A Final Thought: Advice For Aspiring Young Writers
By Mitch Allen
Whenever young people ask me for advice about writing, I am moved to quote Dorothy Parker:
“If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do for them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.”
Of course I cannot do this. Dorothy Parker lived in a different time. Today a 60-year-old man bringing up the topic of shooting someone to a young person, even in jest, is creepy—if not downright scary. It’s a new world out there. It’s gentler. We used to say, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat,” and everyone knew we were referring to alternative solutions to problems and not to fileting a feline. But you can’t say that anymore.
A few years ago we sent a survey to Mimi readers who had purchased our Put-in-Bay getaway packages to learn what they thought about their island vacations. Most enjoyed their adventures, but two parents reported that their children were grossed out by one of the island’s popular outdoor restaurants serving barbecued chicken. The children were upset because the chicken had bones in it. These days chicken doesn’t have bones; it arrives on our plates in the form of “nuggets” and “tenders.”
Yes, it is a gentler world. Even those who can afford pure bred pets are choosing rescues instead, and the do-no-harm ethos of veganism is on the rise. I saw two studies suggesting that the number of Americans on a vegan diet rose from 3% in 2018 to 6% in 2021. That seems evident by the growing number of vegan-friendly options at the grocery store.
Due to its historically high cost, meat consumption in the West has for centuries been linked with status, power, wealth and masculinity, the latter of which also seems to be on the wane. When my mother entered the male-dominated workforce in the late-1950s, she pretty much had to choose between becoming a nurse, a secretary or a teacher. The options for women of color were far more limited. Mom chose secretary, but had to leave a secretarial position in the local school district after becoming pregnant with my older brother even though she was married. Back then a pregnant woman could work in the office only until she “began to show.” Today there is nothing unusual about a woman being a CEO and having a visible baby bump—and I’m concerned that many young people may not reflect on the fact that it was ever any different.
Speaking of prudishness, my mother’s mother was literally born in the Victorian Era (1899). Whenever Mom would ask her a question about sex or even feminine hygiene products, her mother would wash her mouth out with soap. Mom, as you can imagine, rebounded far to the other extreme. No topic was off limits. During my teens she was a secretary for a circuit court judge and often saw the worst of humanity. To her, sex education was as much about safety as morality. She used to tell my brother and me, “If you’re going to go parking with a girl, don’t do it in the woods where you can be murdered. Do it in the driveway.”
As a writer for a mass market, general-interest magazine like Mimi, I tend to play it safe. I typically don’t write about sex or shooting people or skinning cats. But good writers are not safe; they are courageous. They take risks. They speak truth to power and they must be strong enough to survive the criticism, the pushback, and the vicious trolls.
Yes, humankind still has many terrible problems to overcome—some we have yet to imagine—but in spite of the monstrous inhumanity reported daily in the news, we are nevertheless kinder than we have ever been. My advice to all young people is to educate yourself about those who came before you to create this gentler, more open and understanding world for you, to acknowledge their courage and sacrifices, and to be thankful.
My advice to aspiring young writers is the same, but I would add this: Be courageous enough to help make the world a better place for those who come after you. It isn’t easy. It isn’t fun. But when you make the choice to confront a blank sheet of paper or a blank screen, it is your sacred duty.