Kim
- Nov 2, 2017

GUEST POST: Advice for Teen Writers from a Fellow Teen Writer by Lucia Brucoli

Hey guys! I have a very special guest post for you today! As a young adult author, it's incredibly important to me to support young writers and help foster a positive and nurturing writing community in which they can thrive. Teen readers and writers have such strong voices, and they deserve a platform in which to be heard. So, when Lucia Brucoli, a young writer, reached out to me and asked to do a guest post here on my blog, I was thrilled. I hope to do more teen guest posts in the future! But enough of my babbling!

Take it away, Lucia! :)

One of my personal goals as a writer is to create a community of aspiring teen writers so we can support, encourage and help each other throughout our writing journey. Writing is already difficult for adults, and some things are even harder on teenagers. One of the most difficult things for teens is being able to balance school, writing and personal relationships such as friends and family, as well as extra hobbies we may have. In this age there are still so many things beyond our control, and it’s so hard not to neglect parts of our lives important to us.

So how can we write without shutting out other important aspects of our lives? Here are 6 steps to do just that. Keep in mind that these are aimed for teen writers, but most of these things can apply to anyone.

1. Know your priorities. These don’t have to be limited to writing, and should be created to analyze which things are most important to you and why. For example, last year I was very focused on school. Although this got me good grades, I realized that I was distancing myself away from potential friends, isolating myself. This school year, I want to focus more on meeting other people. Will this affect my writing and personal time? Probably. But I need to do it anyway, while I have the time, before school really gets tough. Know your priorities, so that when it’s time to make a choice, you can align your decision with them.

2. Get into a routine. If you are a schedule-fanatic, you can make tables upon tables of what to do and when. If you’re like me and want flexibility, you can set yourself goals and give yourself time to achieve them. When you know that you will do something later, you can mentally prepare for it: for example, if you are planning to write this afternoon, you can prepare a writing snack, read to give yourself inspiration, and silence your phone, so when it’s time to write you’re 100% ready. Giving yourself simply a vague routine will make things easier and less rushed when you start having deadlines.

3. Set yourself achievable goals. It is a well-known fact that setting goals is good motivation. But more importantly than setting goals is to set achievable goals. Now, I’m not saying that you must set goals which are so easy to achieve that you don’t even try, but even worse is when you’re in a rush. If you are a twelfth-grade student who has 4 hours of homework each day, writing for two more hours can be a bit far-fetched. But if you say that you can write one chapter each month, it’s going to take forever to finish your book, depending on how many chapters you’re aiming for. You can experiment with different goals to see how you work better.

4. Know what works for you. We all do things differently. Taking the example of writing, one writer can work very well with rock music blaring while they’re writing, and another writer can prefer utter silence. One writer can work very well in public places, but another might hate having people around. Try new things and understand which conditions you work best at, so when it comes to writing you will already be in your best state possible.

5. Tell others about your project. Telling close friends and family about your writing will not only give yourself confidence and be a source of external motivation, but the people you tell will know in advance that if you have a day of writing planned, you won’t be able to attend events. My close friends know that I’m writing a book, and if we are messaging and I say ‘sorry, I gtg write’ they know that for the next hour or so, my mind will be solely focused on that. Same things with my parents: if they see that I’m writing, they will try their best not to interrupt me, and I try to do the same thing when they are working.

6. Don’t beat yourself up. There will always be things that come up unexpectedly, whether or not we want them to. You plan a writing afternoon but get a sudden high fever and you’re stuck in bed for a week. You were going to a family dinner but suddenly realize that if you do so you won’t have time for the punctuation revision you had planned. Don’t beat yourself up when things don’t go your way. If anything, do the things you like when you do have time, so when the unexpected happens you’ll have time to think of that instead of thinking of other things you were supposed to do. Remember that each problem comes with a ready solution: You may not always see it, but it’s always there.

About the Author:

Lucia Brucoli is a middle school student working on her young adult sci-fi novel. She is also working to create a community of teen aspiring writers just like her, a community of people who support, encourage and help each other, working together to be officially called ‘authors’.

In her free time, she enjoys watching t.v shows, reading, and of course writing.

Connect with Lucia: Twitter ~ Author Website