From Intimidation to Inspiration: A Writer's Evolution

By Madison Henderson

I received one of my favorite pieces of writing advice during a residency I did in my sophomore year of high school. It was from my nonfiction teacher, a gruff and brazen man who called himself “Captain.” He regularly made fun of us for spending our summer learning to write and rarely attending parties. Captain was intimidating and occasionally rude, and he made me question how he possibly got a job teaching kids. 

On the first day of the program, he told us, young, bright-eyed writers, that we could never hope to write as good as he writes. 

I can hear you now, “Madi, how is that advice?” And yeah, the first part makes him sound arrogant, but what he followed up with was deeply insightful. 

He told us, “You kiddies won’t ever be able to write like me, as good as me, right now, no matter how hard you try. Why? Because you don’t have experience like me. You haven’t been alive as long as me. When you’re old like me, you can write like me.” 

I think many of us teen writers have crazy high expectations of ourselves. We read the works of literary giants at young ages and hold ourselves to the highest standards based on their writing. 

I’ll watch a great movie and wonder why I haven’t been able to write a script as great as that, or I’ll read a fantastic short story and question why mine are never that evocative. 

There’s a huge pressure in society to be accomplished young. Forbes 30 under 30 comes to mind immediately. Mass media headlines always point out the age at which someone accomplishes something before the actual accomplishment itself. Of course, all of the young achievers in the world deserve to be proud of what they have done, but there should be less of a rush to achieve. 
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Writing, a craft focused on the writer’s wisdom and experience, shouldn’t be rushed for the sake of accolades. I’ve realized that my writing will grow as I grow. As the world breaks me down and builds me back up over and over again, my writing will evolve, and new ideas will sprout up. 
Although it took me by surprise then, Captain was ultimately correct. He is a better writer than me, but I’m catching up. Give yourself grace and time to grow as a teen writer!