This week's Teen Tuesday features an interview with John Hansen, who created Teens Can Write, Too in 2011. John is a Young Adult writer, a literary agent assistant, a beta-reader, and he says, “a complete and utter publishing nerd.” He’s also a teenager himself, with some solid advice for other teens who write.
I love your tag line: “Changing the world’s opinion…as soon as we finish this math homework.” What erroneous opinions do you think people have about teen writers?
[Being ready for publication] all depends on you, the individual, and how much time you put in, how much you get critiqued by trusted sources, how much you read and study books by your favorite authors to see what they’re doing right. It's not about your age, and my main goal for TCWT is to show that." -- John Hansen | Thank you! :-) And, well, I tend to take issue with the whole "teens are not good enough to get published" notion. Yes, it’s true that some people won’t ever be ready to publish as teens, because we all need time to develop our craft. Writing is something you can't improve on without actually going out and writing. But by that same logic, some beginning thirty year olds won’t be ready to publish until they’re thirty-nine and some beginning seventy year olds won’t be ready to publish until they’re seventy-five, while some beginning forty year olds may be ready to publish at forty-one and some beginning sixteen year olds may be ready to publish at seventeen. It all depends on you, the individual, and how much time you put in, how much you get critiqued by trusted sources, how much you read and study books by your favorite authors to see what they’re doing right. It's not about your age, and my main goal for TCWT is to show that. But rather than proving the dissenters wrong, I'd love to prove us right. |
What is the main purpose of the TCWT site and facebook page?
Kind of going off what I stated above, my goal with TCWT is to foster an environment where teen writers essentially don't exist, because here, teen writers are writers. Period. Not teen writers, not aspiring writers: we're just writers. After all, teens are just as capable of telling unique, well-written stories with interesting characters and themes as everyone else is, and I want to prove that to young writers (since the internet is full of condescending "advice" geared toward teens.)
What are the one or two most common writing questions you hear from teens?
I think the main question I get from teen writers is from beginners who are struggling to actually finish a novel. I feel for these writers especially, because the whole "finishing" part is something I used to struggle with and I know just about every other writer out there has too. It's so tempting to just jump ship and start a new project while you're writing a novel, especially when you get stuck (and we all get stuck at some point in our books.) My main response to that question can be found here.
You seem incredibly busy. What time management tips can you offer teens who write? Do you have other specific advice for teen writers?
Um... I am the last person to give advice on this. Ha! I am terrible at time management. But what I'd say to teen writers who want to find time to write is basically to take advantage of whatever few minutes of free time you can find, since with school and sports and friends and anything else you might be doing, writing time is hard to come by. So if you have a free ten minutes before you go to bed? Pull out your laptop and write. Have a free minute before class begins? Type up your next line on your phone. Are waiting on the bus or car or whatever on your way to school or a store or something? Write. Those few minutes can really make a difference, so for those times that you don't have hours of free time ahead of you, you can still get to do what you love.
| Re: general advice to teen writers: I'd say, simply, not to get discouraged. If you're a teen writer, you have the capability to be just as good as any other writer out there. With the right drive, effort, and luck, you can accomplish your dreams. Just keep working at it. Plenty of teens get published every year; in fact, we have a whole bookshelf of them. |  Writer John Hansen With the right drive, effort, and luck, you can accomplish your dreams. Just keep working at it." |
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