@thecommonmold I know I'm not Neil, but I would like to add to this if you would allow me.
I was always creative when I was a child. Always daydreaming, being lost in my mind and the worlds I would create, but I never really knew how to write in a "good" way. I actaully started writing when I was 14, starting out with self-insert fan fictions for my favorite anime. My best friend and I would even collab with these stories, passing notebooks back and forth and learning to work WITH another individual and their ideas and the direction of the stories. For about 3 years, all we did was self-insert fan fictions until we felt comfortable enough to write something original. I would read her stories, she would read mine, or we would collab and build worlds. We developed our writing skills through practice, through observing other writers, through critiques from other friends or online strangers. We thought we were AMAZING writers at the age of 17!
But every time we looked back at the stories from when we were kids, they were really bad! We laughed at how horrible we were at writing, and how we thought we were so great. BUT (and this is very important) we were able to look back at these stories and see where we came from, and how much we have progressed! Look at people who have learned to draw. Maybe someone who makes AMAZING art. Look at where they started, and where they are now. They could have looked back at their old artwork, they could have gotten discouraged, they could have stopped and never picked up a sketch book again. But they didn't. They learned from their mistakes, they looked at their old artwork as Progress instead of garbage.
I know how hard it is to get started with something. I overthink so badly, and I feel like I need to be perfect or it's not worth it. I'm 32 and still suffer with those thoughts. BUT you can't make progress without practice. Here are a couple bit of advice and practices you could use:
Do NOT write for perfection. You will get so caught up in the details that you will be stuck and you won't end up writing anything at all. Your own mind can be your worst enemy sometimes... Write for the joy of writing, regardless of mistakes! You can always go back and fix it up later!
Do not get discouraged by your old work. It is going to be bad! And going forward, some of your future works are going to seem bad in a few years. They are PRACTICE! They are PROGRESS! Cherish your bad works and learn from them. They are not garbage, they are learning experiences.
Don't only write things that are meant to be a part of a bigger story. Write things JUST for practice. To get out of your comfort zone, to give you a different view.
Take a notebook to a park. Fine a spot where you are comfortable, sit down, and describe what you see. The sights, the sounds. What the birds are doing, what the plants sound like in the wind. What the sun feels like on your skin, what the other people around you are doing. Emerse yourself in your "scene". You can do this anywhere as well. In a mall, on a bus, in a classroom, on a bench in the middle of a city. This helps with building believable descriptions and helps with emersing readers into the scene that you are setting.
Once you are comfortable with doing this, add a character to the scene! Describe what they feel while walking through the park, the city, the school hallways. Learn how to describe what your characters are feeling and observing.
Find writing promts online, and write short drabbles revolving around those prompts. Get out of your comfort zone and just write "pointless" stories! There are plenty of books and sites that have writing prompts that you could use. Some are simple things where you are given a list of words that you need to use in your story ("Use Lobsters, green, wind, robot, and dice at some point in your story") and you would have to build a story using those things, or you could use prompts that tell you how a scene opens and you finish the scene.
The most important thing is to keep writing. Not everything needs to have a meaning, not everything needs to be perfect and publishable. You need to practice somehow! I developed ALOT of my writing skills with role playing! You can find role playing sites to join and practice that way as well!
Don't be too hard on yourself. You are still young, you are still learning. You will NEVER stop learning and getting better. You just need to put pen to paper and write SOMETHING even if it's just a jumble of words!
snowghoul
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