Young Adult Writers Group

[al089]

Hey, I'm interested in meeting other college-age fiction writers, share struggles, advice, and victories.

[Sarah Elisabeth]

I chose a non-conventional route of self education instead of college, but I love talking fiction What kind do you write?

[al089]

Hey Sarah,

Actually I haven't gone to school for writing.
So far I only write for myself, but have recently been sharing and evaluating with a friend who works at my school.
I haven't written substantially, or really in one vein, save broadly, fiction. I have written some small pieces that range from space fiction, to modern earth. I would say much of what I write is steeped in a core mystery, or questions that remain unanswered.
Like I said, I am slowly exploring the beginnings to writing. School etc. has really dominated life in the last ten years. Much of what I write is in the medium of soliloquy, or dialogue. Fairly minimalist in terms of characters, or events.
My reasoning behind joining this site is to hopefully learn from others who have already been blazing the trail of writing.

- AL

P.S
Sorry for the late response.

[al089]

By the way, congratulations on your flash fiction.

I haven't had a chance to read any of it, but anyone is able to find success in their writing deserves my admiration. I have been heavily influenced by short stories and flash fiction, and hope to one day break into that world.

[Sparrow]

I'm 30 so a bit beyond college age now, but I did try to write during part of my college years. I actually didn't take any writing classes, either--I challenged the Writing 121 that was required and got to just write one reference paper and pay for it and didn't have to take any more. All of my writing training since high school has been one-on-one mentoring and critique groups and such... lots of it here from FW.

When I was in the most intense part of my interpreting training program, I did have to set writing aside for a time. Just not enough energy and time. I have pretty serious health issues, so that didn't help. But once I was able, I started back on my fiction writing again. Now I work part-time as an interpreter during the school year at the college, so then I have the whole summer to focus even more on writing.

[tonguethaid]

At first I thought this topic was referring to writers who write Young Adult novels

While I'm not college age, I'm younger than Amy so...

[al089]

Haha, that's really funny, Kara.
Feel free to share your thoughts!

Wow, Amy, it looks like you have become pretty successful! Congratulations!
So, Amy, what is a part of writing fiction specifically that you have found difficult?

[Sparrow]

Wow, Amy, it looks like you have become pretty successful! Congratulations!
So, Amy, what is a part of writing fiction specifically that you have found difficult?

Thanks. I went to a big writing conference last month and have an agent and publisher interested in my books, so that's exciting.

Honestly, the hardest part of writing for me is my fatigue levels from my genetic disorder. Like it takes me about a month to recover from a four-day conference like that one, before I can even function mentally enough to start writing again. Though that's unique to my health issues, I guess finding time and energy for writing is something pretty much everyone can struggle with.

Being ADD in my writing is another struggle. Before I found FW I rarely even finished short stories, and then even after I was entering the challenge all the time and doing fine with short things, I never could get more than a few chapters into a novel before I'd get more excited about another story and switch. But then I tried NaNoWriMo and it worked for me, and since then I've been able to be a little better at staying focused on what I'm working on until it's done. Well... I was able to finish all the reworking of that novel and write half of another. So improvement, anyway. I'm confident now that I'll be able to finish this other one as soon as I'm feeling a little better. (Starting to pull out of the fatigue more, though pain has been worse, but it's a little easier to write through.)

[James Robot]

Hey, I'm interested in meeting other college-age fiction writers, share struggles, advice, and victories.

Howdy!
I'm exactly college age. In fact, I'm a recent High School Graduate and am nearly halfway done with my first semester of college.
I've been writing as a hobby for quite a while and recently self-published a book that two friends of mine and i have fabricated.
The biggest struggle for me is writers block but, after time goes on (and sometimes with a bit of a push), it goes away.

[al089]

James, how did your self-publishing turn out?

Yes, I find myself dealing with extended dry spells, where I mostly come up with garbage.
I have very little experience in the writing world, and hope to take some courses when I can. I have written a number of flash fiction and short stories, but I believe that my struggle to write anything of length without it losing integrity is more so based in my inexperience, rather than a disability.

[DaughterofLight]

Hi I am college age too!! Nice to know there are other people out there trying to do this in their college days too. And I'm only halfway through my freshman year But it's almost there!
I adore righting fiction (although I have yet to finish any BOOK I have ever started ) So I started writing short stories, which I absolutely love doing. Brings a small sense of satisfaction!! Yay!

[Sarah Dirk]

Hey

I just recently graduated, but am still "college age". I am also a bit of a newbie with FaithWriters, and am just looking around. I've written some short stories, novellettes, kinda all over the map. (Do tons of English papers count?)

Sarah

[Hoomi]

"College aged" is something of a misnomer anyway. The last college class I took, I was in my 40s. The class had students ranging in age from early 20s to late 60s, and for all I know, the one guy might even have been older than his 60s.

And what did I learn in that college class for advanced fiction writing? That the only fiction worth writing is Literary Fiction, and that if we were going to write Genre Fiction, we were to be despised. The bias from the instructor was so bad, that I made a t-shirt to wear to class that said, "Please don't tell my Mom that I write Genre Fiction. (She thinks I do screenplays for porn movies)"

Yes, I still write Genre Fiction. And, probably worse in the eyes of the instructor, Christian Genre Fiction.

Anyway, there are challenges and advantages to each stage of life that we are in, even for our writing. The college years are busy, but so are the career-building years, and especially if you have a young family to take care of. There is a basic truth, though, that we have time for what we want to have time for. In fact, when writing really gets ahold of you, it's no longer a "want," it's a "need." The story begs to escape from our minds and onto the page, and we find that we just cannot leave it alone. We'll take time away from sleeping or eating to write. We'll sneak in writing time on breaks or lunch. When we're not writing, aspects of the story are being worked over and over in our minds (NO! I'm not DAYDREAMING! I'm working on MY STORY!). Our characters quit being imaginary constructs in our heads, and become like real people we know and interact with, and whom just WON'T SHUT UP WHEN I NEED TO SLEEP, DOGGONE IT!

Excuse me a moment - What's that? Oh, okay. Um, yeah. Right away.

Sorry, I gotta go. My characters just told me that I need to get off Faithwriters and get back to work.