My fingers are inching to get back to the computer keys. Writing is new and amazing and exciting for me again. I've written two plays since meeting him. In fact, he's reading them right now. I think the most important thing for young writers to do is to keep writing.
Writing is a craft and just like painting or swimming it needs to be exercised every day.
It's also easy to be swayed by what other people think of your writing. Rejection can hurt so much you don't ever want to write again for fear of even more disappointment. But rejection should encourage you. It should be the fuel that ignites your determination and makes it stronger. The poet Edna St. Vincent Milay used to frame her rejection letters and hang them on the wall so she could laugh at them when she became famous.