Forums » Creative Corner » Read Thread

It's struck me to ponder the question on whether young teens can, in fact, write.  Now, this can be seen as a question of technical writing: punctuation, grammar, syntax, word choice, capitalization, spelling, etc.  It can also be seen as a question of context.  Does someone under the age of say, 16-18, have enough experience to have something worth writing about.  Now, I can't know for certain the ages of people on this forum writing, so I'm going to post the first bit of something I wrote when I was 14 years old, unedited.

Feel free to critique it, but keep in mind it's been 24 years since I wrote it, and I'm not changing it, so this is more of an information gathering thing in general than trying to improve my writing now.  For example, this was apparently before I understood the use of paragraphs or semi-colons.

Anything in square brackets [ ] are my notes from now.

I walked as the scenery flashed by the school bus window.  The was was quiet for a change because everyone but me and the driver were asleep.  The bus really wasn't a bus, but the school's very large [a word was scribbled out to be replaced by] van.  Our band was going halfway across the country to play in the National Youth Band Concert.  In total there was about 20 of us in the large van.  My violin in it's case sat by my side.  I patted it gently.  At home it was my only comfort.  Only in the morning, and at night, do I ever get a chance to rest.  I live in a huge mansion owned by Mrs. Snow, my adopted mother.  All day I have to do chores for her.  Clean this, make this, do that.  She only let me play the violin because I have a great talent.  She loves to flaunt it, as if she accomplished it.  [Two words scribbled out here]  She gives me many nice things like cool clothes, fancy jewelry, good food, spending cash, and credit cards to flaunt her wealth.  I always knew she hated me, I hate her too.  She adopted me because I couldn't go on strike, quit, demand a raise, or disappear like a servant would.  Oh, she kept a few servants around, because there are a few things I can't do.

[I can't tell if this was meant to be a break, or if it just happened to start on the following line, but this was 'apparently' the first paragraph in a story I wrote back in 1993]

Doesn't look too bad for something written at 14, other than that the sentences could have been strung together more to make them a bit longer.  Also a few typos.  But it does seem that writing skill improves with age in a way, for example we have a good amount of writers that are probably in the 14-16 range who can write alright but not too well.  Then we also have some who are at least 20 and above who write very well.  

Fair enough.