Young Writers Society

How often are you told "you're setting yourself up for failure," or "you're not that good"? How many people actually encourage you to write, and believe in you? How many others tell you how horrible you are?

Personally, I get so annoyed by the people who have the nerve to tell me how bad my writing is, and say it like this "Your writing, like, totally sucks, dude." It's utterly pathetic, because the way they speak automatically proves that they have no room to talk about what's bad and what's not. On the other hand, I have all my friends that are also writer's, and we all believe in ourselves and each other; it's really great, almost like a miniature family.

What about you?

Actually, my biggest obstacle is my own mother. She agrees that I'm a good writer, but thinks that it's too iffy a profession.

Most my friends and family say that I'm a good writer. My Journalism teacher practically begged me to join the newspaper staff. It's fairly flattering, and I've developed a bit of an ego. however, i'm surprisingly shy about my work.

I don't really get people telling my I'm a bad writer. My parents think I'm really good and that should attempt to be a published writer, but they're keeping me realistic. Like, really, who can make a carrer out of writing? It is hard to make much money from it.

My mum reads most of my stuff and gives me her comments and suggestions. My friends do too. In fact, I don't think i've ever been told that I'm a bad writer. Just to keep things in perspective.

The people on here are the only ones I get opinions from because no one else in my life is interested in anything I write. So I love it here.

It's mixed. My non-writing friends give me blind praise with whatever they read, although one has taken to picking out typos I've missed. My writing friends tend to be harder, more realistic I guess.

My family just tend to laugh, and ask why I'm writing silly stories.

But I get most of my constructive help from here ^^

"Pipe dream' is soooo overly used when I try to tell people that i want to write a novel. I always tell them, PEOPLE HAVE DONE IT BEFORE! I dont understand why they think I'm so different than all other writers on this earth.

I hate the whole 'blind praise' thing. All I can ever get from my friends is 'that's really good, megan' 'You should be a writer' I kind of know that i should be a writer, thanks.

Honestly, I appreciate bad criticism just as much as I appreciate the good kind.
But one thing that annoys me greatly is when people who know nothing of the subject try to tell you how bad you are.
Thats why I've stopped letting random people read what I write, and trust only my friends, who I know will be objective and honest about it, to review my work.
My exception to that are places like YWS, because I know that most people here at least have some interest in writing.
That said, I appreciate when someone who knows the material has the nerve to say "This really isn't that great" or "This needs to be fixed." because that gives me something to work from.
More than negative criticism, false positive criticism annoys me.
To have someone say they've honestly read and paid attention to your work, and to call it "perfect" annoys me more than anything else.
I know that nothing I write is perfect, and I let others read it in the hopes of getting constructive criticism.
So, in short, any type of criticism is fine with me, as long as it's constructive.

I've gotten around the "iffy profession" thing. I want to teach English while I'm writing. This isn't just because I want to be smart about a career, it's because I love people too much to hole myself up and write 24-7. Technically speaking, I don't think I have the right personalitity for a writer. Writers should be loners. I am not a loner.

Darn my social skills that keep me from fame.

But seriously, my family is really supportive. Actually, my dad got a little annoyed when I told him I was taking a break from writing - he's counting on me selling a million copies and paying my way through college lol.

I go to my seventh-grade LA teacher for criticizing out of here. I hate it when people are like, "Great." And then when I ask them what made it great, they're like, "I don't know," So annoying! And also, so many people who have read SO much of my work, they continue to be shocked. Hello, I don't think you get shocked by George Orwell! Sorry, I was ranting there. Anyways, it's just...UGH!

I get encouragement, but most of the time it's just blind praise. My mom actually takes the time to read over everything I give her. My dad couldn't care less. I also have an English teacher who can see something in what I write. But other than that, it's the people here who actually give me encouragement while still pointing out just what isn't working in my stories.

I have to agree with you conrad. The people on this site do tend to enjoy some of my stories and are wiling to tell me things that need to just be plain fixed. I have a friend who always says keep writing but I’m not sure what she wants me to write about anymore. My mom is always willing to listen to my stories since she can't read my hand writing^-^

But step dad I don't let him usually see what I write because I get embarrassed easily and he's been my dad since I was 3!

I once told a syfi story to my gramp, gram, mom, and dad and they actually gave me a critic on how some of the things in it sounded so life like.

Sorry rambling here.

Back to subject.

My sister is always the first to read my drafts, and although usually she only points out typos and grammar mistakes, that's okay, because that's really all I need. I'm super critical of my own work, so I always know there are big problems and can sort them out on my own.

I try to give my mum and dad my stuff to read, but I never write the sort of thing that interests my dad and they both tend to be busy. They're not great at feedback either.

My mum is kind of encouraging, but my dad's a bit jekyll and hyde about it. His idea of encouring me is making sarcastic remarks about how I haven't sent my novel off to anyone and telling me it's no good writing them and never getting it published, and on the one hand, he'll tell people I'm writing a book, and that I'm a good writer, and tells me to get writing the next one when I've finished, and on the other hand he complains that I spend my time doing nothing I usually feel like going 'uh, dad, you just said I should write another novel; where do you think they come from, out of thin air???'

It's nice that he does generally give off the vibes that I'm a good writer though, even if he has a funny way of showing it.

I don't give a damn when people say I'm just kidding myself, or not being realistic. I don't want to make money out of writing, I want to make a living, i.e. enough to just get by, and I don't want to be famous. And that is perfectly possible to do.

Many of my friends are also writers (as well as anime geeks) so we have a nice circle of similar interests, constructive criticism, and creative help and collaboration. My parents also encourage my writing, but, as with many of you guys, keep me realistic. I can have a solid career that will allow me to write on the side. I don't have any problems with my ability to write.

Unfortunately, I'm still very shy about sharing my work...at least with people that I actually know. I absolutely hate being the center of attention in front of people, and knowing that they have personal biases (good or bad, big or small) towards me or my work makes me that much more anxious and embarrassed about having it analyzed to the bone (at least, that's what I imagine). I end up thinking that they're either complimenting me because they don't want me to feel bad or completely disgusted with me when they over-criticize. I think that once I start taking actual writing classes in college and I'm in a group setting where everyone gets equal criticism, I'll be able to handle it better.

As it is, I'm happy to keep spouting out my overgrown imagination onto paper (or screen) and allowing perfect strangers to respond as they wish. It's much easier, and the wonderful thing about words is that you can always go back and revise them when you find ways to make them better.