Imagine that kids weren’t not allowed to speak until they could do it perfectly – most of us would go to our graves having never uttered a word.

Get writing as early as you can, but do constantly test it out on others and take notice of the feedback, in that way you’ll get better quicker. Join a writing group, or even start your own with your own specific objectives.

Chris Warren
Author and Freelance Writer
Randolph’s Challenge Book One – The Pendulum Swings

I say, if you want to write, write. If it’s trash, you’ll know it at some point. In the meantime, you’ve probably learned to write better. Writing is a lot like knitting – you start out making scarves, and work up to better, more complicated stuff. Just do it – it’ll get better as you go along.

I’m really down on people who put down young writers – writing is tough enough without all the naysayers. We need to encourage young writers, not discourage. They’re discouraged easily enough.

It’s also worth noting that there are lots of Internet writing forums out there where teens and other inexperienced writers can expose their material to a wider audience and often pick up invaluable writing tips and critiques. I covered some of these forums in my “Paleo E-books” columns here on TeleRead.