Young Writers Society

A lot of people say that as you get older, your writing generally improves. Do you think you're getting better as a writer or concentrating too hard and getting nowhere? Discuss!

I don't think it has so much to do with age as it does how much you work on it. People who write more often and strive to challenge and better themselves will consequentially improve.

Of course, as you get older you experience more things. But that doesn't necessarily mean you're a better writer.

I think what people mean when they say, "as you get older you get better," is that...over time you get better. From constantly challenging yourself, and trying to improve. I find myself improving everyday, as I constantly critique my work and listen to others' advice. I really don't think it has to do with age, but your experience and really trying to improve.

Aye, exactly - it has much more to do with time and practice than age. I'm pretty good, but I've only been writing for a couple of years, so I'm not as good as I could be; someone like Gummy, for example, who is already excellent at 14, will probably be a good sight better than me now when she's 18, because she's starting from the same place with more time to work on it.

Practice may not make perfect, but it sure helps with the improvements.

I'd agree that it has to do with how much work you've put into it- my style seems to drastically improve after NaNoWriMo (and then of course, I don't work at it and it atrophies...).

You could be up against someone who is really talented at writing, but if you do your page-a-day or whatever is recommended you may eventually surpass them.

I think I am a different writer--as I well should be. I am a different person than I was years ago. The question of improvement, however, can only yield strictly arbitrary answers. Let it suffice to say I am different.

I improve as I write more and challenge myself to come up with ideas and how to solve problems. A year ago I had no idea how to end my pieces or what would need to be changed and how. Now I've looked at critiques and I see where I could improve on my vocabulary, etc.

I don't think age matters much.

I do think maturity, age wise, affects writing greatly. I shudder to read things I wrote even in highschool. They style isn't terrible, but the subject matter is always purile, and the conflicts petty. And the poetry? I certainly believed there was a lot more wrong with my life than there actually was. I hold it up to being emotionally immature. Which is, unfortunately, a state of being few can avoid.

I don't know! Hehe. All I seem to be doing these days is remembering the stuff I wrote when I was younger and trying to figure out what bits made them work better than things I may have done lately and why?

I read through everything I had that I'd written in order of oldest to most recent a while ago, and I was shocked at how much of a jump in skill there was between a story I wrote when I was 12 (which was amusing mush), and one I wrote when I was 13 (which was surprisingly enjoyable to read and had half decent characters for the first time ever). And I have no idea why. I learnt nothing about writing between them. It just happened. Then the one I wrote when I was 14 was suddenly cliched and bad again.

Basically I think stuff just doesn't make sense. And deffinitely does not proceed in a proper, linear fashion when it can help it.

In general though, you probably get better with expirence and practice, which basically means age.

Let's hope. LOL, I agree with everyone, time and practice=improvement. Which must mean I've gotten next to nowhere, hehe. I havent written much at all since I started last year. I havent even been writing for a year yet, so I welcome the thought of continual improvement.

My first chapters tend to be of really good quality. The it fizzles out a bit in the 2nd and then I try to make the 2nd as good as the 1st and then end up jacking in the whole idea and starting again. I suppose its me concetrating too hard on making it perfect and just not getting it!!!!
I'm not sure... either that or when I have to explain why my character is in a certain situation or why they've just done what they've done and I kind of lose the plot. Ahhhhh I need to start mind mapping!!!!!!!!!!

As for me? I don't know... I think I had to get older to get better. Like, some of the topics that I'm dealing with now, I felt very squeamish about doing before, so I would avoid it. But now that I'm technically an adult, I feel freer to explore more topics that I previously would never go in written form.

I'm improving, but not as rapidly as I used too. Back when I first started, you could see a fair bit of improvement with each story I wrote. Now days the improvement is more subtle.

I've only recently realised how much my writing has improved over the past few months. I was tidying my room and I found on of my creative coursework pieces I did for english back at GCSE, it seemed alot less thought had been put into it but I knew I'd worked hard because it was for school. I guess part of it is that my ideas deveolp and become more mature. Or it could just be that I didn't have a clean head back then.

My writing's definitely getting better as I mature, because I bring a whole new set of thoughts and ideas to the circumstances. Even my last attempt before the Chair is much less lucid and developed than Shan's story, and I've been working on the Tower for a little over two years.