One of the things I find a lot when I’m traveling is that kids talk about having writer’s block and I actually don’t believe in writer’s block. I think it’s more fear based and I think it’s important that we get young people to realize, as I said earlier, they have stories to tell and they have a right to tell those stories.
I think once they’re freed up to know they have a right to tell those stories, and they begin to tell them without the judgment of family or friends or teachers. I always think it’s important to say to kids when you give them a writing assignment that no one is going to see this.
Write as much as you want and tell everything and put it all on the page. Then rewrite it and rewrite and in that rewrite, put down everything you want us to see and get rid of everything else. That gives them a draft and a rewrite almost immediately.
Then the next time you write, say well, this time you’re going to read it out loud, why don’t you practice reading out loud, do you like the way it sounds? Are you stumbling over any words? But also keep it short. I think not to write three pages but to write a page and sometimes when you have to write a page, but write a paragraph.
For the young writers, try to write 15 minutes a day and tell your story and read. I mean the way your learn to write is by reading and reading the same books sometimes over and over and understanding how the author tells the story and how you probably have a lot in common with what the author is doing.
