hands of author over 60 on laptop writing

I’ve heard this question from people in their 70s, their 60s…and even their mid-50s. It used to surprise me. After all, becoming a writer later in life is very common. When I asked people on Twitter to share their stories about becoming a writer after 40, people chimed in right away (you can check that out here.)

And take a look at some famous authors who started late. This is by no means a complete list, obviously—just a handful of examples!

Writers Who Started Late

Bram Stoker wrote Dracula at the age of 50.

Anna Sewell wrote Black Beauty in her mid-50s.

Annie Proulx, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her second novel, The Shipping News, published her first one—Postcards—at 57.

Laura Ingalls Wilder got her big literary break in her 60s with Little House in the Big Woods.

Frank McCourt was 66 when he got his memoir Angela’s Ashes published. It won the Pulitzer Prize.

Delia Owens wrote a few memoirs, but didn’t publish a novel until she was 70. Where the Crawdads Sing has sold over 10 million copies to date and is going to be a major film. (Delia and her now-ex-husband have a disturbing history, but that’s a post for another day.)

Harriett Doerr published her debut novel Stones for Ibarra when she was 74. It won a National Book Award.

As impressive as all these examples are, many of them are from the past, and I think it’s also important to remember that aging just is not what it used to be. There are lots of scientific studies now investigating why the rate of human aging, including cognitive decline, has slowed from past generations.

The Advantages of Being an Older Writer

Older Writers Have More Life Experience

This is obvious, but it’s a big advantage. An older writer has often had more jobs and more life transitions. They’ve virtually always had more joys and more heartbreaks. And they’re likely to have more character inspiration: they’ve usually met more people, read more books, and seen more movies and TV shows than a younger writer. They have more firsthand experience of history.

Older writers have been younger, so while they might still need to do cultural research to write, say, a contemporary YA novel, they still remember all the selves they used to be.

When I was a college undergraduate and learning how to write, I struggled to understand grown-up characters with families and jobs, and I saw my classmates do the same. Other than my parents and their friends, I had a hard time understanding what adults out of school were like. And as a reader now, I sometimes come across otherwise talented authors who aren’t able to see elderly characters as whole people; the age of their older characters defines them. Older writers aren’t likely to have these problems.

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Older Writers Are Often More Resilient

In my freshman year of college, my poems were rejected from the campus literary magazine. I was devastated and vowed to give up poetry.

It didn’t last. I went on to get an MFA in Poetry and publish poems in dozens of magazines. But the point is, one rejection rocked my world.

Looking back, I can hardly believe I used to be more sensitive. These days, a rejection elicits a “huh, oh well” from me. But being in the work force for decades, living through more actual losses, and just fielding plenty of rejections and no’s of various kinds, gives a person perspective.

Obviously, this varies from person to person, but I do think more life experience helps a person take things more in stride. And because writing and publishing can be such a challenging road, this can really make the difference.

Ageism is On the Wane in the Literary World

Ten years ago, and even five years ago, there were more contests, awards, and grants reserved for writers under 30 or under 40. Media outlets were more in the habit of publishing lists of writers under 30 or under 40, while showing no special attention to older writers.

Some age-based contests and opportunities have been discontinued. Even the Yale Series of Younger Poets contest quietly dropped the age requirement, at least officially. I think it’s important to question ageism in the writing world where it still exists, like I did on Twitter yesterday regarding the Bard Fiction Prize (you can see that tweet here). But more and more, people are becoming enlightened and realizing there’s no place for age discrimination in writing.

I was at a Zoom writing meetup this week and met two guys who may have been a little older than me who were both learning about screenwriting and pitching. I don’t know how much ageism is in the script writing world, but they weren’t fretting about it. Which brings me to my last point…

You’re Never Too Old to Learn Something New

Older people are just as capable as younger people of learning the ins and outs of writing. Plus, it’s actually good for middle-aged-and-older brains to learn new things! Whether you’re studying ballroom dancing, the Korean language, story structure, how to use Scrivener, or how to promote your books on TikTok, having to really concentrate to figure out something makes your brain sharper in all other spheres of your life, too.

I hope this post encourages some writers to go ahead and follow their dreams!

You’ve Never Been More Ready Than You Are Now.

Are you someone who started writing later in life? Are you like me—started young, but you’re just now hitting your stride? I’d love to hear all about it in the comments! Thanks so much for reading, and have a great week!

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