I know everyone is scared to share their work with others. I mean I am still terrified and I have even led a workshop group! But nobody ever teaches anyone that it is important for others to read your work.
Feedback is so beneficial for growth! How are you supposed to learn anything if nobody ever tells you anything about your work? At least I was never taught until I was out of high school. The amount of young writing opportunities I could have had is crazy. So get a jump start, whatever age you may be!
Step 1: Share your work with friends and tell them to be cruel! You may be able to find writing friends too that will help you even more so. Remember to be nice but constructive.
Step 2: Join a workshop or critique group. These groups will help you meet new people plus you will be forced to do some writing! There will probably be chances for generative prompts. Take full advantage of these groups.
Step 3: Read your work aloud! It’s fun plus what is a better way to know if people like your work?
Step 4: Submit to lit mags! Some literary magazine will have the option for feedback with a small fee. Plus it never hurts to ask. That way you can have useful feedback from people on the publishing side of things. Sonder will do this for you for $1 a piece! See our submission guidelines for more info.
Step 5: WRITE. I cannot express this enough. I know life is busy and thins happen but you gotta keep writing in order to get better. Pretty cliche of me, but it is so true. Reading other work will also help.
-The team at Sonder
