Just remember that Haruki Murakami, every year thought to be in the running for a Nobel Prize for Literature, prolific writer of magical realist texts, didn’t even decide he wanted to start writing until he was 29. Neil Gaiman wrote comics prolifically, but he didn’t write his first novel (Good Omens with Terry Prachett) until he was 30.
There’s still time. Breathe. You’ll get there.
It was published when I was 29, and written when I was 28. But your point is correct. R.A. Lafferty was first published in his early 40s… There’s no ticking clock before your expiration date. There’s just the work.
Well this actually bummed me out because I just turned 29….
@inkhat Here are other additions from later on! Don’t lose hope. You can start or become successful as a writer at any age.
“Laurence Stern, author of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, didn’t get published until he was 46.”
“E. Annie Proulx, author of The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain, did not publish her first novel until she was nearly 60. My best friend has just completed her first novel and is looking for agents at the age of 61. Really, there is no expiration date. It’s also been shown that most writers cannot come into their stride until they hit their early to mid-thirties. It’s an artistic peak for writers, when they have enough life experience to have something to say, but have the maturity to be thoughtful about what they say.
From this point most writers only get better with time. There’s simply no replacement for life experience and emotional maturity—both of which mostly come with time. Even if you have experienced a lot before the age of 30, growing older does change how you view things.
You don’t have to rush it. The best is yet to come.”
“I think Toni Morrison was 39 when ‘The Bluest Eye’ was published.”
“A lady in my old writer’s group didn’t start writing til she was in her 60s-70s and how she has a whole series of cozy mysteries out. Cynthia Riggs might not be a household name, but she’s still doing damn well for herself. Even got married a few years back. :)”
“In 2013, Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice became the first novel ever to win the triple crown of science fiction awards: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the Arthur C. Clarke. A handful of other authors have won the triple crown, but never in a single year and never for a single work.
It was her first novel. She was 36 when she started writing it (as a NaNoWriMo project!) and 47 when it was published.”
“Tolkien was 45 when The Hobbit was published. It took another 15 or so years before LotR came out. And even though he’s been dead for over four decades, he still has new things getting published.
The Aeneid, Virgil’s most famous work, wasn’t published until after his death. Hell, he had actually put in his will that he wanted it destroyed because it was unfinished and he was unhappy with it.
Point being, barring the end of the world, it’s never too late to write.”
“I just checked, the Neuromancer was written when William Gibson was in his mid 30s. Ursula Le Guin was a similar age when the first of the Earthsea novels was published.”
(Tips from: @schmaniel, @mresundance, @stabbedinthenameofscience, @shadowmaat, @giuliwrites, @emilytwist1, and @concretebadger.)
(via inkhat)
