One of my publishers just signed an author who is in her teens, and that brought up a question I've often asked myself. How does age affect my writing? I remember my teen years and I had an amazing imagination back then. Through the years, lots of things have changed, but imagination is not one of them. Still burning brightly, sometimes blindingly so, I have no dearth of story ideas to turn into books.
Thinking about how age affects our writing does bring out a couple of questions I'd like your input on, if you don't mind sharing your thoughts with me. I would say that a young author can easily speak for her/his generation in the realm of YA writing. That should be a piece of cake for a true author. But, can a youngster successfully capture the thoughts and feelings of older adults? Lots of them have tried, but in my opinion, only a few have ever been able to truly depict middle age.
Conversely, can an older adult truly depict life as indelibly as teens discover it? I know, we've all been there and done that; experiencing life in the growing lane, that is. Most of us have families replete with the younger generation, and live vicariously through our kids and grandchildren. But, are we able to do justice when tapping out a 'tween's innermost feelings? Or a young adult's first foray into things sexual? How about the dizzying complexity of what one will do with one's life, say about the time one graduates from normal school?
Write what you know. A maxim that has served writers well through the ages, it also can be considered a warning for us to avoid treading into territory we know not. And that, in my opinion, is where imagination comes into play. Some of us, I'd say a very few, come equipped with such vivid imaginations that we can place ourselves in aged shoes to synthesize what it feels like to be old.
If you can't feel in your bones what it's like to have to stretch old muscles just to be able to stand without falling; to try to lift an object you've carried around for years, only to learn that you no longer can get it off the table; if you can't feel the weariness creeping through your limbs early in the day, don't try to write about old folks.
If you can't remember what it is to wake up bursting with energy, fighting the clock to get out there and discover new frontiers; if you can't depict accurately the thrill of your first love, of suffering through the depressing low of your first rejection by your peers; don't attempt to write for young adults. That's my opinion.
What's yours?
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9 comments:
Hi Dale,
Yeah, can't imagine life without imagination.
A young writer can never fully understand the meaning of ear hair.
Ha - had to chime in on this, since I'm planning to make it to Monday and my fiftieth birthday. I have four books traditionally published, one more in contract for next spring with Muse. I'm writing about older characters-or at least have a cross-generation slant as I transcribe the lives of characters in every generation. It is harder to come up with the new hep talk, to be honest, and I have to turn to my friends or family members of that age to help me out. But that's a good thing as it keeps us communicating.
Great topic, and, as you suggest, very complicated. I have been writing since about age nine. Looking back on the past few decades, I think the biggest difference as I age is that I become less solipsistic. I have a bigger perspective on the world outside of my own experiences, not only because I have had more experiences, but I've also learned from many others who experience the world in a completely different way from me. That's something a teen writer, no matter how gifted, probably isn't going to have.
As a young elder, I believe that we never really lose the ability to look back and feel how it was to be younger, sprier, ready for anything. The angst, the joys and furies, the dreams and heartbreaks are still there in a hidden compartment waiting to be released. And, if you are an exceptional writer, your age doesn't matter if you are aware that you might need to ask questions to round out your experience to make your story resonate. I can still feel the crunch of cinders on the path the airmen tamped down at the airbase there by the cold North sea. And how it felt to try and dig them out with stuck to make a fire in the old iron stoves in the abandoned quonset huts we lived in when we were bombed out of our home. Imagination, memory, fiding answers and loving what we do. Each has a part in our story telling.
Mary
As an almost middle aged writer I think I have more imagination now than I did in my teens. Maybe it's experience - maybe I've just never really grown up. I would say that it is easier for an adult to write YA than for a young adult to write older fiction. That being said, there are always exceptions.
www.michelle-pickett.com/blog
hey if the kid can write let them publish the book or what he or she has it might be young but that how all girl or guys start there give them chance
Thanks to all of you who commented. Age, as some wag said, is a state of mind. So, with due apologies to my peers, I'm moving to a state where I'll always be young. LOL
I'm a believer in having a go a whatever age, topic excites you to write.
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