Hi, I hope that nobody minds me jumping in here...

I agree that age has nothing to do with how well you write, natural talent has a lot to do with it. My class is a good example of this, some of the kids, who are 15-16 cannot form correct sentences, know what a plot is, or are able to create a character that is more than 2-D. (I can't even call them Mary-Sue's or Gary-stu because they just suck so bad!) On top of that, it's like they skipped all of the spelling lessons from second grade on up! I can't spell that well, and I can (attempt) to read through their writing and have to resist the urge to get a red pen and start correcting their writing.

And to make matters even worse, I haven't had a good English teacher since I was in sixth grade, and I'm going into tenth now! Most of my grammar comes from fanfiction.net and other books I've read, how sad is that!?

I feel ya.

The school system needs a reform.

I missed the week that my first or second grade class learned the semicolon, and I didn't find out how to actually use it until recently (I'm 23). And my school system is considered pretty freakin' good, too!

My class is a good example of this, some of the kids, who are 15-16 cannot form correct sentences, know what a plot is, or are able to create a character that is more than 2-D. (I can't even call them Mary-Sue's or Gary-stu because they just suck so bad!)

I used to be shocked by the 2-D nature of so many characters on here. Then I read Twilight.

Great idea, but good GRIEF could the lead character be any more perfect? And could his love interest be any more cardboard? And did nobody tell this author that when your character is so desperately clumsy that she can't walk across the floor without tripping, learning to drive is going to be a HUGE issue for her and she's most unlikely to be a wonderful cook? And that when you give your character a massively powerful ability, you need to consider its implications all the time, not just when you need it as a plot device?

And this is a massive hit novel. Of course teens (or, indeed anyone else, but it's a high school story aimed at teens) who think it's wonderful are going to copy this type of characterisation and storytelling. I'm no longer surprised that they are shocked and furious when people tell them their version of it is laughably poor.

It's the first book I've ever been inspired to write fanfic for, though. I love filling in plotholes, retconning horrible omissions, and trying to make good ideas work better than the original author did.

Lol, isn't it sad how people drool over the most pathetic examples of writing sometimes? I admit loving the Smallville TV show, but only because Tom Welling is hot and I love superpowers and special effects. But one-dimentional characters, plot holes, and convenient physics warping abound.

It's the first book I've ever been inspired to write fanfic for, though. I love filling in plotholes, retconning horrible omissions, and trying to make good ideas work better than the original author did.

That's why I write in the Gundam Wing fandom, or read out of the Harry Potter and Naruto sections... Ideas with soooo much potential that the original author just slaughtered with awful characterization...

On a forum of challenges, a lot of people chose this one unique challenge, and the youngest person to enter was 12 (it said so in her profile) and she won. She was a really great writer with lots of detail. :D

;) Kudos to her. That's why age is nothing but a number. I don't like it when people assume teenagers or preteens are bad at writing... I know quite a few who are. Even the people in my fandom are much younger than me, but they write very well. Think about it. Of all the trolls on this site there's more adults in that category, writing pure crap (excuse the oxymoron).

I'm not saying adults are bad writers either, but the repeated stereotype offends young writers and even me!

You do have to admit the enormous amount of cr*p that can be churned out of an adolescent mind running on pure hormones, though. Most of the older crowd has either outgrown cr*pficcing or just been frustrated out of continuing.

You do have to admit the enormous amount of cr*p that can be churned out of an adolescent mind running on pure hormones, though. Most of the older crowd has either outgrown cr*pficcing or just been frustrated out of continuing.

I used to have some of those moments too. Not on here, though.

Yeah, just thought I'd bring up the fact that the age bias has a valid base. It's just too generalized and gone too far.

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