Is It Too Late to Start Writing After You’re 50+?

Some people believe that there are certain age limits to start a career. They think that it works for any sphere, so writing is not an exception. Is this true that becoming a writer after 50 is too late? Let’s have a look at some examples.

Sam Savage, a famous American novelist, and poet published his first book when he was 65. His second book was released a year later when he was at the age of 66. Laura Ingalls Wilder, known for the Little House on the Prairie series of children’s books, was 64 when she published her first book. At the age of 76, she finished the last book in her legendary Little House on the Prairie series. Frank McCourt, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his book Angela’s Ashes, published it at the age of 66 when he was already retired. Anna Sewell, an English novelist, published her famous book ‘Black Beauty’ when she was 57.

No Limitations

The experience of people who achieved success at a mature age looks quite inspiring. Sometimes, even young people are afraid of taking steps towards a career of their dream because they are not sure this is the right choice. Especially students may have doubts about their future occupation as it imposes a certain responsibility.

When it comes to writing, students face a lot of challenges due to high college standards. They are often given difficult tasks that require good knowledge and developed writing skills. That’s why students tend to ask for help with services like Edubirdie, which is a service that can correct essays and fix all mistakes in writing assignments.

But, there are no age limitations to become a writer. Moreover, late-blooming writers even have some advantages over their young colleagues.

The Wisdom of Age

Obviously, those who are over 50 have rich experience compared to most young or middle-aged writers. It means that they can portray different life stages in a much better way because they’ve lived through most of them. Being older means having deeper experience in various life spheres, so you can draw upon it in work. All life experiences, both positive and negative, can be channeled into your writing and make it more powerful.

Potentially No Financial Pressure

Most young writers need to have a few jobs to have money for living. All of their brain energy is spent on making ends meet instead of writing novels and creating masterpieces. Whereas those over 50 typically have a successful career or are already retired, so they can devote much time to what they want. Financial security gives freedom and helps to open up creative juices because there is no need to worry about making money.

An Idea About What to Write

Often young writers usually need to spend many years flailing about to find out what their topic is. It may take them much time to figure out what their strengths and weaknesses in writing are, to decide on the best genre for them, and understand what they enjoy writing about. While older people often know for sure what exactly they want to create. In most cases, they manage to move past exploration and intellectual feints. Maybe, it’s because they’ve been thinking about it for a long time, or reading extensively in a specific genre.

The Absence of Expectations

Experienced writers know that having audience expectations can cripple writing. Those of them who started writing at a young age need to adapt to readers’ expectations for the rest of their career life, so they lose the freedom of experimenting. It probably happens because they have a fear that those people who loved the first book won’t like a new one. Having no audience with specific expectations allows you to be absolutely free and follow your imagination in the way you like.

No Perfectionism

Older writers can avoid problems caused by perfectionism as they tend to be less idealistic. In general, those who are over 50 usually have more realistic ideas about their writing. On the contrary to young writers, they typically don’t have the desire to become rich and famous because of their book’s success. That’s why creating books is more about personal fulfillment for them.

A Reading Bank

They say that one needs to read 1000 books to write one, and it’s mostly true. To accomplish good writing results, you need to internalize the storylines and sentences of many great writers. Typically, the younger a person is, the fewer books he or she has read. The advantage of older writers is that they have collected the knowledge from numerous books read by their age, so they have a reading bank that they can draw from while writing their own work.

As you may see, starting a career in writing after 50 is not too late and can be quite beneficial. Older people shouldn’t make their age an issue because it gives them a lot of advantages over the youth, which are described above. Although writing is hard, it is a skill that can be mastered at any age.

Have you ever thought about writing a novel? Or maybe starting a blog? It is never too late to work at it and make it happen. 

About the Author: Michael Turner is a former journalist and content writer. Currently, he works at an online essay service and helps students master their writing skills. He has also started writing a fiction novel that is going to be published in winter 2020.

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