I have recently begun encouraging young people to write. They should write about their now in order to later be able to write about what it was like then.
“Always write your ideas down however silly or trivial they might seem. Keep a notebook with you at all times.”
We try to recapture the feelings we had when we were a certain age or in a certain place, but we so often rarely achieve that goal. Staring at the sentences we don’t feel them. They describe everything but relay nothing of what they speak of. I believe this is the one thing that keeps writers from submitting their work and becoming published authors.
Great masterpieces have been set aside in spiral bound notebooks to collect yellowed pages and dust. All for the simple fact the writer did not feel what they wrote.
Oddly, they may have conveyed more than they realized. Even if not capturing the moment for themselves fully, to others the paint on the canvas is three dimensional with smells of the ocean and heat on their skin from the setting sun.
The problem is they have no confidence in what they have done.
“Encouraging young people to believe in themselves and find their own voice whether it’s through writing, drama or art is so important in giving young people a sense of self-worth.”
Starting early in a person’s creative life helps build a creative confidence. And I believe there is no such thing as failure in creativity. You have created something, even if not what you set out to create. How many times has what any of us begun ended up exactly as we had planned?
“It is really important that focusing on things such as spelling, punctuation, grammar and handwriting doesn’t inhibit the creative flow. When I was at school there was a huge focus on copying and testing and it put me off words and stories for years.”
Today’s education doesn’t encourage so much creativity as much as it does scores to be nations. “Our nation beat your nation.” It doesn’t matter what it is, each nation is in competition. Even our children have been drawn into it, and not for the better.
But I believe we should rid our children of a great deal of the restraints early on and give them the freedom to create. Show them how to trust who they are and what they are. Give them free rein to explore and express.
“Write because you love it and not because it is something that you think you should do. Always write about something or somebody you know about – something that you feel deeply and passionately about. Never try and force it.”
Today’s quotes are from Michael Morpurgo, English author, poet, playwright, and librettist.
This has been part of Colleen’s, of SilverThreading, Writers’ Quote Wednesday blog share. Click the link to visit her quote for today, and join in.
Much Respect-Much Love
Ronovan
Ronovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer though his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com.
© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015
ronovanwrites 
A great post and a great need. Every young person that has expressed an interest in writing, I encourage. They need that encouragement and if one puts pen to paper then I feel I’ve suceeded. Cheers
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Feeling positively passionate about one’s writing is the key.
Writing doesn’t get much better than being swept along by the strong current of one’s story. It flows like a river and is likely to be felt, in the same way, by the reader.
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Funny you write this today. Yesterday I was asked by a grade 5 teacher if I would answer questions by her students who were writing their first novel. She wants help encouraging them. I of course said yes. I’m thinking this will be a fun way to spend some time and help young people be interested in writing.
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The best place I learned to read, and write, was in a book, when I was a child.
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Great comments. In my experience there is a lot of emphasis on getting enough life experience to become ‘mature enough’ to be a writer. But younger writers often have the advantage of being more true to their native style, without the years of external influence.
I was a voracious writer as a child, but became discouraged as I got older. I recently got the urge again, so started my blog. Love writing it, but I wish I had never given up writing in the first place!
Encouraging young people to have a go, and to keep at it, is a worthy cause!
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Oh my goodness, how timely your post is. I am going to read this to my eight year old who just started reading a Michael Morpurgo book for school. Though full of creativity and genius, he is finding this book challenging. I am not worried about him, the structure of school is not the best learning environment for him, but he will succeed. He loves to write stories, create characters and plots though his spelling and reading are not his strengths thus far. Great post Ronovan.
One more thing, last year my five year old daughter’s teacher told us she needed to work on colouring in the lines better. This made me cringe and of course created some great dialogue in our house about why she should keep on keeping on however she felt inspired to as we considered the teachers motives for her insistence on ‘perfection’. Anyway, just thought I’d share that with you.
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What great advice, Ron. A really excellent quote. It is easy to tell if our writing is forced. Better to go for a walk then force the writing! ❤
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Hi Ron! I like the quote. I don’t think that someone who doesn’t love writing can produce anything good to read. I believe an inherent love of writing is part of the job description. My 13 year old nephew enjoys writing and he’s been writing stories lately. He began as I did, writing comics. He has a lot of potential and I try to help and encourage him, but I think one of the best advice I gave him was to read many books of all genres and write every chance he gets. There’s improvement in his writing every time I read something new he’s written. 😀
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Great quote Ronovan. If a writer hates writing and tries forcing the story out it becomes painfully apparent in what has or hasn’t been written. Thanks for sharing.
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