rebelling against low expectations

We Want to Give You Permission to Dream Again (Lesson #4)

W

We have BIG news.

Over the last few weeks, we have been releasing a ton of free resources for young writers.

First Brett shared a special piece of encouragement to young writers, called, “No, Writing As A Career Isn’t Silly.”

Then we released the Young Writers Guidebook – a collection of deeply inspiring tips from 20 authors who got published as young people.

After that, we announced the WriterScore – an assessment that measures a young writer’s growth and development based on their performance in 10 different domains.

And this past week we’ve been sharing our free video class, Young Writers, Young Authors.

young-writers-young-authors-blog

We also launched a private Facebook group for young writers under 30 (that has already grown to almost 1,000 members!).

But everything from Brett’s and my experience has told us that young writers need more than a few helpful tools – they need ongoing coaching, support, and motivation.

Which is why all this has been leading up to what we are about to tell you NOW.

Announcing the Young Writers Workshop

yww-blog-preview-2

We are so excited to announce we’re opening registration for the Young Writers Workshop Membership Site.

What is the YWW?

The YWW is an ongoing membership site and community that is designed to take young writers from Point A to Point Z.

We’re talking from absolute beginners who want to write but don’t know where to start all the way to accomplished young authors looking to market their books more effectively and build a sustainable career as a writer.

Regardless of where you fall along the writer spectrum, the YWW was created to keep you moving forward — working on the right things, in the right order, with community around, with mentors to guide you.

And most importantly, you’ll have the constant reminder from other young writers that you can do this.

That it is possible, despite what so many people think.

The Results We’re Already Seeing

Over the last few weeks and months we’ve been experimenting with this very thing, releasing videos, resources, and tools to help young writers believe they can become young authors and equipping them with the knowledge of how to do that.

And already we’ve been seeing incredible results.

I think of young writers like Hannah, who hasn’t touched her book in six months but just finished another chapter. Or writers like Samuel who are getting published on major websites like Crosswalk.com — a site that reaches over 1.5 million people every month and has 2.5 million followers on Facebook.

But we’re also hearing from younger writers who are believing for the first time that they really can do this and learning exactly what they need to do now.

feedback5

Screen Shot 2017-01-27 at 8.40.00 PM

feedback4

Screen Shot 2017-01-27 at 8.40.35 PM

Screen Shot 2017-01-27 at 8.42.24 PM

Our Dream for the Young Writers Workshop

Our dream for the Young Writers Workshop is to give you permission to dream again. We want to convince young writers that they can do it and show them how to do it.

We also want to make this information and motivation accessible to every young writer who wants it. Which is why we’re keeping this as affordable as possible.

To get all the details, watch the video below.

Registration is Open NOW!

Registration is open, but you need to act fast.

Registration is only open for a few days — and once it’s closed, it’s closed.

Don’t miss the deadline.

We’ll be opening registration again in the future, but you’ll never again have access to a special one-time only price and, honestly, why wait 6 months or a year to start moving toward your writing goals when you could be on your way today?

So don’t wait!

Click here to learn more info and register now.


Print Friendly, PDF & Email

About the author

Jaquelle Crowe Ferris

is the former editor-in-chief of The Rebelution and author of This Changes Everything: How the Gospel Transforms the Teen Years (Crossway). She's the co-founder of The Young Writers Workshop and hosts a podcast for youth called Age of Minority. She's married to Joe and lives in Nova Scotia, Canada.

44 comments

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • I feel disappointed… I’d probably try one month, It will be a good resource for many young people. I hope many young teens will be encouraged by YWW. From either Beginner or young writer to young author. Keep doing the good work Brett and Jaquelle!

      • I think I wasn’t thinking right… I don’t remember why I wrote that. I think I meant to say, “I feel depressed by not wanting to join”

        • I talked to my parents… And I decided I’m not joining. It’s okay, I’ll still be on The Rebelution. I’ll keep commenting, liking, reading, and recommending on like I do The Rebelution. I’ll write a book with the help of my parents.

    • I’m sorry that you feel disappointed, Michael. We’ve done our best to make this program as accessible and affordable as we can to deliver the high-quality content we want to bring. We very much hope the YWW is a huge source of encouragement to many young writers. We’re still committed to helping every young writer, though, through TheRebelution and the YWW Facebook group. 🙂

    • Hey Michael!

      Just curious, is English your first language? If not, I think that may be the cause of confusion here. 🙂 Just wanting to help everyone reading this thread to be on the same page.

      From what I can understand, it sounds like you love the program idea, but for whatever reason, you won’t be able to join because your parents feel it wouldn’t be a good idea for you right now. Because you really wanted to join, but your parents said “no”, you are really disappointed about it.

      That’s my impression. Is that correct my friend?

      • Yes, English is my first language, just my grammar is pretty bad at times.(Language is not my favorite thing in school, not talking about learning languages)

        They asked me, “Is it worth putting your money into YWW when we can help you write your book?”

        The part about it being a bad idea is partly true, but the part about my parents saying “no” is not true.

        My parents are supportive about the idea of me wanting to become a young author.

        P.S. If I have mistakes or stuff that does not make sense, just reply to me.(Because Disqus is like my email alarm, of replies)

        • Yeah bro. Thanks for clarifying. In that case, I would like to make a suggestion for future reference. Something I wish I had thought of when I was younger:

          You words are important – and how you say them. In real in-person conversations, grammar isn’t usually key to good communication. You have tone, body language, and facial expressions to help provide context for your words.

          But on online comment forms, your words mean everything. They are all you have. And that means one typo can cause confusion. Extensive grammatical issues can make the comment almost unreadable. In this case, I don’t believe your comment came across the way you meant it, because you didn’t use correct sentence structure or wording. In this case, the damage was minimal, but sometimes our words have a major impact on the world around us. They can lift people up and tear people down. Our words are precious.

          In the future, I would highly encourage you to use free recourses available to you, to help you overcome this grammar issue within your comments. Things like Microsoft Word’s grammar checking tool or online grammar sites are a few resources you can use. I feel you have a ton of great insight to offer others. But it’s hard for people to receive that insight without clear communication.

          One other thing I would very highly recommend is re-reading your comments before posting them anywhere online. Check for spelling and grammatical errors. Make sure it flows right. Think to yourself “If someone were saying this to me without any further explanation, would I be able to understand it?” If not, edit your comment before publishing it.

          And then, I would re-read it over and over again until I can read the entire comment without needing to make an edit.

          I admit, sometimes I have a hard time with this (as you can see from my above comment, spelling is an issue for me), but I’m working the problem so others can have an easier time understanding what I’m saying.

          Thanks man! I hope you have a wonderful day!
          – Trent Blake

          • Thank you for your encouragement Trent. Right now, as I type these words, I read it in case of errors.(Sure does work LOL!)

            Thanks again, those words mean a lot to me. I hope that you have a wonderful day too!
            – Michael Goddard II

  • God bless you! It’s so plain to see through your videos what a heart you have to help us!

    We’re considering it 🙂 I’m showing my mom the video tomorrow.

  • So excited for this! Although I won’t be joining or anything, I definitely will be praying for it and that many God-glorifying books could come forth through this! 🙂

  • Ok guys…so I just retook the assessment and went up 8 points. From 35 to 43. It’s not a lot and I’m still a Starter, but I’m making progress! I’ve decided today that every day going forward I will touch my writing in some way, even if it’s just re-writing or editing something I already wrote, or in some cases finishing something I had started, or actually writing on an idea I may have recently had, etc. Although, if my life starts to get way busier than it already is i might have to scale that goal/dedication down to once or twice a month, but right now I’m so exciting about my writing again, so I should be fine right now!! Plus, I’ve decided to write a short story between now and April! I’ll let you all know how it goes!

    Quick question for @BrettHarris:disqus @jaquellecrowe:disqus or whoever……what do you consider good writing habits, and what’s very important to work on to improve writing skills? Oh, and I was wondering….is it really possible to make a living being a writer solely? Thanks in advance!

    • That is amazing, Gabrielle! Congrats on your new score!

      I would consider good writing habits as things like: 1) being able to overcome writer’s block, 2) avoiding procrastination, 3) keeping your writing and work space organized (not saying your workspace has to be super clean but it can’t always be a mess), 4) knowing when you’re most productive, 5) and utilizing writing tools effectively.

      As for your second question, it is definitely possible make a living being a writer solely. Now, in this digital world, that means you will have to do more than write books (unless you’re one of the few who can actually make a living off of just books, like Stephen King or J.K. Rowling). For me, that means creating digital products to complement my books (like the YWW). In the future, that may be courses or other things. But I will not be getting any other job and “officially” would call myself a writer.

      Hope that all makes sense. =)

      • OOhhh, gotcha! Isn’t writer’s block kind of a natural thing that happens sometimes, but just shouldn’t be constantly happening?

        What kinds of things would be considered a writing tool? I really wanna understand it all?

        Got it! I understand. It definitely seems kinda hard to make a living on writing books alone! 🙂

        • Well, it depends on what you mean by “writer’s block.” If you mean that some days it’s harder to write, then yes, that is a natural thing. But that can always be overcome.

          An author once said that she didn’t believe in writer’s block. Why? Because of the last-minute essay. Say you forget that you have an essay due tomorrow. No matter how you feel, if you need to get it done, you can sit down and write it. You just do it. So if you’re writer, you don’t let things like not feeling like writing stop you from figuring out what to write about and then putting those words down on paper.

          As far as tools, I’m thinking of the physical tools you use to write (some writers write better freehand and then type it up; others write better on their computers) and resources like grammar apps, word processing apps, pens, music to listen to, and resources to draw from – favorite writing books, favorite websites, etc.

          Make sense? 🙂

  • This is fantastic! Brett and Jaquelle, thank you for putting this together and allowing God to use your writing and passions for the benefit of others. Like many young people interested in your work, I’ve loved writing, but never considered taking it seriously as a career as the odds seemed too stacked. But your incredible examples and warm encouragement have given me, most definitely, permission to dream again! I’ve been writing articles for publication and am working on my first novel. I’ll be praying for many more to be inspired by this!

    • That makes me so happy to hear, Anna! And I really hope you’ll be able to join the paid program. You’re just the kind of young writer we’re looking for and I know we could help you 100x more that way. =)

  • Y’all have already done so much for us, and I’m so excited to see what comes with this new batch of writers!
    Thank you so much!

rebelling against low expectations

The Rebelution is a teenage rebellion against low expectations—a worldwide campaign to reject apathy, embrace responsibility, and do hard things. Learn More →