Advice to Young Writers

Journaling prompted an abundance of ideas about teaching, professional growth, and several others areas. I am amazed as I go back and read about ideas I had that grew to something significant. It is interesting knowing how it turned out and how an idea or thought developed.

One of the most fascinating ideas is a collection of letters from over 200 writers offering their advice to my students. It was from a time when most writing instruction centered around grammar and spelling and very little on what the writer had to say. Those that pushed that approach believed that you couldn’t be a writer until you mastered all of the skills. The trouble with teaching writing was that the kids never got around to doing much writing because they were doing worksheet after worksheet on grammar or taking spelling tests.

Even though research did and continues to support the notion that there is no correlation between grammar skills and writing traditionalists insisted what should be taught. I wondered what real successful writers would say is important. Few mentioned grammar and not one mentioned spelling. I collected the letters and published them in a book I titled “Advice to Young Writers.” I gave away hundreds of them after I sold enough of them to pay for the printing. The area education agency was so impressed with it that they published it a second time at no cost to me.

What they did say ran counter to current thought. Things like “Read about what you don’t know and write about what you do,” came from the great writer Arthur Miller. That was the gist of many of the responses. Many of the writers focused on persistence and the need to do a lot of writing. Erma Bombeck said “Write and keep at it. Nothing is too puny or too small.”

Norman Bridwell offered, “ First, get the words and ideas down on paper as fast as you can. Then go back and polish the phrases, and check for spelling, punctuation and proper structure.” Many echo that basic theme! It is exactly the opposite of the way we were teaching kids to write. We had kids so paralyzed worrying about doing it right that they didn’t do it at all.

Beverly Cleary said, “The best advice I can give to young writers is to read, listen, observe, write and try to find your own voice instead of imitating the work of others.” Many others mentioned the importance of reading a lot. Annie Dillard said “don’t think of yourself as a writer, don’t think of yourself at all. Just read everything and learn everything about the world from books. The writing will take care of itself, if you read enough. Cheers!”

Some wrote long detailed responses. Some said very little and some said they were too busy or charged for their advice. Even today I am impressed with the response and should do more with them. That may end up being a project for me sometime in the future.