Damn kids

[ostarella]

More and more I'm thinking that writing forums need to have a minimum age requirement - or at least make people state up front if they're still in high school.

I just got through giving a lengthy and (what I hoped was) helpful response to a writer who was getting burned out and having trouble writing every day. So what happens? In a response to another writer, he said he was just finishing his last year of high school and one of the reasons he didn't write was because the new TV season was starting.

So, okay, I have nothing against teenagers wanting to write, and I'm quite sure there are some out there who actually have the writing skills to put together a good book. But frankly, most of them haven't a clue about a) writing or b) real life and the accompanying experiences. And a lot of those who are so enthralled with being authors now will have left it behind within a couple years.

I wouldn't mind helping out some kid who I know is committed to being a writer. I just don't like having them dumped in my lap without warning.

Comments

[billy-shriner.livejournal.com]

Admittedly, if you look at the average age of writers, they're all 30s, 40s, and 50s + because as you say, you've got a lifetime of experience under your belt to write about.

Some have known that they want to write from the day they were born... others, like me, stumble across it at, say, 33 :-P