As a teen who has written stories for around six years, here are my top five writing strategies that I hope you’ll find useful!
─ #1 ─
Make it raw and personal
When you base a story off something you have experienced or are curious about, you’ll be motivated to continue writing. For example, you’re fascinated by astronomy; maybe you could create a whole entire world on another planet or write it from the constellations’ perspective. This would be something you love, something that feels original and comes entirely from you, and something that’s not a cliche.
Or maybe you’ve went through battling tuberculosis (TB), and you could base your character off your experiences. Write about your emotions, how you underwent the treatment, and if anything changed in your life because of your illness. If it’s a little negative, you could alter your character’s part, which writing just makes it look as if you want to create a new destiny for yourself. If it’s positive, you could also alter your character, and in that way you’ll be grateful. Tweaking your experiences slightly to fit your story’s plot and how you want your character to be will create a new, original story that you’ll feel related to.
─ #2 ─
Don’t make your character an absolute Mary Sue
The ‘perfect Mary Sue’ could be a mask for insecurities. For example, you could write about a princess/elite who needs to keep up this cool mask to meet her strict mother’s expectations, and that although she appears cool and composed, a lot of small things actually bother her.
But don’t make the mother seem overly perfect either; maybe include a background for her about the difficulties she’s faced that turned her into such a person, and you could set that as sort of like a ‘plot twist’, or a backstory that brings the mother and daughter together.
So, in other words, definitely never write a Mary Sue. It may be tempting to write a perfect story when you’re younger (which is what I exactly went through at the very start of my writing journey), or one that’s full of drama but one always seems perfect and unaffected by whatever chaos is happening.
─ #3 ─
Avoid beige prose and purple prose
These are two proses I believe every author has come across. I’ve encountered beige prose in the past when I wasn’t that experienced of a writer yet, but even now, I struggle with balancing my descriptions and how to not use purple prose. So, what are beige prose and purple prose exactly?
Beige prose is basically when you put in too little description; think of the color ‘beige’. It’s very pale. For example: I fell, hurt my knee, and cried.
Purple prose, on the other hand, is when you put in too much description; think of the color ‘purple’. It’s rather vibrant. For example: Adrenaline, a blazing inferno within my veins, surged as I tripped, my body surrendering to the mocking marble grey stone, head forward, back down. The surface scraped my knee, leaving wells of fresh blood in its awake. Tears prickled at the corner of my eyes and then dripped, tracing my cheeks like tiny pearls caught in the sun. My cheeks were stained, and my eyes felt incredibly sore as droplets turned into streams.
The first one feels like it’s lacking too many details, and the second is very extra and dramatic. A version that I’d consider is between the two proses is this: I tripped on the marble grey staircase, scraping my knee along the surface. As blood welled on my skin, I tried to blink back the tears prickling at the corner of my eyes.
─ #4 ─
Avoid using dialogue tags if you can
Using various dialogue tags is great, especially to avoid repetition when you have many ‘she/he/they said’s. However, when you use too much of them, it becomes a cluttered mess, and believe me, it sounds very long and winding. So, it’s best to avoid dialogue tags if possible.
For example, read the following two versions, the first being the cluttered version, and the second the cleaner version:
Version 1
“What outfit are you wearing for Halloween?” Hallie asked, tilting her head curiously at her friend.
Elisa smiled, her eyes sparkling. “Guess.”
Hallie couldn’t help but frown; she couldn’t think of anything off the top of her head. “Guess? I can’t think of anything right now.”
Elisa shrugged. “Well, I wasn’t planning on telling you anyway.”
Hallie groaned, rolling her eyes. “Why?”
Elisa put a finger to her lips. “Because it’s a secret. You’ll soon see.”
Version 2
“What outfit are you wearing for Halloween?” Hallie asked, tilting her head curiously at her friend.
Elisa smiled, her eyes sparkling. “Guess.”
Hallie couldn’t help but frown. “Guess? I can’t think of anything right now.”
A shrug. “Well, I wasn’t planning on telling you anyway.”
“Why?!”
“Because it’s a secret,” Elisa put a finger to her lips, “You’ll soon see.”
Both versions indicate the same emotion, but the second version is a lot less winding than the first. Instead of writing every action down, I added more emphasis on the parts I felt were important and also shortened dialogue tags when possible. Version 2 is a much more concise way to express the same emotions, and the structures were also altered for a better flow.
So, this is the influence of dialogue tags on writing. Although it’s good to keep them in mind, we shouldn’t go back and forth to fix everything at once, and we definitely should not be worrying about it while writing.
And that, brings us to our next and final point.
─ #5 ─
Keep on writing, don’t hesitate even when you are unsure
Grammar, spelling, worldbuilding, and plot are all crucial elements of a story. However, when it comes to writing, a huge obstacle I’ve dealt with in my writer’s journey, and one that I believe many others have dealt with, is writer’s block.
If you don’t know what that is, that’s when a writer is unable to produce new work due to a lack of ideas and many other factors. And when you have writer’s block, you won’t be able to write anything for a long time with no inspiration, wanting to write but with no plot ideas, and the constant nagging of your own abilities. At least, that was how writer’s block affected me, and I will definitely make a blog about ways to overcome it later on.
So, when it comes to writing, I believe the best way to actually produce a story is to keep on writing, even when you don’t feel confident and are pondering whether the grammar, devices, and plot are good enough or actually fit what you want to write. My best piece of advice for this, commonly heard but something I believe that’s actually useful, is to just ‘go with the flow’. This also leads to my advice of not planning out your entire story beforehand, because I believe that as you’re writing, your plot will always somehow change, and you’ll have a lot of new ideas along the way.
That’s why I think you should keep on writing no matter what. Whether you think it’s actually rubbish in that state, just keep it, and maybe later on, you’ll actually think it’s good. Even as I’m writing this now (although it’ll definitely be revised later), I’m just jotting down whatever flows in my head. So, after your first completed draft, just go back to it and revise multiple times, and maybe you’ll even think of better ideas to add in along the way.
That’s all! Thank you for reading, and have a lovely day/night!
10/30/25 ♡
Sources: (and also some wonderful videos to learn more!)
Works Cited
Emmons, Abbie. “”How do you write immersive descriptions?” | #AskAbbie.” YouTube, 11 September 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hylfsi4XS3M. Accessed 30 October 2025.
Westwood, Kieren. “Dialogue Tags EXPLAINED in TWO MINUTES.” YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puPd0sPz5do, 6 Aug 2020. Accessed 30 October 2025.
