yeah anyways freshmen are not ripped (from my experience)
they either look like a 30 year old or a fetus
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Shallow tip:
I kind of equate age with how much theyâre prone to learning and absorbing new information. Kids tend to ask a lot of questions and expect answers to be given to them (thank you, schools! You with your tests⌠and⌠assignments and others) while adults tend to absorb new information rather quickly and are quick to jump to conclusions - how stupid/absurd/amazing it can be.
So hence I would assume older teens/adult protagonists are a lot more into finishing the job and getting to the end of the line than kid protagonists who ask âWh-â questions every step of the way. Sort of like the time I went from, âMom, why am I so angry at my best friend?â to screaming into a pillow and forgetting about it.
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Why not both? Lol
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Freshmen have tails and 6 nipples, got it!
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Charlie Brown grows up.
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Well, itâll of course vary on their age and your age.
If youâre writing about someone younger than you, especially at a time you remember being (like say youâre 27 years old writing about a 17 year old), you should always know to write from how you felt around that age. Your experiences will impact your character and how mature they are.
The one issue some people come across is the fact that todayâs youth is âdifferent.â But it actually isnât. Teenagers have always been the same throughout time. Just like how toddlers have always been hard to handle because theyâre constantly whiney, attention-seeking brats. Teenagers are no different to this. Now, itâll depend on some people based on their environment and thought process. Some teenagers become more mature than others. Some teenagers never go through the âsneaking outâ or âpartyingâ phase. Some never experiment with alcohol or drugs, or act on their sexual desires or become curious about it. So, you would have to dig deep inside your character to figure out the checked mark boxes they fit in and how that type of character would be written, but otherwise, you can use your own experiences, your own feelings at that age to help determine how this character could be written realistically.
Now, if youâre writing about someone older than you, thatâs different. Some of what I said before are still valid here, though. Like how not all adults are the same (similar to how people assume all teenagers sneak out and defy their parents). But there is another common misconception. A lot of people seem to think that adults are very different from their teenage selves. Now, this will depend on many factors such as their education on certain things, a change of perspective (like how someone who grew up wealthy and ends up poor and goes through poverty might change how they feel), or whatnot. But honestly, many adults stay the same from adolescence even if they think they are different.
I mean, as a 25 year old myself, Iâm pretty much the same person when I was 13. My thought process, personality, etc. has not changed at all. Adults are teenagers with more responsibilities, credit cards, and having to go to exhausting jobs instead of exhausting school. xD
However, this isnât everyone, as Iâve stated before, and in that case, you want to see what kind of things people experience or feel or think about among the desired age group you have in mind. And thatâs that one thing you should know: research. The more you hang around or research a specific demographic whom are older than you, the more youâll notice patterns of topic conversations or experiences theyâll go through or feelings they might relate to.
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That is the biggest difference in me from 17 to 19.
Mentally, I was the same, so I can easily write some of 19 year old me to 17 year old me, to catch a Highschool scene.
I just gave up on fearing taking that step, and finally being old enough to not be jail bait for older guys meant that I had to deal with the way men expressed interest and not teenage boys. Boys would be a bit anxious and act out, but men? They may not automatically say they want to get in your pants , but they were far more direct at calmly expressing interest. I still missed cues, but they werenât as strange.
I had to deal with men a little bit since I was 12 because I looked like a grown woman, but that was an âout of my leagueâ reaction vs. me at 19.
But there was at least 1 or 2 guys at highschool who were more direct, already dipping into the no-pressure style men have. One of them, if I had been ready, would have been a good casual partner , being a friend first who was just a big flirt. We still get along great to this day (and Iâm glad to not have that history with him, now, looking back, but not because he wouldnât have been a safe choice back then). (And hell no on telling him that because confessing things like that when 40 and married are vastly different things. Iâd tell my husband, not him.)
The real big changes in how I was approached were closer to 21-25. Being solicited while walking around the block by a man my fatherâs age, who wasnât easily taking my âIâm just walking a block and going back to my boyfriendâ after declining him seriously. Or some harmless looking guy who brought me to work who begged me for sexual favors outside my job. And I mean groveled. Damn, I took some dumb risks, and thatâs where my aversion to being begged for sex (even in play) comes from.
So, from experience, where I draw the line on things too old for young kids to regularly be into is the dark underbelly of casual sex . They just ainât ready for that and are going to be hurt. Casual partners to boyfriends doesnât work well in that barrier between child and adult, to me, and is very jarring.
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Every. Damn. Modern. Contemporary. Romance. Novel.
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Legit, the major shift that got me to play ready for an adult relationship was being tired of the effboi in my life. That wasnât until 24, and I needed the 2 years before marriage to get my act together.
Legit, MOST the people I run across are children playing at adulthood in their 20s.
But itâs most, not all. Iâm always appreciative of those who are mature at younger ages.
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Even so, 16 year olds and 22 year olds probably shouldnât act the exact same way.
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Or at least get some censure when they do.
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There are people who donât have a single condition out there who are mentally immature for longer than others, and some people seem born adults.
There is a spectrum, the problem comes from having a very myopic lens.
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Well, I usually just wing it 
While peopleâs values might change as they get older, and their thought process might mature, thereâs actually not that much different between people of different age groups in general. There are parts of life where you can relate, and thatâs what I go for when writing older or younger characters.
Younger characters are easier. I passed that line. I remember what it was like. But I donât worry too much about it because itâs fantasy and maybe a sixteen-year-old matures faster because of the harsh environment, or whatever. So, even though 16 was more than ten years ago for me, I can write them fine and imagine their thought processes and what they value in life.
The only time I needed to know something about an age group was when my fifty year old male character was looking for love. I donât know what a person that age looks for in a partner. Theyâre not going to go on a lot of dates by then. They want to find someone to settle down with, but what values? So, I asked in a Facebook writers group.
Idk about what one thing you should know 
Maybe that, in general, people arenât so different, but in terms of their values and thought processes, they are different. Younger people tend to be naive and sometimes impulsive and make bad decisions (which turns into experiences they learn from, hopefully). Older people, with their experience, tend to be able to avoid mistakesâŚbut not always. No one is perfect, after all.
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Generally, itâs easier to write someone whoâs younger than you than someone whoâs older. Sure, a teen will write a more realistic teen, but adults write better teens than teens write adults. Iâve seen some cringe-worthy examples.
And itâs not about MCâs personality. People of any age can be serious or immature. Itâs in the interaction with other adults in, for example, work setting and in consequences of the immature behavior, or rather lack of any. It shows when the author has never been in a setting like that.
I donât know if thereâs any specific advice I can give about that other than research what youâre unfamiliar with. And seeing one movie scene with adults in a boardroom is not enough research. Also, movies can be very unrealistic.
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Itâs also complicated by there being no industry standard for discipline.
Oh, OSHA exists as does laws on sexual harassment and discrimination, but a mid-line shipyard isnât going to write you up for racial slurs, nor are they going to discipline a bunch of men who trail around after any female who works in the yard.
But try that same crap workingg at Olive Garden.
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Hehe.
I work at what youâd call a shipyard and:
- No one calls it a shipyard,
- Yard workers would never be written up for anything unless it was criminal because theyâre all union and union is the boss,
- Yard workers arenât really that womanizing. Are they racist? Likely not openly, and if they are, theyâre most likely in denial of it.
Yeah.
Stereotypes.
Movies often donât do their research either.
Seriously, if I have to see another scene of cops chasing criminals around a âshipyardâ and jumping from container to container and being able to get inside containers and the yard being empty and dark, and plot twist, it hasnât passed by customs yet, itâs a f****ng empty container, you think itâs luggage at an airport? Itâs like their only research is seeing other movies that used movies as their research.
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This might be a weird question, but is ball busting a common thing where you work?
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I had to look it up. Do you mean dominant women?
Men make up majority of the labor force, definitely. I think women that work with them are generally tougher just from the simple reality of being outnumbered. It takes a certain type of a woman to be willing to put up with that.
If you meant something kinky⌠uh⌠I have no answer for you.
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Ball busting is when guys (cause itâs usually guys) constantly take cheap shots and try to get a rise out of their friends or coworkers through friendly insults. Itâs usually in good fun, but Iâve noticed that itâs more common in dangerous jobs and I have a theory that itâs just a way of seeing who might crack under pressure.
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