{"id":479,"date":"2012-07-31T07:42:08","date_gmt":"2012-07-31T15:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/?p=479"},"modified":"2012-07-31T07:42:08","modified_gmt":"2012-07-31T15:42:08","slug":"unsolicited-advice-to-a-12-year-old-writing-genius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/31\/unsolicited-advice-to-a-12-year-old-writing-genius\/","title":{"rendered":"Unsolicited Advice to a 12-Year-Old Writing Genius"},"content":{"rendered":"

(An open letter to a friend of mine).<\/em><\/p>\n

Once again it has been brought to my attention your ability with writing, more importantly your love of writing. So I thought I would take it upon myself to offer some advice, along the lines of \u201cthings I wish someone had told me sooner.\u201d Of course, I expect you to take all of this with a grain of salt, indeed, to ignore most of it. Remember, Mr. Edwards is a curmudgeon and a cynic, a bitter old man, a wannabe-dissident, a malcontent, never published, and wont to submerge himself in self-indulgent dissatisfaction. On the other hand, I have written well over a million words of fiction, some of which, I\u2019m sure, your mother will let your read when you\u2019re well into your twenties.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Don\u2019t bother trying to make your writing \u201cgood.\u201d You\u2019re old enough to understand words like gestalt<\/em>, zeitgeist<\/em>, and paradigm<\/em>. These are the factors that will determine if your writing is considered \u201cgood\u201d or not, and you don\u2019t really have any control over them. So just write.<\/li>\n
  2. But if you still insist on getting \u201cbetter,\u201d here\u2019s a trick: help other people first. Help your sister and brother, encourage them and tell them what you like about what they’ve written. Help your cousins, your friends. Yes, you can help adults as well, if they have written something they want to share. Hey, look at this, this essay I’ve written. Want to help me make it better? I welcome your suggestions.<\/li>\n
  3. Don\u2019t try to fix the first sentence until you finished the last sentence. This goes for paragraphs too, and pages, and chapters. Have you ever watched a movie for the second time? Notice how the beginning is different, since you know how the film’s going to end? How can you know how\u00a0<\/em>to fix the first chapter if you don\u2019t even know how the book ends?<\/li>\n
  4. Don\u2019t listen to anyone\u2019s advice or criticism. Well, it\u2019s okay to listen<\/em>, and consider<\/em>, but don\u2019t worry about what they say too much. This goes for spelling, punctuation, and grammar, as well as voice, tone, characterization, and plot. People have a billion ways to tell you what\u2019s wrong, but so few ways to tell you what\u2019s right. Don\u2019t let them bog you down with those billions.<\/li>\n
  5. Ignore the so-called \u201cwrite what you know\u201d rule. It\u2019s poppycock. Most of the time we write to discover, so of course we have to write what we don\u2019t know. Can you imagine how many fantasy or sci-fi books would have been written if people had followed this absurd rule? Certainly there is<\/em> a place for writing what you know, and some people do like that kind of autobiography, or expertise. But there\u2019s no sense in limiting yourself. Write about whatever you want, and if you don\u2019t know it, make it up.<\/li>\n
  6. Ignore, also, the \u201cshow don\u2019t tell\u201d rule. You\u2019re going to hear this one a lot. It\u2019s such nonsense. It\u2019s vague advice from people who don\u2019t care enough to read what you’ve actually<\/em> written, trying to sound all wise and useful. Showing versus telling depends entirely on the tone you\u2019re trying to set, the mood, even the themes involved with what you\u2019re writing. It has everything to do with the situation at hand, and you are on control of that in your writing, you alone.<\/li>\n
  7. You don\u2019t have to show what you’ve written to anyone, ever. Writing begins as a deeply personal act, and I wish someone had told me this, a long time ago. I self-censored myself, eschewing certain topics, ideas, even words, for fear nobody would like them. And in doing so I limited myself, I left whole parts unexplored. Don\u2019t worry about anyone\u2019s judgment\u2014not even your own, if you can help it.<\/li>\n
  8. However, once you do\u00a0<\/em>share your writing, it doesn\u2019t really belong to you anymore. Sort of. People bring all kinds of things with them when they read, and you can\u2019t control that. If someone reads your story and it reminds them of something, how can you tell them they were wrong to have a memory? It\u2019s okay to explain yourself, but someday you\u2019re going to write things that will be read by people you\u2019ll never meet<\/em>. So, once your done with a story or a book, let it go.<\/li>\n
  9. Write every day, if you can. But if you can\u2019t, don\u2019t give up. If you find you haven\u2019t written in days, weeks, months, years, that\u2019s okay. You can always come back to it. Always. Writing is going to be something that stays with you forever. It can be your best friend (and sometimes your worst enemy), it will always be a part of you. Cherish it, nurture it, trust it, rely upon it. And when you write, write about anything, everything. Break the rules, be silly, see how hard it is to make no sense at all. Every word you write is exercise, and exercise will only make you stronger.<\/li>\n
  10. Don\u2019t only<\/em> write, however. Yes, exercise can make you stronger, but it can also make you tired. It\u2019s okay to not write sometimes. To do things, to explore the world, explore your friends, to have other interests. The great thing about writing is that it\u2019s compatible with everything, so you don\u2019t have to worry about choosing between writing and something else. So feel free to try as many something-elses as possible. At the very least, that will give you something to write about.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I could go on, (ask your mother, she knows how I tend to prattle) but I think that\u2019s a good start. The truth is, everyone<\/em> should write, not just geniuses like you, but everyone, all the time. Writing is a gift, a wonderful gift, better than any other gift I\u2019ve ever received, and it\u2019s free for everyone. And you know I\u2019m always available to discuss writing, (at your mother\u2019s discretion of course), whenever you like. Which reminds me\u2014your mom\u2019s no slouch either, when it comes to pen and paper; you\u2019ve got more than one gift there, it seems, so use them well. And thanks for listening to an old man babble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    (An open letter to a friend of mine). Once again it has been brought to my attention your ability with writing, more importantly your love of writing. So I thought I would take it upon myself to offer some advice, along the lines of \u201cthings I wish someone had told me sooner.\u201d Of course, I … <\/p>\n

    Continue reading “Unsolicited Advice to a 12-Year-Old Writing Genius”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p24y52-7J","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bukkhead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}