A lot of writers think they have something to say. It’s part of the reason they wanted to become writers. Some of them are correct. But not all. Unfortunately, the ones who do not have something to say tend not to find out until it is too late.

However, there is a simple rubric for determining whether what you are so eagerly scribbling down deserves anyone else’s time. Per the great Joe Queenan:

Don’t write until you’re 25. Don’t write for the high school yearbook. Don’t write for the college literary magazine. Don’t write that stuff — you never had any experiences, you don’t know anything, just shut up.

Any writer worth their salt will, of course, not listen to a word of that, correct though Queenan is. Especially those of us who wrote for the school magazine. It’s a proud kind of shame to carry.

(h/t Writer’s Almanac)