and don't have much experience. I never thought I'd really get started in writing or anything to regard it. I hated to read, I still don't really like it. But, I do enjoy writing and watching all kinds of shows & movies. I just finished watching TLA: Korra tonight which is the reasoning for me to come back to writing. I'm a computer geek really, I thought I'd always want to start in that field but things changed. I made my own website, private server for a game (RuneScape), forum, and some other stuff. Now, I'm back to writing. I hope to continue to do it and hopefully I will be able to make it a career sometime in the future. I've improved since I ever wrote my last story or anything really. I've always been fascinated in screenwriting and my dream is to write the story for a tv series. Hopefully a cartoon type like Avatar, Pokemon, or Dragonball. This probably sounds like an introduction more so than anything so far, I just wanted to use this to do both. My actual question is how would I go about getting started in this? I want to make this a career and I'm graduating highschool shortly. For an example of what I did, I have the story (unfinished) I wrote three years ago. http://forums.avatarspirit.net/index.ph ... msg1777513

Wow, you sound so amazing! Excuse that, but I love anime and manga and coding but I'm hope,ess at computer stuff and I love runescape! It is so amazing you made your own server! I mean, I have created forums before but that's just another thing. Just to how to get started, I'm going to give you one simple advice.

Write.

Is the only way you can find your voice and improve your writing. Post your work on here and everyone here will help you to their best extent. From what I've read of your story, you already have good writing skills! How to get started? Well, find something you want to write, and who cares if it sounds stupid or weird? Just write it! Remember, the road of writing is long and hard and tedious but it can be fun and rewarding. Best of luck! And tell me if you ever write anything.

-SubtleSanity

17 is indeed very young and is good you know what you are trying to achieve. If you want to write something, my advice would to similar to SubtleSanity's, if you have raw ideas then write it. Raw ideas are either very interesting or very boring, but who cares? You can always find perfection from imperfection, also don't beat yourself into thinking you have to come up with a masterpiece on the first go. Because that's like going to the Olympics when all you've ever done is wrestle open your pop tart. These things take time, and a lot of effort and dedication.

If you're interesting in screen writing, you can also go to the library to research more on the topic. Best of luck! Hope to see you around here.

-Laure

Laure wrote:17 is indeed very young and is good you know what you are trying to achieve. If you want to write something, my advice would to similar to SubtleSanity's, if you have raw ideas then write it. Raw ideas are either very interesting or very boring, but who cares? You can always find perfection from imperfection, also don't beat yourself into thinking you have to come up with a masterpiece on the first go. Because that's like going to the Olympics when all you've ever done is wrestle open your pop tart. These things take time, and a lot of effort and dedication.

If you're interesting in screen writing, you can also go to the library to research more on the topic. Best of luck! Hope to see you around here.

-Laure

Yes, I plan to do that and research it more. I also really liked your Olympic reference haha, it was funny because I actually wrestle so I know what you're trying to say. Thanks though!

you wrestle!? Wouldn't want to get your bad side then. :p

Aye and research is always important, no matter what genre you what. Alert me when you do post something, I think it will be very interesting.

well you're probably not going to want to hear it, but reading a lot and reading often are both requirements if you hope to have a career as a professional writer some day. the best advice I can give you in that regard is to find professional authors whose work you find particularly intriguing and read as much of their work as possible. and don't be afraid to try emulating their styles in your own work. you do need to find your own voice to establish yourself as a professional writer, but finding your voice takes time and at this age you still have plenty of it.

aside from reading the best way to go about beginning your career as a writer is to sharpen your skills in a writing workshop. a workshop is a writing class in which a group of students write fiction or poetry which is then given to all the other members of that class. the other students read their classmate's writing, make in-text notes and then, under a teachers instruction, discuss the piece in terms of craft. during the discussion the author sits quietly and at the end he or she responds to the feedback. there may be some high schools offering something like this, but you're most likely to find writing workshops at college in an undergrad or graduate level.

just keep in mind, writing is a skill like any other and skills take time and practice to develop.

In order to get started, you have to go through the rejection cycle.

Find contests, publication opportunities, internships, ect. Anything that gets you submitting writing to the places you want to end up working at.

Expect rejection.

Expect lots of rejection.

Keep writing, keep reading, keep submitting, keep looking for critiques, keep critiquing.

You will simply not be good enough for a very long time. If you've only been writing on and off for a handful of years, that really isn't enough. I follow the advice of: "To get better at writing, write a million words. Throw them out. Hope there's something good in your next million." Now, this isn't a rule, but a very good guideline.

You will be a bad writer for awhile. Everybody is a bad writer for awhile. You just have to stick with it.

Keep improving.

Keep writing.

Keep submitting.

Eventually you'll get somewhere.