r/AspiringTeenAuthors

TW: Suicide, Mental Health issues

This first one was one of the first stories im submitting to a contest. I genuinely think this one is corny and the "girl" is too young for this. But at the same time im a minor myself and want this to be relatable as I felt that my own sexuality/ lack of romantic feelings was crushing me when I made this.

The girl had went through her stages in life. In 5th Grade she mistaked the heartwarming feeling of friendship for love. Soon would she learn that love was unpastourised honey, when scooped up it just crumbles. She built her life on stable friendships and books. She didnt worry about finding a lover because she grew up with the knowledge that she could comb her own dolls hair and buy herself flowers without someone to argue with. In 8th Grade she would feel unsatisfied with the feeling of friends who cared and endless piles of books. Then it happened. He had brown hair, sort of choppy. With honest brown eyes amd freckles splattered on his circular face. He expressed love she had never felt. Turned her insecurities into beauty with words. But she spoke the rule. The one rule. "I wont love you before I love myself" Maybe it was her way of resilience against society. Maybe it was her way to explain why shes broken and hateful. Nobody will ever know. Because watching that boy smile with his eyes going milky and dull made her heart crumble. Its like the umpastourised honey falling before It could reach the tea mug. She locked away that heart in the little glass shaped container to not be looked at again.

This next one is about me. A broken teenager trying to deal with all the wrong cards I was given. All these stories relate to me in some way. But I mark this as one of my only stories with a good ending. Marking that I reach for hope.

"I told you not to pick the messed up one." My mother once said as I picked flowers for my room. Little did she know that one-day id become that messed up flower. So delicate and broken after years of pain. I nourished the flowers back to health, but they never did fully recover from the neglect the flowers received. There would always be a slight curve in the stem or a dent in the leaves. But I smiled at its beauty ignoring its flaws. I couldve smiled at it for hours. And as I lay in my bed, crying all the scars away. That flower appears before me. It tells me to keep going. That in time ill heal and bloom. My flowers will be extravagant colors dashed on the delicate petals like fireworks. And eventually ill grow from it and be nourished back to health like I did with that flower.

This is my final submission and is my newest. I didnt know how to end it so I left it as it was. I was told that this piece got really close to the readers heart. Especially by a few of my friends. This story is about me struggling with the expectations of life, of "fitting in" and making friends.

Nobody knows her. Shes the ghost in the 80s photo. A background character on a big movie set. But just because she was quiet didnt mean she didn't dream big and reach even further. She reached so far her chair slipped beneath her and the rope tied around her neck with a unruly Crack. But before it all happened she was normal too. She had hobbies. She wrote little stories and acted in little plays. She was comfortable with her small world. But everyone wanted more from her. More from the girl who couldn't manage her own dreams. So she gave herself away to cruel scavenging adults and popular girl cliques. She hid everything behind Walmart concealer and waterproof mascara. But even concealer couldn't conceal what the big wide world had done to her.

I used Walmart concealer and waterproof mascara to represent hiding SH and the mascara to represent sobbing every day and trying to hide it.

Please give advice!!

I am working on my first real book it’s gonna be a dark mature partially legal drama. It’s gonna be about a morally gray man who is getting a divorce. his wife has a daughter she is 16 now but she was a year old When they got married. He never legally adopted her so now he is trying to get custody by any means necessary even illegally. his wife is a selfish person who puts her career above everything which is why they are getting a divorce and for authenticity I am using r/legaladviceofftopic.

So i have written something but dk where to post it to get feedback on my work cz it's my first time doing all this so please help 🙏

So basically the title lol. It's been about 1.5 months since I started writing, and I only have 3,000 words and a lot of planning. I'm not too worried about the word count, because I'm trying to focus on planning, so I'm not just writing disjointed nonsense, but feel like I'm taking too long bc I'm not completely sure on how the story as a whole is gonna go. I don't wanna be too hard on myself on one hand, coz these things take time lol, but on the other I feel like I should be picking up the pace. Does anyone feel the same way, or have advice? I've been trying to write/plan for like half an hour each day also

Hey, so I'm a young writer and even though I can make stories pretty well, it's quite hard for me to write I just can't figure out what to start with.

Can you tell me what I can start with? I want to write a fiction story but I don't know how to start.

I would love to know experienced writers tips and instructions, I really want to start writing stories but I always get stuck at how I should start.

Since it's wasting my creativity knowledge as I can't be able to write anything and I really wanna improve my writing skills with writing drafts everyday so one day I can make a proper book and release it!!

Hey! I am an early teen and i have wrote a book. I had to learn about grammar and punctuation for it since English is my third language and after a wait of 7 months I have finished and published it but I am having trouble reaching people.

It's a murder mystery novel called beneath the snow. The link is in my bio.

A little overview:

Elliot Frost travels to the snowy mountains for a reunion with old friends. The reunion takes a dark turn when old grudges surface and buried hatred returns

Can you kindly also send it to people who might be interested.

So I have this character, Witchelt or Witty. Shes sarcastic, cold and very quick to insult people. But shes also very loyal and defensive of her friends.

Basically her group need to defeat a villain destroying the planet (its fantasy) and i don't know what her arc is. This is a part two and im part one she was pretty much the same except for her relationship with Rooti, a character she hated. Rooti is pushy, wants them all to get along and has frequent arguements w Witchelt. Tho in part 2 its more banter between the girls.

Witchelt slowly goes from hating Rooti to caring for her and panicking when she almost dies. Except it's really badly writte. (im practicing and 15 so im giving myself some slack. Ill get better.)

But the reason she was so agaisnt beinf close to the group is her old friendship. She failed to save a friends father and that friend cut her off. We actually meet that friend in the last few chapters as she, her brother and her boyfriend help Witchelt, Rooti and Witchelt's love interest.

Tiffany (the friend) is very cold and similiar to Witty in the way that they both will hold a grudge until they die and have strong opinions. But at the end, they all make up.

SO Witty has her friends but she's still a bit mean. They all take it as banter now. But this is where it gets complicated.

I don't plan on Tiffany or Rooti falling out with Witchelt. I do plan on Meapha falling out with her tho. Witty sees these girls as her sisters as her REAL sister was killed by her mother when she tried to destroy their country (and did). SPEAKING OF MOTHERS!

Witty is now going to have a strained relationship with a woman called Vera, who runs the Bunker where they are all hiding and training. Vera recently lost het daughter to one of the villains attacks. Witchelt and Vera will have a mother daughter relationship but i don't know how to write that?

Im thinking of having Vera be more caring towards Witchelt than Witchelt is to Vera and Witchelt then feeling safe enough around her to confide in her but thats my plan for when I rewrite Rooti in part 1.

TLDR idk how to write a strained relationship between a "mother" and "daughter" when they both habe trauma and arent related. My plan for how to write them (mother being nicer to the daughter than the other way around until she warms up to mother) might be too similar to the sisterly relationship between daughter and fake sisters. Help.

Hello there

I noticed in my story that I often used very similar sentence structures. I really want to edit them, but I've heard you shouldn't edit anything on a first draft. So should I just make a note for myself or edit it now?

I’ve been seeing a lot of character posts lately and it feels like they’re all the same. The slim lead woman with fair skin and perfect hair who is simultaneously the strong lead (when there’s absolutely 0 muscle mass) and so independent from everyone else. Then you have the other guy who is always either a grunge boy with heterochromia or a big strong old money guy.

What happened to the presence of conventionally unattractive characters? Or shitbag leads? I miss the days when characters used to be unique. Yes, I want to see an unapologetic perverted character who lives in absolute filth and actually struggles in the book. Yes, i want to see those characters with traits of normal people. Yes, I want to see those characters with disorders or gross intentions that make them do horrible things.

Why do we all just conform to the same mold of “petite but strong beautiful woman and the guy she eventually falls in love with”. What happened to interesting characters?

YES. Give me different aesthetics. Gyaru? Awesome. Scene? Awesome. Punk? Awesome. Even the most underground shit, just give it to me and make your characters interesting. It’s so hard to actually read and finish a book where the characters are just so stereotypical.

Your character has been traumatised? Then show that. The trauma isnt gonna make them stronger in every way, you’re just creating a wound with absolutely no fallout or impact. Show the results of that trauma. Make them struggle.

And if you’re reading this thinking “oh but I don’t do all of this stuff” then good job, this post most likely isnt for you, you’re creating interesting characters. If you’re reading this thinking “oh these are my characters” then please make some interesting changes.

Move away from the mold, folks.

I myself have a lot of problems and trauma, it helps writing it out in my FMC. Yesterday it hit me though, she complains (not a lot but some amount) of her unfair life (it’s a part of the fantasy concept that her life has been reaaaaallllly hard) and she is generally very depressed, moody and negative. I just don’t want her to come off as annoying. Any tips?

Side question - I refer to well known movies and books such as Twilight (my book takes place around 2050) but what’s your opinion on the mention of “modern” media and stuff like that (it’s not a fantasy world, it’s our modern world more or less)

Thanks! 🙌🏻

i feel like this is a pretty appropriate subreddit to ask this on. title is self-explanatory.

for example (and without intending to personally target any few users), i see a lot of posts on here that often seem to just be kids wanting people to validate their work out of some kind of insecurity.

one could ask some indirect question like: "is this chapter good?" come on, what do you mean? technically? characteristically? do they just want people to reassure them?

heyyy

i am currenlty planning on writing a book

what is a genre, or which issue do you like or prefer to read about?

and should the main character be a girl or a boy or both?

i need advice

thank you x

edit: i was asking about advice, not critism. i am not sure, and therefore i just need opinions

I myself have a lot of problems and trauma, it helps writing it out in my FMC. Yesterday it hit me though, she complains (not a lot but some amount) of her unfair life (it’s a part of the fantasy concept that her life has been reaaaaallllly hard) and she is generally very depressed, moody and negative. I just don’t want her to come off as annoying. Any tips?

Side question - I refer to well known movies and books such as Twilight (my book takes place around 2050) but what’s your opinion on the mention of “modern” media and stuff like that (it’s not a fantasy world, it’s our modern world more or less)

Thanks! 🙌🏻

Hey everyone,

I'm just a teenager who absolutely loves writing. It’s been a dream of mine to become a successful author one day, and I decided that 2026 is the year I finally put my head down, do the hard work, and start my journey.

I recently self-published my very first book on Amazon called The Hostel of Hard Knocks. It’s a short, sweet 44-page read exploring hostel life, the pressures of studying, and the fight to bounce back when things get tough.

I poured a lot of love and effort into writing this, but I also know that as a beginner, I have so much to learn. It’s been out for 3 days now, and what I really want more than anything is constructive criticism. I want to know exactly what I can improve, what you liked, and what I did wrong so I can keep working hard and write even better books in the future.

If anyone has a little time to check it out on Amazon and leave an honest review, it would mean the world to me.

Thank you so much for reading this and helping a young writer learn!

(Since I can't post links here, if you'd like to read it, you can just search "The Hostel of Hard Knocks" on Amazon)