You don't learn to walk by following rules.
You learn by doing, and by falling over.
— Richard Branson
Meantime, I'm tutoring an eighth grader in writing and asking the same of him.
Applying William Faulkner's advice to would-be writers—read, read, read—I've assigned him a small mountain of prose: pieces by Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Friedrich Nietzsche, E.B. White, Hunter S. Thompson, John D. MacDonald, George Plimpton, Martin Luther King, and a pack of lesser-knowns. I've also introduced him to speed reading and have asked him to write chapter summaries of How to Read a Book every week through July.
POSTSCRIPT: Want to help a good cause? Go to Mighty Writers to learn more.