Welcome to The Youth Writes
a place created by, and for, young writers.
Our Mission
My mission is to empower young writers much like myself to nurture and grow their voice. In a space that is so often dominated by adults and professionals, I hope to create an environment that fosters creativity and a way to develop your craft that is designed for young writers, by a young writer. As an eleven year old with a first draft and dreams of becoming a New York Times bestseller, I found myself launched into a world that expects creatives to already perfectly understand the industry — to have memorized different plot structures, vocabulary, grammar rules, and know how to edit their works. I found almost no spaces for young writers, and those that I did find treated young authors as inherently less than their older counterparts. Spaces often felt condescending and underdeveloped.
Now, after five years spent diving into the publishing and creative writing world, over 15 novels drafted, and gaining recognization within literary spaces, I’ve come to one conclusion: if the literary world is going to continue to thrive, we need to start nurturing and supporting young creatives now. ‘The Youth Writes’ serves as a reminder that young people are here, we are writing, and our future New York Times Bestsellers, Pulitzer Prize winners, and Nobel Peace Prize winners are here now.
Featured Product
Featured Product
The Story Sprint
In this virtual course, the writer will focus on a genre of their choice — either nonfiction or fiction. Over the course of the program, we will have four one-hour long calls with a minimum of seven days between each call (preferably once a week; but it all comes down to a student’s preference) to discuss the writer’s work, two detailed editing reports which will focus on the writer’s current project and future ideas for development, and six “Quick Tips” emails detailing exercise ideas, focus points for the coming days, and other writing advice. Each writer will also receive an evolving packet throughout the program containing the best free resources, opportunities, and programs tailored to their focuses.
Course Structure
The Story Sprint
01
Drafting
This is the moment you’ve been waiting for! Most of a writer’s work this phase will be individual, though we will discuss how to avoid burnout, and how making a writing routine will take you from an aspiring author to a writer with a wonderful, finished, first draft
04
The final (and most daunting) step of the process! Some writers may not be quite finished with their initial draft when they begin this phase, and that is totally fine! We’ll discuss what editing process best suits each writer, how to push through burnout, and how peer reviews can be helpful. In this final farewell, each author will receive a letter detailing how to move forward with their writing, and a personalized document with the best free resources for their journey.
Revision
02
Character, Conflict, and Voice
In this first phase, we will work together to discuss what makes a writer’s work stand out and what makes stories compelling to read. During this initial call, we will get familiar with our goals for the workshop, and begin to understand what makes a writer’s voice and ideas unique. With multiple exercises, focus points, this is the beginning of both a story and our time together.
03
Plot Structure and Perspective
In the second phase, we’ll discuss how to make the ideas generate in phase 1 useful — how to stop dreaming about a story and actually start writing it. We’ll discuss how perspective influences story, and how perspective can be the missing piece in your story
Get to know the 4-phase structure of a typical “Story Sprint” wiritng course. This course is designed to conceptualize, write and edit a new writing piece.