Saving with serializing

Question

so im starting java. but i have had some and i mean some work in C++ and Visual Basic (1 year combined in highschool) and before anyone asks yes i am a highschool student. So dont jump on my case, im just trying to learn.
Ok so here's my problem. I need to save text from a JTextArea using serialization.
private class savemenu implements ActionListener{
          @Override
          public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
               //JFileChooser fileSave = new JFileChooser();
               //fileSave.showSaveDialog(bframe);
               //saveFile(fileSave.getSelectedFile());     
          //private void saveFile(File selectedFile) {
               try {
                    //String file = null;
                    //BufferedWriter writer = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(file));
                    //writer.write(text4zone.getText());
                    //writer.close();
                    FileOutputStream fs = new FileOutputStream("LanguageHelper.clemu");
                    ObjectOutputStream os = new ObjectOutputStream(fs);
                    os.writeObject(text4zone.getText());
                    os.close();
               }catch(IOException ex) {
                    System.out.println("Could not write file please try again");
                    ex.printStackTrace();          
     }now don't mind the commented code as i was going to use the save menu but i tried the other way as i know. So what could i do to fix my code and make it "correct" as in making it more streamline.
And this is what happens when i try to save
Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.NullPointerException
     at CodeLanguage$savemenu.actionPerformed(CodeLanguage.java:58)
     at javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(Unknown Source)
     at javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed(Unknown Source)
     at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed(Unknown Source)
     at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.setPressed(Unknown Source)
     at javax.swing.AbstractButton.doClick(Unknown Source)
     at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicMenuItemUI.doClick(Unknown Source)
     at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicMenuItemUI$Handler.mouseReleased(Unknown Source)
     at java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
     at javax.swing.JComponent.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
     at java.awt.Component.processEvent(Unknown Source)
     at java.awt.Container.processEvent(Unknown Source)
     at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
     at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
     at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
     at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.retargetMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
     at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
     at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
     at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
     at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
     at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
     at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
     at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(Unknown Source)
     at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(Unknown Source)
     at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(Unknown Source)
     at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
     at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
     at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(Unknown Source)

Answer 1

But the thing is that i can fill the entire text area and it still output the very same thing. And it does not matter how many letter/number/symbols are in it, it still does it. The only problem being that i can see is that its not reading the text area and is trying to write a blank object. And does any one know what i might be doing wrong, and point me in the right direction.