In the past several months, I’ve become acquainted with author Melissa Tagg. She is a Christian Romance writer, and her books are adorable! Her novels are set in small towns and are filled with humor, strong characters and inspiration. She loves Gilmore Girls and is slightly obsessed with NeedtoBreathe, flannel and candy corn! You can read more about Melissa on her website, MelissaTagg.com. For Encourage a Young Writer Day, I asked her to shares some encouragement for young writers.
My daughter is a young writer. She won the short story writing contest for her college this year and has gotten amazing feedback from her professors on all of her writing assignments. Several of them have encouraged her to publish her work. Encouraging young writers is near and dear to my heart!
I asked Melissa to write a post about how to encourage young writers for National Encourage a Young Writer Day 2015, and she graciously agreed. She’s been very busy lately with the release of her latest novel, From the Start, which I totally adore! Thank you, Melissa, for visiting my blog today and sharing some encouragement for young writers.
Melissa’s Guest Post
I’m pretty sure when I was a kid, I was the easiest child in the entire world to buy gifts for. Get me a cool notebook with a pretty cover (or even just a plain old Mead five-star would do) and some pens or pencils and I turned Maria twirling around on a mountaintop at the beginning of Sound of Music.
Notebooks and pens were an invitation for my storytelling imagination. I loved writing stories as a kid. I love writing stories now. Though, anymore, I do most of it on my laptop.
But there’s something I had as a kid that was even better than a plentiful supply of paper. And I’m not sure I fully appreciated or even recognized it back then. But I do today:
I had encouragement.
Constant, continual encouragement. From my parents. My grandparents. Teachers. Friends’ parents. My youth leaders. I was never short on people to encourage, spark and support my writing dream. That is an amazing, amazing thing.
And it’s something, I’ve realized as I’ve grown older, not every young person has.
Did you know today is National Encourage a Young Writer Day?
Truthfully, I didn’t until Christy told me about it and suggested it as a topic for this post. (Bless you, Christy! I heart blog topic suggestions. 🙂 )
And as I mulled over what to write, all kinds of potential encouraging words flitted through my mind—most of them in the form of tips and advice like:
- Find a writing community of like-minded dreamers committed to growing in the craft.
- Embrace rewrites—that’s where the real magic happens.
- Write flawed but strong characters.
- Blog or journal to develop your voice and interview people to learn to hear and write other voices.
- Pray!
But that’s encouragement you can find all over the place. What about encouragement for the young person who might not have a support system or family who recognizes and encourages her gifts? What about the person who’s heard all of the above but still isn’t sure his dream is worth the effort?
Here’s my encouragement for you:
Your dream matters…because you matter.
Your passions, talents and gifts didn’t form inside you for no reason.
They’re worth the work…the emotion…the growing pain…even the rejection that comes along with pursuing a dream.
If you have a story to tell, characters who won’t leave you alone, a love for words and craft, a knack for beats and voice and emotion on the page…
And if you’ve never heard it said or need to hear it again…
Go for it.
Write that book, that poem, that song. Get brave and show it to someone. Grow through constructive criticism, shake off useless negativity and learn to tell the difference between the two. Find someone to walk the writing journey with you. Pray and choose to trust God for the right open doors at the right time.
And go for it. 🙂
Melissa’s Books
First of all, Mother, there is nothing wrong with having a candy corn obsession.
Second, thank you, Melissa, for writing this! I’ve had plenty of encouragement from my family, friends, and professors, but it’s always nice to have a little extra 🙂 And there are plenty of young writers out there who don’t have an awesome bunch of encouragers behind them, so it is important that they get that encouragement from outside sources like authors and bloggers. Thanks for taking the time out of your schedule to write this!
Thanks for reading, Molly! And congratulations on winning that college short story contest. 🙂
Isn’t hard to think of what the writing life would be like without encouragers? Hurts my heart to think of young writers who don’t have support. I’m so glad you’ve got awesome encouragers in your life. 🙂
How fabulous that something so simple like encouragement can help a person realize their dreams. It’s great to know that we can have a positive effect on the next generation.
I encourage my kids every day and hope that they will find that which inspires them.
Thank you so much for sharing a piece of yourself Melissa and thanks for sharing Melissa with us Christy.
Besos, Sarah
I’m so glad you encourage your kids, Sarah. Parents are the best! 🙂
I love when young writers write and if I know about it will always read and review their work on my blog (you reading this Molly?) It is my humble opinion that all writers–young and old deserve a chance at their dream. Although I used to wrote a bit when young–I always preferred reading. If I had been encouraged I might have become a journalist which I was talked out of–but was my first declared major. So don’t listen to the nay sayers–go for it!!
Love your advice to not listen to the naysayers. Sorry you were talked out of your journalism major! I was actually once a reporter and I loved it…and I’m convinced it’s the best beginning career for anyone interested in writing novels. So glad you take the time to encourage young writers!
Love! Especially this quote, “If you have a story to tell, characters who won’t leave you alone, a love for words and craft, a knack for beats and voice and emotion on the page…” That is exactly what you have, Melissa: a knack for beats and voice and emotion the page. That’s why people fall in love with your stories. I’m sharing this blog with my niece and our little book club as well. <3
Oh, THANK YOU, Lisa. You know, I find I need encouragement as much today as I did when I was a kid. I’m so thankful it’s out there in the form of amazing people like you. Thanks for sharing the post, too! I had the opportunity to talk to my young cousins about their dreams recently…I couldn’t stop smiling afterward, thinking of all their hopes and what God’s going to do in their lives…
You had me at “slightly obsessed with NeedtoBreathe,” haha. Great post, totally didn’t know there was a day to encourage young writers (or that it was today!).
Needtobreathe fans unite!
Yeah, I had no idea National Encourage a Young Writer Day was, well, a day, either. Glad to know now. 🙂
Excellent post! With so much negativity in the world, every writer needs encouragement: the beginner and the seasoned author. Good luck, Molly!
I agree! Especially authors that get told to put smut in their books so they will sell! Stay true to yourself!
Love this and there was a time, when I could just sit and write a story about anything, Or a poem off the top of my head, those days are gone and I need to find them again
Me too! I’ve been sort of working on editing the middle grade book I wrote in November. I need to find my inspiration again. We need a beach trip!
Love this! Inspiration is what I need sometimes. I get caught up in other things, that I forget why I started to write,
I know that a lot of my life happened because of encouraging parents. I wish I spent more time writing, and I do want to encourage my son. He is so talented, just doesn’t like to apply himself. This article was great. I love the way you put words together. Your description of gifts as a child was awesome. I wish more kids were excited by the little things.
I couldn’t agree more with your statement about encouragement. I think it is really important to support young writers and I love your encouragement tips.
Would love to get back into doing the things I use too