# If it's not too personal...



## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

...how old are y'all?

Today, I was part of a panel discussion for a community anthology launch. Everybody in the audience (besides by girlfriend) was older than me. I'm pretty sure that all the authors in the book are, too. Many by a considerable margin.

But the thing is: I'm no spring chicken. I'm 28. 

It got me thinking... what's the average age here? Do we skew a bit younger, with the focus on newer technology and internet marketing? Or are writerly types just a bit older, in general?


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## Paul K (Jan 11, 2014)

30 "ish"


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## AngryGames (Jul 28, 2013)

40 going on 14


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## ricola (Mar 3, 2014)

Most people don't begin writing until their 40s.

I'm 34, and I got traditionally published heinously young.  At the time I got published, though, I easily had three quarters of a million fiction words put to paper--perhaps closer to a million.


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

vmblack said:


> Most people don't begin writing until their 40s.


This is the impression I seem to be getting.

It seems a shame. Think of all those voices not being heard, all the cultural trends being overlooked and ignored.


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## ricola (Mar 3, 2014)

It's not a shame at all.  Writing well requires both maturity and practice.  I got the practice in because I wrote hundreds of pages before I left middle school.  Most of what is unpublished should absolutely stay that way.

People who do things like play instruments more typically get their practice in much younger, but that's like saying it's a shame that more 10-year-olds aren't concert violinists.  Whatever they may be at 20, they aren't that yet at 10, and it's no shame that their voice is not heard in the same way.  They need to work on craft, first.

It's a peculiar thing that so many writers believe that the first thing that they write should get published.  I think it's fed by the myth that debut authors who have actually been writing for years if not decades create.  "Oh, I had this idea, and I just sat down and wrote it!"  That pretty much never happens.  In reality, the amazing first time writers have piles of paper or dozens of notebooks of other work that simply hasn't ever seen the light of day--almost always for very, very good reason.


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## Fictionista (Sep 14, 2012)

44 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk


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## Nymirra (Mar 15, 2014)

27. Judging on the few posts here, I can see that my feeling of being one of the young was true.


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## Sam Winterwood (Jun 25, 2013)

31.
I wish I took my writing way more seriously years ago.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> ...how old are y'all?
> 
> Today, I was part of a panel discussion for a community anthology launch. Everybody in the audience (besides by girlfriend) was older than me. I'm pretty sure that all the authors in the book are, too. Many by a considerable margin.
> 
> ...


49.55 years... not that I'm counting the days or anything!


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## ricola (Mar 3, 2014)

You also have to account for the fact that it took the average writer 10 years to get published before self-publishing.  It took me 3 years from first querying agents--because I hacked the system.


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

vmblack said:


> It's not a shame at all. Writing well requires both maturity and practice. I got the practice in because I wrote hundreds of pages before I left middle school. Most of what is unpublished should absolutely stay that way.
> 
> People who do things like play instruments more typically get their practice in much younger, but that's like saying it's a shame that more 10-year-olds aren't concert violinists. Whatever they may be at 20, they aren't that yet at 10, and it's no shame that their voice is not heard in the same way. They need to work on craft, first.
> 
> It's a peculiar thing that so many writers believe that the first thing that they write should get published. I think it's fed by the myth that debut authors who have actually been writing for years if not decades create. "Oh, I had this idea, and I just sat down and wrote it!" That pretty much never happens. In reality, the amazing first time writers have piles of paper or dozens of notebooks of other work that simply hasn't ever seen the light of day--almost always for very, very good reason.


But people get more conservative as they get older, too. So you risk losing a lot of that edge.

There's a reason most new bands are aged in their twenties. It's not because they're necessarily the best musicians. Heck, most pro-musicians in their 50s could outplay today's crop of rock bands. They just don't have the attitude and the sound.

Another reason I can see: In the old system, it would take people ten or so years before they even get a look in from a traditional publisher. So, naturally, published authors were older. I can see this changing, now.


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## Guest (May 10, 2014)

I'm also 28. For me writing has always been a hobby since I was six years old and our teacher asked us to write her a story.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

vmblack said:


> You also have to account for the fact that it took the average writer 10 years to get published before self-publishing. It took me 3 years from first querying agents--because I hacked the system.


I was a slow learner. It took me 14 years to get the message, and I was writing "just for my own pleasure" long before that. Because kindle was slow to come to England, I had paperbacks out 11 or so years before my first kindle book appeared at Amazon. I wonder where I would be now if kindle had rolled out worldwide at the same time...


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

vmblack said:


> You also have to account for the fact that it took the average writer 10 years to get published before self-publishing.


You said what I said, but before I said it!

New reason: older people are psychic.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Fictionista said:


> 44
> 
> Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk


No way!

I am 43 but don't look a day over 42.


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## Guest (May 10, 2014)

I turn 37 this month.


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## Flopstick (Jul 19, 2011)

39. I thank God daily that ebooks weren't around when I started writing. I dread to think of the total bumwash I would have inflicted on an undeserving world if they were.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

I kind of figured I'd be the old man here. Some of my kids are older than y'all.

I'll be 56 this fall.


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## Liz French (Apr 13, 2014)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> But people get more conservative as they get older, too. So you risk losing a lot of that edge.


I disagree with this statement. I'm 43 and my creativity has, like a fine wine, massively improved with age. Sure when I was younger I was way angrier and more reactionary, but I don't think this enabled my ability to express myself in the written word. I've now garnered the experience to understand those emotions and express the thought in a way more articulate way than ever before.

In terms of "edge" - most younger people I meet are so much more conservative than me. I see it all the time in the people I work with in my other job. Perhaps the exception applies to music because music is so integral to your identity when you're younger (at least it was for me). It makes sense that your identity would be represented by other like aged personalities. I don't think the same applies in literature.

Just my experience....but I think its an interesting debate...


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## Donna Alam (Mar 6, 2014)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> But people get more conservative as they get older, too. So you risk losing a lot of that edge.


There speaks the voice of youth....shoot him, I say!!

So, I disagree. In my experience age loosens inhibitions. We're less likely to strive to 'fit in' because we know who we are. We're wiser (mostly) and know lots more...stuff.

How old am I? I'm only as old as the man I feel. Wait...that makes me older than I actually am.


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## kathrynoh (Oct 17, 2012)

I don't believe that people get most conservative as they get older, especially writers.  A lot of people on here have either given up stable careers (or are thinking about it) in order to follow their dreams.  That's hardly conservative.

In Australia, there seems be buckets of funding and prizes for emerging writers, always for under 25s or under 30s at most.  A lot of writers don't even begin to emerge until much later than that, having put aside their writing dreams to build other careers or families.  I'd love to see older writers acknowledged as emerging.

I'd see writing as being totally different from music esp rock because music is a lot more physical, not just the playing but the whole lifestyle.


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## zoe tate (Dec 18, 2013)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> Do we skew a bit younger, with the focus on newer technology and internet marketing?


I think some of us skew a bit younger _without_ the focus on newer technology or internet marketing. I'm 22.


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## Guest (May 10, 2014)

Flopstick said:


> 39. I thank God daily that ebooks weren't around when I started writing. I dread to think of the total bumwash I would have inflicted on an undeserving world if they were.


I totally agree. I started writing books when I was around 19, and they were AWFUL! It would have been terrible if I'd self-published any of that junk. I shudder to think about it!


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## RachelMeyers (Apr 17, 2014)

29, and I'm just "starting out".  I think although I wrote a lot when I was younger I didn't take it as seriously as I do now...I mean, from a craft perspective.  I wrote what I wanted to write, with very little regard to story structure/etc.  I am glad self-publishing wasn't around for that, at least not the way it is now.


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## ricola (Mar 3, 2014)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> You said what I said, but before I said it!
> 
> New reason: older people are psychic.


HA. I got published at 24, whippersnapper. ;P

And as far as "conservative"--no, the work of most young people is excruciatingly derivative. Most writers simply chew up and churn out what other people have done for YEARS before finding their own feet. It takes enormous amounts of maturity to be fresh and original. Even when it's not fanfic, the first, oh, 300k words AT LEAST of most writers really is the work of other writers, rearranged.


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## Evenstar (Jan 26, 2013)

I agree. I've been writing all my life, but my writing was pretty 'shallow' in my twenties. I like to think it has a bit more depth now. Not much mind you as I am still a stroppy teenager most days and I don't write 'deep and meaningful' anyway. But at least I know people better and can give characters more and all that kind of twaddle.....

Oh, I'm 37 now


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

I think this debate is good -- but don't you think the generalisations are a bit sweeping? Younger people have shown, in a huge number of fields, that they can be creative and original. Why not writing? 

I agree with what kathrynoh said... people often start writing later in life. It seems to be that writing is something they start after the family, career, and all that, have settled. It's not that age makes them better, it's just that, in general, people start writing later. I would say that there are far fewer younger people writing, which can lead to a false presumption that older people are just better at writing fiction.


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## Victoria LK (Jan 31, 2014)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> I kind of figured I'd be the old man here. Some of my kids are older than y'all.
> 
> I'll be 56 this fall.


Guess that makes me the old lady at 53!!! I've been writing in my mind for years, but life and work always got in the way of putting those thoughts on paper. Now that my son is graduating and doesn't need all the "hand holding" he did before, I suddenly have extra time . Now if I could just afford to retire...


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## K. D. (Jun 6, 2013)

Victoria LK said:


> Guess that makes me the old lady at 53!!!


Ha, 54. Beat you at the old lady title!


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## Kia Zi Shiru (Feb 7, 2011)

I'm 25, so one of the younger ones here.

I don't think age matters much in writing, vocabulary maturity is more important. Being able to vocal what you mean in the way that you mean it is a skill that needs to be developed, but that can happen at 20 or at 50. I know many a young writer who has great story and word skills while I also know many an older author who lack both but get the benefit of the doubt by others because they are older.

Age doesn't matter for writing and I think that stories do change over time. But there is something to be said for both raw and polished writing, there is a (paying) audience for both.


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## Liz French (Apr 13, 2014)

Donna Alam said:


> How old am I? I'm only as old as the man I feel. Wait...that makes me older than I actually am.


Indeed


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## Scott Pixello (May 4, 2013)

To the OP,
I think age really is just a number & if you're good enough, you're old enough. At some point, a very young writer, possibly still in their teens, could turn publishing upside-down, with a break-out work of some kind, since, as has been pointed out, there isn't the war of attrition to getting published now. That said, I would agree both with the points about life experience and quality of art maturing over time (usually anyway) and I would take issue with older people being seen as conservative- both generally, and specifically in terms of writers, I just don't believe that's true. Your comparison with music is only due to the conservatism of those running the music industry, not the artists themselves. In terms of the narrow current demographics for pop music, in their view, 28 makes you prehistoric anyway. So, if Technology/institutions are less of a barrier, where are all the young voices? Speak up, the Angry Bird Generation, where are you?


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## Guest (May 10, 2014)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> But people get more conservative as they get older, too. So you risk losing a lot of that edge.


Really? I guess I didn't get the memo.


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## Carol Davis (Dec 9, 2013)

I'll be 60 in October.  I started writing when I was 11, and have churned out stories pretty constantly since then.  I don't know that age makes you a better writer (though the accumulation of experience certainly helps), but practice definitely does!

I started publishing and distributing my stories via fanzines when I was 32.  I'd made a few stabs at getting noticed prior to that (looked for an agent, sent some scripts in to several different TV shows), but the fanzines were my first "success."  My first "real" publication came when I was 42.


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## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

42 here.  Been writing since I was in elementary school, with a lot of it done in college.  Started publishing professionally only about 3 years ago, though.  The good of that being that I've had about 20 years of business experience pounded into my head....at the very minimum teaching me the values of acting professionally (mostly   and planning for the long term.


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## Going Incognito (Oct 13, 2013)

I'll be 39 in two months. Looking forward to 40's actually. I've never had it bad, but my 30's were better in every way than my 20's. 
Was funny tho, cause I knew in 6th grade I'd write books. Although back then I thought they'd all be about horses, along the lines of say- Black Beauty. I promised to dedicate my first book to the 6th grade group I hung with. (I did, too)
But I only really started writing fiction about 18 months ago. 
I'd been told throughout life that I should be a writer, but my answer instinctively was always, "Oh I will be, later. Later in my 30's or 40's, when I've read enough and lived enough. That's what's in store for the second half of my life."
Then some internal milestone passed and now I'm finally cutting my teeth. 
Enjoying this thread tho, I've had the 'I wonder how old...' About a few people on here a few times. And I've never been shy about answering that question myself, I figure I've earned every single year.


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## Donna White Glaser (Jan 12, 2011)

49 1/2.  I haven't pulled out the "1/2" since I was a kid, but seemed useful this year.   I didn't start writing until I was in my mid-30s. No discipline til then.


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## Fictionista (Sep 14, 2012)

Lydniz said:


> No way!


Haha....yup. : laugh

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

26.

Never realized that was odd. Also I didn't start writing til I was 24. I never had the serious urge to pen a story or become an author. I just got frustrated with the lack of material in my sub-genre.


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## Indecisive (Jun 17, 2013)

Also 43, also disagree about getting more conservative with age.


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## Vin DeLoach (May 5, 2014)

I'm 50 and can remember when I thought people in their 50s were, if not on death's doorstep, over the hill. I'm finding that experiences, such as raising a child or watching people I loved fade away, have given me perspective I didn't have earlier in my life. Wondering how fuzzy memories of my youth have become is, I suspect, the other side of that coin.


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## Catana (Mar 27, 2012)

I'm 77 and have become more radical as I've grown older, not that I was ever remotely conservative. Maturity certainly helps if you're going to become a writer, but it isn't adequate by itself. You can be my age or older and simply have nothing worthwhile to say. Or haven't developed the skills to say anything readable.


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## Donna Alam (Mar 6, 2014)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> I think this debate is good -- but don't you think the generalisations are a bit sweeping? Younger people have shown, in a huge number of fields, that they can be creative and original. Why not writing?


No. no debating. Just accept that your elders know better than you! And it's mothers day in a couple of hours so that gives me extra rights to ride roughshod, too.

I AM ELDERLY...HEAR ME RAWWWRRR!

Please note the font used here: Old Times Sarcasm. 
Font colour: Grey Goose.


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## WordSaladTongs (Oct 14, 2013)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> I think this debate is good -- but don't you think the generalisations are a bit sweeping? Younger people have shown, in a huge number of fields, that they can be creative and original. Why not writing?


But you're doing the same thing with the sweeping generalizations:



> all the cultural trends being overlooked and ignored.


 As if only the young can understand/experience/appreciate cultural trends?



> But people get more conservative as they get older, too. So you risk losing a lot of that edge.


 Some people get more conservative, some people get far less. Some people even go from being Christian to Atheist! It's amazing how unpredictable aging is. And edge? That's just silly. Sometimes, it takes age and courage to GET the edge to begin with.



> Heck, most pro-musicians in their 50s could outplay today's crop of rock bands. They just don't have the attitude and the sound.


 As the long-suffering spouse of a musician, I can tell you that the music experienced musicians put out is just as apt to be innovative as the younger musicians.

As a side note, I'm 39 and I STILL managed to figure out the quote coding. So once I clap on my lamp and reach for my cane, Imma do a happy dance. Cross your fingers I dont break my hip ... again ...


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> But people get more conservative as they get older, too. So you risk losing a lot of that edge.


Fiddle faddle. That only applies when you spend too much time following American politics.
The world's bigger than that - you'll find that out when you're older. 

My mind's about 40, my heart's about 15, my emotions about 25, my body's about 90 (you'll find that out when you're older, too, if you keep spending all your time writing)

Like other said, writers may be younger now because it's easier to get published. Now you just hit a button when you_ think_ you're ready. It used to be a loooong road and along the way most writers had to work to raise their families and pay the mortgage. Newer, younger writers may never have to find that out


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## I&#039;m a Little Teapot (Apr 10, 2014)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> But people get more conservative as they get older, too. So you risk losing a lot of that edge.


Ah, the ignorance and arrogance of youth.


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## bluwulf (Feb 1, 2014)

I'm 49.  I feel better seeing responses that some people started writing later in life.  I feel like I wasted so many years.  I probably would have started writing as a kid.  I did try to make up stories and poems but anything creative I tried to do was discouraged and criticized by my parents.  I think they had some idea that anyone creative was destined to be a "starving artist".  About every 10 years I'd have some burst of writing for a couple months then think I'd can't do it so why try.  

Then I came back to the U.S after living in Indonesia for 11 years and everyone I told my experience to said I need to write a book about it so a seed was planted.  About 3 years ago I started writing again.  I'd write for a couple of months then put it away but come back to it in four or five months again instead of years later.  Then last year I was in contact with Hugh Howey who really encouraged me.  Now the past 3 months I have been here learning a ton here and reading books on the craft and took a couple of online classes.  I can see my writing blossom.


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## Joe_Nobody (Oct 23, 2012)

53... but I've been rode hard and put away wet a few times, so I look and feel older.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> But the thing is: I'm no spring chicken. I'm 28.


ROFL. No, really, my sides hurt. 28? No spring chicken? *starts laughing again* *gasps*

OK. Sorry. I'm better now.

*snort*

Betsy


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

Woah, I wasn't trying to start a 'young v old' debate.

Intergenerational generalisations are generally bad. 

Still, we talk about diversity in writing. The age of authors is part of that diversity. 

As an aside: I have a hunch most authors write about people younger than them. (I know I do)


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## Donna Alam (Mar 6, 2014)

Joe_Nobody said:


> 53... but I've been rode hard and put away wet a few times.


This I love! Where has this phrase been all my life? I just snorted grey goose but it's not something I'd recommend.


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

Hey, I survived past the age of 27. I no longer run the risk of joining the 27 club and selling a bunch of records.


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## Jana DeLeon (Jan 20, 2011)

Joliedupre said:


> Really? I guess I didn't get the memo.


I didn't either since I get more liberal every day, except fiscally. You can't take the accountant out of the girl. 

I am 46 and have been writing for 12 years, published for 7. I am certainly mature in most ways, but as my husband and I are childfree, we tend to live like two bachelors, so we're not required to "grow up" in other ways. We're quite happy with that.


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## Briteka (Mar 5, 2012)

I'm 31, but I still think of myself as a teenager.  I also find myself getting more conservative as I get older. Not socially but definitely fiscally.


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## Debbie Bennett (Mar 25, 2011)

Just turned 50. And the last decade has been fabulous as I got to the point where I stopped caring what other people thought about what I say/wear/do with my life. I'm far more likely to take a risk now than I was in my conservative twenties when it was more about image. I'd never have been brave enough to self-pub back then. Now I know that if people don't like what I write then it's their loss.


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

> But people get more conservative as they get older, too. So you risk losing a lot of that edge.
> 
> Ah, the ignorance and arrogance of youth.


Oh, I couldn't have answered better. If I were drinking coffee when I read this, it would have come out my nose. Dear God! I am almost 59. And, trust me, I am FAR from conservative. As I've aged I have embraced the freedom to live life my way, not worrying about how others think I should live. I gave up working in a field where I made a lot of money to FINALLY chase my dream. We may lose our house because of it. Hardly conservative. (Now I have health issues due to fibromyalgia and couldn't keep a job if I tried, so this dream chasing is no longer a choice.) My writing style, while an older style (omniscient) is far, FAR from conservative. IN fact, it sometimes gets younger people's undies in a bundle. I "thought" the Gastien series would be more accepted by younger people because they would be more open-minded to the sex and some decisions made by the characters. Not so. The series is most often understood and appreciated by people at least 35 because they finally have come to understand live is seldom black and white. It is almost always shades of grey. That, my dear, comes with experience/age.  (Of course, some older people get worked up by choices Gastien makes or things that happen to him, too, because all people are individuals...but 99% of the time it is younger people that seem to have that rod further up...if you know what I mean.)

Bwahahaha! You really need to expand your horizons a bit more and actually TALK to a few of us "oldsters". People my age and a little older lived throught THE SIXTIES--the most unconservative, rebellious youth in history. That time period shaped many of us. I was not old enough to live it, but young enough to envy and hero worship it. Bwahahaha...conservative...you made my day. Thank you.


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## Guest (May 10, 2014)

DebBennett said:


> Just turned 50. And the last decade has been fabulous as I got to the point where I stopped caring what other people thought about what I say/wear/do with my life. I'm far more likely to take a risk now than I was in my conservative twenties when it was more about image. I'd never have been brave enough to self-pub back then. Now I know that if people don't like what I write then it's their loss.


Word.


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## James McGovern (Mar 13, 2014)

I'm 20 (21 in June).

I'm trying to get at least five books on KDP before I go to university, in the hope of generating a supplementary income to support my studies.


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## Adam Poe (Apr 2, 2012)

I just turned 27 in late April. Some days I feel much older than I am -- some days much younger.


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

Oh, OP, are you trying to deliberately be insulting to provoke a debate? 

I'm 41. I actually didn't start writing until a few years ago. We're self-employed, work was slow, I started writing fanfiction. Though I had been a technical writer, marketing writer, and I was a compulsive letter writer when I was younger.

I don't think the voice of the young is being "lost". It's out there, in music, art, and online at places like Wattpadd. 

I think that older people writing about younger people might gain larger traction because sometimes when young people write about the experiences of us old folks they get the emotions wrong, and then loose the larger, older audience.

I think books like Divergent (written by a 20 something) only work because the writer is focusing on younger people. I found some of the scenes with her parents to be kind of flat though, even when they should have been scenes that made me bawl my eyes out.


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## 75910 (Mar 16, 2014)

I'm 48 and far from conservative.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

James McGovern said:


> I'm 20 (21 in June).
> 
> I'm trying to get at least five books on KDP before I go to university, in the hope of generating a supplementary income to support my studies.


Now _that_ is conservative, in a fiscal sort of way. 
And wise. And thoughtful. Heck, let's leave age out of this. This is one industry that really can't be measured by age. I think the majority of fiction writers spends far too much time thinking about the human condition to be defined by such things.


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## Going Incognito (Oct 13, 2013)

DebBennett said:


> Just turned 50. And the last decade has been fabulous as I got to the point where I stopped caring what other people thought about what I say/wear/do with my life. I'm far more likely to take a risk now than I was in my conservative twenties when it was more about image. I'd never have been brave enough to self-pub back then. Now I know that if people don't like what I write then it's their loss.


Yep. I know in 2 months, when I hit 39, I'm gonna hear things like 'how many years are going to stay 39?'
I'm looking forward to my 40's. I've already started saying 'almost 40' instead of '38'


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

C. Gockel said:


> Oh, OP, are you trying to deliberately be insulting to provoke a debate?


No, of course not. It was a genuine question. To be honest, I feel even more marginalized, now.

I do find it interesting that the strongest reaction has been to my remark about older people being more 'conservative'. Of course, this is based on my own experiences. But, in Australia at least, statistics show that younger people are more likely to: support gay marriage, be less religious, support doing more to tackle climate change, be more open to immigration, willing to spend more on foreign aid, etc. (see here). I wouldn't be surprised if it was similar in America, as this seems to be what I've read.

My hypothesis from this is that writers are less likely to be conservative types, in general. So I can understand how this may have gone across the wrong way.

I hope everyone takes this as friendly debate, and not me trying to provoke anyone... as that was never my intention.


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## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

ah, so many of you are infants, so talented so young,

I'm 63. And by no means conservative.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> My hypothesis from this is that writers are less likely to be conservative types, in general. So I can understand how this may have gone across the wrong way.


This. Perhaps it's a bias, but I think that it would be very difficult to be (overly) conservative AND a writer. It would be far too self-restricting. You don't need to embrace everything there is out there, but you must at least make an effort to see it, understand it, perhaps accept it, in order to write about it. Anything less would make for a dull read, indeed.


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## RockyGrede (Apr 19, 2013)

23. Feel too old though.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> As an aside: I have a hunch most authors write about people younger than them. (I know I do)


That is a good point. The reason for that might be "because you've been there" (see how experience helps to broaden your character choices?). I doubt I could write accurately about someone much older than me, precisely because I haven't been there. It would be speculation at best, rehashing stereotypes at worst (see what I did there?)


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## Barbara Bartholomew (Nov 13, 2010)

72. Started publishing short stories at 31, books by the time I was 40 (wrote lots before being published). I love the fact that there's no limitations set by age, either too young or too old!


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## ElHawk (Aug 13, 2012)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> But the thing is: I'm no spring chicken. I'm 28.


Oh, heavens to Betsy! You are positively ancient! 

I just turned 34 a couple of weeks ago.

I think I get what you're driving at, though. Writers tend to skew more toward the mature end of the spectrum. I think that's because relatively few young people have the desire to provide entertainment for others, or to reach out an make an emotional connection to strangers. Nor do most young people have the experience to identify the kinds of stories that will resonate with large groups.

That's not to say ALL young people are that way, of course. I know of quite a few really fantastic writers who are in their teens and early twenties, and who are very serious about their craft. But most younger people just don't have the interest or the experience yet. They will develop it, though. 



vmblack said:


> It's not a shame at all. Writing well requires both maturity and practice. I got the practice in because I wrote hundreds of pages before I left middle school. Most of what is unpublished should absolutely stay that way.


Yeah, that's what I was trying to say! I wrote a lot in high school, but good god, nobody wants to read what I wrote. D:


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## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> But people get more conservative as they get older, too. So you risk losing a lot of that edge.


I'm not young enough to know that for certain. Just trying to hold on to that edge, you know.


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

> This. Perhaps it's a bias, but I think that it would be very difficult to be (overly) conservative AND a writer. It would be far too self-restricting. You don't need to embrace everything there is out there, but you must at least make an effort to see it, understand it, perhaps accept it, in order to write about it. Anything less would make for a dull read, indeed.


Good point. I also paint, and would find being conservative restricting for that, too. However, I'm surprised by the number of painters that really are older women who purse their lips when someone brings a nude painting to a meeting,etc. I belonged to 2 watercolor societies and they were super conservative...I laughed when a visiting "old" artist was invited to speak and said, "I don't see ONE painting here that doesn't bore me. (Thank God I hadn't brought one. Whew.) Look, we can ALL paint flowers or trees to look exactly like a photograph. If we couldn't we should be here. But, what are you bringing to the table that's fresh? Show me something new. Excite me. I can look out my window and see what you've painted. Show me something new." He also used white paint. Gasp! OMG, in watercolor groups it's a crime against God to use white paint. You only use the white of the paper for white. The horror. He said, "And, yeah, I'm using white right now on this piece. Why? Because if it wasn't supposed to be used, it wouldn't be sold in art stores." They couldn't argue with him. He kicks butt painting and is one of the few who actually has "made it" nationally.

 I prefer oil and acrylic...and those people tend to be less conservative, though not always. Which goes to show, you just never know.


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

Quiss said:


> This. Perhaps it's a bias, but I think that it would be very difficult to be (overly) conservative AND a writer. It would be far too self-restricting. You don't need to embrace everything there is out there, but you must at least make an effort to see it, understand it, perhaps accept it, in order to write about it. Anything less would make for a dull read, indeed.


Yeah. And I think this is a great thing.

The funniest thing from my panel today: One of the other authors was a university lecturer (maybe early-fifties, at a guess). I was chatting to him before it began, and turns out he knew my mother--he'd been on the school council with her (my sisters old school, but years after she'd graduated). He seem really worried that she'd read his story, because of the language and themes in it.

So, perhaps, even the seemingly conservative are just less so at heart. They just have to choose where to express their other side.


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## Sapphire (Apr 24, 2012)

Age is irrelevant. I seldom think about how old I am. (My motto, as stated on Twitter, is that I intend to die young at a very advanced age.) Youth gives some a daredevil attitude, but not all. For instance, I was my most conservative at age 17. Growing older often gives a person the freedom "to be" and "to express" without worrying about appearances. Talent doesn't know age. I've seen brilliant writing from high school students and residents of retirement communities, and everything in between. I've seen crap, too. I do believe life experiences can enrich the 'data base' from which we draw. As for years of writing experience, we are only aware of when someone publishes, not of all the writing they've previously done.

This is an interesting thread, no less, because it helps put perspective on comments of people we've come to know on Writers' Cafe. You may have figured out by now I am among the older ones here. My chronological age is 68. I don't mind telling that even though I confess to feeling flattered when told I don't look my age.


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## Al Dente (Sep 3, 2012)

I turn 34 in a few months, and I'm certainly not conservative (although I was in my early 20s!) by any stretch. In fact, the older I get, the more liberal I become. I think I was 31 or 32 when I finally stopped caring about what others thought of me or my choices. Not that it mattered much as a youth, but it really doesn't mean anything to me now. I took a major risk a few years back when I decided I didn't want to work for "the man" anymore and quit my only job to write. Younger, more conservative me would have never done something like that.

Maybe it's a regional thing, but I have found that people become less conservative with age. You just reach a point where you look around, shrug your shoulders, and say "Weeeeee!"


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## Redacted1111 (Oct 26, 2013)

I'm 38. I just started looking my age and feeling older. I need to lose all the weight I gained this year. It's bumming me out. I just read some line in a book lately that said nothing ages you like getting fat. I think I'm going to return that book.... 

I'm not sure if I'm more conservative. I feel like I go in cycles when it comes to that kind of thing. I can only be comfortably conservative for so long before I have to change my entire life. I've done it before. I've dropped everything and started over completely several times in my twenties and thirties. 

I actually wish self publishing had been around since I started writing seriously at eighteen. I've been trying to write novels for twenty years but could never finish anything because the pay off just wasn't there. I don't think my writing was "bad" back then. I just never finished. I believe my younger work actually had the intensity of youth in it. I also was much more interested in being deep and artistic back then. I've grown out of a lot of those presumptions and my work is just more straight forward now. But now I finish everything I start. 

As far as edginess goes, I'd challenge a teenager to an edginess contest. Nothing makes you edgier than actual experience.


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## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

Quiss said:


> This. Perhaps it's a bias, but I think that it would be very difficult to be (overly) conservative AND a writer. It would be far too self-restricting. You don't need to embrace everything there is out there, but you must at least make an effort to see it, understand it, perhaps accept it, in order to write about it. Anything less would make for a dull read, indeed.


Oh, Quiss! You haven't read some of the SF Baen publishes, have you? some of it is downright reactionary. One of their authors believes women shouldn't vote.


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

> I do find it interesting that the strongest reaction has been to my remark about older people being more 'conservative'. Of course, this is based on my own experiences.


I wasn't sure if you were referring to "conservative" in writing style, or "conservative" in politics. Both are irritating and are the same sort of sweeping generalization you say you don't like.



We'll forgive you though, because you are young. 



> That is a good point. The reason for that might be "because you've been there" (see how experience helps to broaden your character choices?). I doubt I could write accurately about someone much older than me, precisely because I haven't been there. It would be speculation at best, rehashing stereotypes at worst (see what I did there?)


Quiss, you better duck! I'm sending you internet kisses.


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## Sapphire (Apr 24, 2012)

One additional thought: What is the definition of conservative? No, don't quote the dictionary. It's just that conservative covers so many areas of life. Consider fiscal policies, politics, sexuality, religion, family structure, styles of parenting, personal behavior, internal thoughts, inhibitions...

I would hope this is an ever-changing landscape of everyone's life.


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

ElHawk said:


> Oh, heavens to Betsy! You are positively ancient!
> 
> I just turned 34 a couple of weeks ago.
> 
> ...


I think it's definitely true that less young people these days want to be writers or authors. There's millions that want to be game developers and media producers. From what I've seen in my own city, the young people that do want to be writers tend to do so because they have a genuine passion, interest in the craft, and a strong motivation. When it's no longer trendy, only the passionate keep at it.

What I find interesting is the "Nor do most young people have the experience to identify the kinds of stories that will resonate with large groups" comment. A lot of the REALLY popular fiction these days is all about what people much younger than me experience and feel. Hunger Games, Divergent, The Fault In Our Stars, and so forth. Heck, even The Catcher in the Rye, which still sits in the Top 100 in my local bookstore chain. And, when a large chunk of novels are written about people between the ages of 15 and 30--surely those experiences are based on experiences of when authors were, say, between 15 and 30.


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## Redacted1111 (Oct 26, 2013)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> I think it's definitely true that less young people these days want to be writers or authors. There's millions that want to be game developers and media producers. From what I've seen in my own city, the young people that do want to be writers tend to do so because they have a genuine passion, interest in the craft, and a strong motivation. When it's no longer trendy, only the passionate keep at it.
> 
> What I find interesting is the "Nor do most young people have the experience to identify the kinds of stories that will resonate with large groups" comment. A lot of the REALLY popular fiction these days is all about what people much younger than me experience and feel. Hunger Games, Divergent, The Fault In Our Stars, and so forth. Heck, even The Catcher in the Rye, which still sits in the Top 100 in my local bookstore chain. And, when a large chunk of novels are written about people between the ages of 15 and 30--surely those experiences are based on experiences of when authors were, say, between 15 and 30.


I think you are correct to an extent. Most of my characters are 18-25. It was one of the most defining points in my own life. But I wasn't able to actually write about it when I was 18-25. I wish I had been but I was too busy going through all those defining moments.


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## horst5 (Aug 9, 2013)

I will be 84 in July.
When I was 82 I made myself a five year plan to become a writer.
I revised this plan in the beginning of this year and I have now an eight year plan.
So far progressing very nicely and right on schedule.
Published my first 3 books within the first 12 month and plan on a minimum of 3 books per year.
What I am writing? Historical fiction..WWII and the following years.
Horst


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

True, Annabelle.

I do think it's an interesting aberration in logic, though. On one hand it's _of course we write about people younger than ourselves, because we've been there_, then on the other its, _most young people don't have the experience_. They don't sit quite right, together.

I find it especially interesting, in an era where Young Adult and New Adult and what not are dominating the landscape.

It sort of cancels out.


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## Redacted1111 (Oct 26, 2013)

I think with my own writing, I'm maybe more "conservative" in that I'm not trying to be edgy or deep anymore. There is a massive difference between the writer I was at 18 and the one I am now. Back then I had a little more youthful ego that made me  think I'd be the next literary genius. Maybe I'm jaded by my own potential because, yeah, this is it. I didn't become the female Kerouac, I became a pudgy housewife who spent most of her life wiping butts, not hitchhiking across America. 

I might have thought more highly of my abilities back then, but now, I know what they are and I know who I am.


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

kendoggett said:


> Like another commenter in this thread, when you said "conservative" I didn't know you were talking politics. I thought you meant less willing to take chances, to write on the edge. If it's politics, you're partially right; older folks are less likely to be fooled by the shiny objects and generous promises.


I meant socially conservative. And I think it's a good thing--in general, young people are less tolerant of racism, sexism, homophobia, climate change denial, and so forth. I don't _really_ see this as politics, just an expanding awareness of human rights. (I don't target this at you, of course, just in general).

Many of the problems the SFWA have experienced have been due to over-conservatism, and it's been very bad press for the association and the genre, too.

The more your write the more confident you are about it. I can certainly see how experienced writers can be, in general, more comfortable in taking risks, writing on the edge, etc.


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## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

***********


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## ElHawk (Aug 13, 2012)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> What I find interesting is the "Nor do most young people have the experience to identify the kinds of stories that will resonate with large groups" comment. A lot of the REALLY popular fiction these days is all about what people much younger than me experience and feel. Hunger Games, Divergent, The Fault In Our Stars, and so forth. Heck, even The Catcher in the Rye, which still sits in the Top 100 in my local bookstore chain. And, when a large chunk of novels are written about people between the ages of 15 and 30--surely those experiences are based on experiences of when authors were, say, between 15 and 30.


...and all of those stories were written by people who are older than the age of the protagonists.

It's not that stories ABOUT young people aren't resonant. They often are more resonant than stories about older people, because I don't know about you guys, but I was extremely passionate when I was a teenager/in my early twenties.

But what I would have chosen to write about back then is very different from a story about a teenager I might choose to write today. It's the theme and emotions in a story that must resonate with readers, not the age of the characters, and I think it takes a lot of insight and empathy to choose themes and emotions that touch somebody other than just the writer. I think relatively few very young people have enough insight and empathy to write well for people other than themselves, compared to the number of older people who can write well for other people.

I'm not saying the writing that younger people do isn't important. Sometimes writing in ways that really resonate with you, and expressing ideas and feelings that are tremendously important to you, is the best writing you can do (and it can be great preparation for a career as a writer who will one day produce writing for other people to enjoy.) But it's not always going to make a successful book or story, which many other people can relate to.

When I say that most young people don't have the experience to write about being young, I don't mean they aren't experiencing important things. They definitely are. I mean they (usually) don't have the experience in effective/artful communication to make other people feel the same things they are feeling. Nor do they (usually) have the ability to approach something as personal as writing about their own experiences in a way that is accessible to other people. That kind of self-criticism usually takes more experience, more distance from the moment, and more of a drive to successfully reach an audience (rather than just a drive to express, which most young people have in spades.)

I've found that the drive to effectively connect to an audience, and not just to express, really only solidified when I had more grown-up concerns to deal with...such as paying the bills.


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

Phoenix Sullivan said:


> Four of our core, name authors are in their 60s and 70s, and determined to make a go of ebooks and self-publishing even after the great success they've seen in trad land, so I don't think there's an age bias in this new world of digital publishing.


This is great. I've also seen a strong uptake of e-readers in 50+ people as well. I think it bodes well for the self-publishing industry.


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## Huldra (Nov 7, 2013)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> True, Annabelle.
> 
> I do think it's an interesting aberration in logic, though. On one hand it's _of course we write about people younger than ourselves, because we've been there_, then on the other its, _most young people don't have the experience_. They don't sit quite right, together.
> 
> ...


I believe it's easier to analyse and understand the things you went through as a young person when you've had a little more life experience, while you may not have the distance needed while going through that life stage to put it into sufficient perspective.


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## Daniel Dennis (Mar 3, 2014)

32. I started when I was 18 but never produced anything worth publishing until 30.

Sent from the back of a white CIA van using Tapatalk. Please help!


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

ElHawk said:


> ...and all of those stories were written by people who are older than the age of the protagonists.
> 
> It's not that stories ABOUT young people aren't resonant. They often are more resonant than stories about older people, because I don't know about you guys, but I was extremely passionate when I was a teenager/in my early twenties.
> 
> ...


I'd be interesting in what you class as a 'young person', though. Many people in their late twenties have degrees, full-time jobs, marriage, mortgage, children, and all that. I know people laughed at my 'spring chicken' comment, but it's not exactly youth.


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## Redacted1111 (Oct 26, 2013)

NAsh said:


> I believe it's easier to analyse and understand the things you went through as a young person when you've had a little more life experience, while you may not have the distance needed while going through that life stage to put it into sufficient perspective.


Yes. It's all about perspective. As you age, you have perspective on the choices you made at defining moments and can better address the themes behind those choices.


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## Redacted1111 (Oct 26, 2013)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> I'd be interesting in what you class as a 'young person', though. Many people in their late twenties have degrees, full-time jobs, marriage, mortgage, children, and all that. I know people laughed at my 'spring chicken' comment, but it's not exactly youth.


Twenty eight is not particularly young. When I was that age I had a five year old and two houses. Yet, I still didn't have the perspective I have now because the choices I'd made as a young person hadn't played out yet.


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## ElHawk (Aug 13, 2012)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> I'd be interesting in what you class as a 'young person', though. Many people in their late twenties have degrees, full-time jobs, marriage, mortgage, children, and all that. I know people laughed at my 'spring chicken' comment, but it's not exactly youth.


I think it depends on the individual's life experience and level of maturity.

I know quite a few people who started writing successfully for audiences (whether traditionally published or successfully self-published) in their teens. They certainly figured out what it took to reach beyond their own experience and tap into a more common feeling. I know people who are nearly twice my age and who still are too hung up on how important their feelings are *to them,* so they seem chronically unable to reach any sort of audience. (There are a few regulars in a writer's group I used to attend who fit that description.)

I would never put an age something like this. Gaining enough insight to discover that you want to communicate with somebody other than yourself isn't as cut and dry as that.

And I certainly don't think that having a degree or a family makes a person mature or wise. I know a lot of people who have neither, but who are far more intelligent, empathic, insightful, and far better at writing than anybody who has these more society-approved badges of "maturity" and "wisdom."


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

> And this is a common error most young people make about older folks. Your generation wasn't the first to discover that these things are wrong, as you might see if you research the political unrest of the 1960s. My generation said almost exactly the same thing. The rest is ALL politics.


Exactly.

I would also say it has a lot more to do with geographical area than age. (I am speaking in general for all of this.) The USA is huge compared to other countries. There are states where you find the majority are very politically and/or socially progressive and others where they are living back in the 1950's as far as human rights. I am in Minnesota. We are very progressive regarding rights, politics, etc. You go down South and some people are still fighting the civil war.

Before you say some of those states that are conservative are vastly OLDER, let's remember that most of those older people are only there for the winter. They may come from progressive states and don't vote in the places where they winter. The people in those conservative states tend to raise the same. Again, not always. Children learn by your actions. Some grow up and change. Many don't. If you took a high school from Minnesota and a high school from, say, Dallas...you would find two very different groups of young people in regard to beliefs and tolerances.


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## WDR (Jan 8, 2014)

Hello Kitty, a bottle of scotch, and a mellon– Oh, wait… What was the question? Silly me…

50.

I should have had my first book out 20 years ago, but I kept letting life get in my way. When life finally booted me out, it dawned on me to ask myself how long was I going to keep putting this off? I was born to write stories, I should have gotten to it earlier. Admittedly, a key reason I never tried was the fear of rejection. I didn't think any of my stories would get past an editor because my approach to any given genre was a bit out of left field, not following the standard formulas.

A lot of my ideas for stories are ideas that have been sitting on the shelf since I was young—some even from my teens. Yeah, my writing style from back then was immature, but the stories themselves were solid. Even if I don't come up with anything new, I have enough story ideas filed to keep me popping out two or three novels a year for the next twenty years.

I don't believe that young people can't write. More to the point, I think all that young writers lack is enough life experience of dealing with saints and a•••••••s to flesh out their characters. A teen or young adult can write an excellent story with an editor or mentor to help them work out their writing style. Keep in mind, there are some people in their late teens and early twenties who have experienced more life than many 50-year-olds. Another source to consider is that we learn from experience and the stories in books can often fill in that experience.


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## Ronny K (Aug 2, 2011)

26.

I've definitely been surprised by the average age in most threads, but it makes sense.

I think we can all agree on this conclusion: no matter what your age, you're still unreasonably defensive about your age.


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## ElleChambers (Nov 5, 2013)

I'm 27 today. I've been writing with the intent to become published since I was six. I've been published (under a different name) since I was 19 - those stories and poems were some of the worst things I've ever written. So self-indulgent. I like to think I've grown out of that phase.


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## jackz4000 (May 15, 2011)

Back when I was 18 I knew everything. At 25 I knew I knew it all. By the time I hit 30 I began a realize how little I really knew.


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## I Give Up (Jan 27, 2014)

I turned 24 in March, but I've been writing stories since I knew how to know to string together words, so let's say I have 20 years experience as a writer! <_<


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## Bluebonnet (Dec 15, 2013)

I'm one of the older people here at 65. I was writing stories as far back as childhood, but to this day haven't published any fiction yet due to lack of confidence in myself and my work. I did publish some work-related nonfiction, beginning when I was in my 20s. Trying to get on the ball now and get some fiction out there. So what if I still don't feel confident? Many writers don't, but they publish anyway, and I can too. I am greatly encouraged by reading what other writers here in Writers' Cafe have said about taking the leap of faith and clicking "publish."

Changes in thinking that come with age: The older I get, the less willing I am to tolerate stressful situations. I tend to turn my back and walk away now from difficult people, difficult employers, difficult service providers, etc.  This is why I'm so pleased that we have the option of self-publishing e-books. There is stress involved in self-publishing,  but not the kind of stress we'd have dealing with rejection letters, looking for agents, trying to please publishing house editors who want to change your writing style, waiting for months for the book's publication and then not getting much in royalties. I might have put up with that stuff when young because of the allure of becoming a "published author," but today I'd tell the publisher to go you-know-what.  

As the other older folks pointed out, we baby boomers remember the 60s and all the wildness and social upheaval of the time. I don't feel that I've become more conservative, just wiser about some things due to experience. Especailly about money!  Someday, as a joke, I might write a short financial advice piece for young women titled "Never Buy Shoes That Cost More Than Your Rent!"


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

> Would love to discuss your regional biases, but that would get us into politics, which isn't allowed on this website. It was true fifty years ago, but I've lived here all my life (so far) and today no one I know is still fighting The War For Southern Independence. Those who try often get into the news as outriders, although it's sometimes made to seem as if it's the norm. Mere political disagreements do not always indicate that evil is afoot. I don't know anyone who is trying to oppress others...well, outside of a few politicians.


Fair enough.  We go with what we experience. Keep in mind, I said "some". FOr me, both times I visited Tennessee, I heard slurs about "the South's going to do it again." "This time we'll kick their ass." and racial things. Also, several people I have met who have moved up here from Atlanta, Nashville, parts of Florida, have very different ideas on women then we do in general here.  But I will concede that I don't know everybody. I could very well be wrong, but my experience shows me different--so far. You are an exception that makes me feel hope that I'm wrong. Thank you!

ETA: BUt still, the people in those states VOTE IN the people who don't want certain equalities. That DOES say something important.


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## MonkeyScribe (Jan 27, 2011)

Annabelle said:


> Twenty eight is not particularly young. When I was that age I had a five year old and two houses. Yet, I still didn't have the perspective I have now because the choices I'd made as a young person hadn't played out yet.


Similar story here. I married young and was fairly ambitious in some ways. One thing I loved about getting to my thirties was that I was finally old enough that that people started taking me seriously, but young enough that I still had all of my own energy and ambition.


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## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

Caddy said:


> Fair enough.  We go with what we experience. Keep in mind, I said "some". FOr me, both times I visited Tennessee, I heard slurs about "the South's going to do it again." "This time we'll kick their ass." and racial things. Also, several people I have met who have moved up here from Atlanta, Nashville, parts of Florida, have very different ideas on women then we do in general here.  But I will concede that I don't know everybody. I could very well be wrong, but my experience shows me different--so far. You are an exception that makes me feel hope that I'm wrong. Thank you!


Just a side-note. I'm from northern California, now living in Louisiana. I hear racist comments far more often here than I ever did at home. And when the husband and I go shopping for just about anything, cars, furniture, insurance, about 95% of the time the sales person will defer to my husband even after he tells them I'm the one they need to talk to. It's... interesting.

So I agree with you that conservatism is more often associated with geographical regions. Though I do agree with the original poster than younger people in general tend to be more socially liberal. It's also been my experience that creative people are more liberal as well.


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

Fair enough. We have religious people here, too, plenty of them. As we all know, there are many religions and those different religions and factions of religions focus on different feelings on what values are being taught in religion. And, as you said, we can't go into that here, either. 



> ust a side-note. I'm from northern California, now living in Louisiana. I hear racist comments far more often here than I ever did at home. And when the husband and I go shopping for just about anything, cars, furniture, insurance, about 95% of the time the sales person will defer to my husband even after he tells them I'm the one they need to talk to. It's... interesting.


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## e-chant (May 6, 2014)

Wait! Is this physical age or mental age? 
Mentally I'm somewhere between 12 and 21.  

P.S. Happy Birthday Elle!


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

I'm 63 and somewhat pleased to see I don't have the dubious distinction of being the oldest here.


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## Michael Kingswood (Feb 18, 2011)

Deanna Chase said:


> Just a side-note. I'm from northern California, now living in Louisiana. I hear racist comments far more often here than I ever did at home. And when the husband and I go shopping for just about anything, cars, furniture, insurance, about 95% of the time the sales person will defer to my husband even after he tells them I'm the one they need to talk to. It's... interesting.


Interesting. I'm from Maryland, went to school in New England, and have lived all over the country (North and South, Hawaii, and now San Diego) with the Navy, and I never saw more provincialist people who were willing to embrace stereotypes about others without questioning them than when I lived in New England.

Getting back on topic, I'm 38.


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

> ut if you're saying what I think you're saying, I'm neither married nor gay, so I don't have a dog in that fight.


But you do! See, that's part of my point. ALL OF US have a dog in those fights because we are part of humanity. And all of us have "married people" and "gay people" in our lives. People that matter. Either because we know them as family, friends, co-workers, or simply because they are part of humanity, too. So the fight is just as much yours and mine to make sure some of us don't hold others down.



> Interesting. I'm from Maryland, went to school in New England, and have lived all over the country (North and South, Hawaii, and now San Diego) with the Navy, and I never saw more provincialist people who were willing to embrace stereotypes about others without questioning them than when I lived in New England.


INteresting. I left off the east because I've only been to New York City.


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## AgnesWebb (Jan 13, 2013)

Bluebonnet said:


> Someday, as a joke, I might write a short financial advice piece for young women titled "Never Buy Shoes That Cost More Than Your Rent!"


You would be doing the world a service! I'm 32 and still struggle with this! ;-)


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## Hugh Howey (Feb 11, 2012)

38.

And I feel like my writing skills were at their best when I was in my early 20s. I also felt wiser then. It's been downhill since I turned 25.


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## Gina Black (Mar 15, 2011)

59 and wacky. But I do get tired easier.


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

> Please don't enlist me into your causes. I have enough of my own.


Not mine. It's everyone's. If you don't see that, I can't help it.

Mentioning bad religious things in California...I think all states have their share of that. Yikes.

But, truly, if saying all humans should have equal rights is political, then guilty as charged. I will stand for those being held back. There have always been people who feel morally superior by holding groups of people there. History usually shows them differently.

Now I will move on. This had been friendly, it's getting a bit less so, and I want to enjoy my Saturday. I hope you do, too.


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## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

kendoggett said:


> Ummm...politics, politics, politics...knew some Californians...trying not to say anything, discredit an entire region because of certain exceptions...but it's difficult...


Just to be clear, I'm not discrediting a region. We live in New Orleans by choice. I love it here. We are both self employed and can literally live anywhere we choose. We chose NoLa. That doesn't mean there aren't social issues that need to be worked on as far as I'm concerned. And what I said wasn't a political statement. It's just my experience in a discussion on conservative vs liberal.


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## ricola (Mar 3, 2014)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> I think this debate is good -- but don't you think the generalisations are a bit sweeping? Younger people have shown, in a huge number of fields, that they can be creative and original. Why not writing?


Because it's an art. It's skill. It's not just knowledge and intelligence, like in coding, mathematics, or the sciences. What you bring to the table by 25 is probably the most ground-breaking thing you'll come up with, if you start young--or within 5 years of seriously engaging in the activity, if you start older. It's an art and a skill that requires a huge amount of experience (through reading and living) and also a huge amount of practice. Even music has mathematical roots that skew it younger. Writing does not.

When you have a very young coder is unusual skills, you get Tumblr. When you have a very young writer with unusual skills, you get Eragon.

I at least was aware of this and battled against it from the outset. Most newer writers (of whatever age they begin writing) have no idea that their work is so derivative.


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## Sarah Woodbury (Jan 30, 2011)

I'm 45. I started writing novels at 37.
Age doesn't necessarily lead to wisdom, but I feel like I've become more thoughtful since I started writing fiction.
But then, at 28, I'd just had my third child, and I had no time to think. 
What I find now is that in order to write, I need that space to think. It isn't as if I write all day, but in order to write at all, I need to not have every waking moment filled with everybody else's emotional needs.


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## ricola (Mar 3, 2014)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> As an aside: I have a hunch most authors write about people younger than them. (I know I do)


My first Big 6 published book featured main characters more than a decade older than me when I began writing it.


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## ricola (Mar 3, 2014)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> True, Annabelle.
> 
> I do think it's an interesting aberration in logic, though. On one hand it's _of course we write about people younger than ourselves, because we've been there_, then on the other its, _most young people don't have the experience_. They don't sit quite right, together.
> 
> ...


Not really, because most of the people reading New Adult are in their 30s and 40s.


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## Michael Kingswood (Feb 18, 2011)

Hugh Howey said:


> 38.
> 
> And I feel like my writing skills were at their best when I was in my early 20s. I also felt wiser then. It's been downhill since I turned 25.


I didn't really start writing until I was 35. Unless you count many years roleplaying in a Wheel of Time-based MUD online; that's sort of like fan fiction, I suppose. 

But yeah, I hear you about the wisdom thing. I sometimes wonder about that myself... My brain just feels mushy sometimes. Of course, that may just be fatigue from ALL THE FREAKING KIDS running around the house.

*sigh*


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## ElleChambers (Nov 5, 2013)

e-chant said:


> Wait! Is this physical age or mental age?
> Mentally I'm somewhere between 12 and 21.
> 
> P.S. Happy Birthday Elle!


Thank you  I'm off for some chocolate and ice cream.


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

Not sure if it's been said, but older writers write younger people often because it exposes you to a larger market. More people have the experience of being twenty than 50.  (Although I do include people of a wide age range in my fics--and not just forever young looking immortals). 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## ElHawk (Aug 13, 2012)

vmblack said:


> Because it's an art. It's skill. It's not just knowledge and intelligence, like in coding, mathematics, or the sciences. What you bring to the table by 25 is probably the most ground-breaking thing you'll come up with, if you start young--or within 5 years of seriously engaging in the activity, if you start older. It's an art and a skill that requires a huge amount of experience (through reading and living) and also a huge amount of practice. Even music has mathematical roots that skew it younger. Writing does not.


This, but also, nobody said that young people can't be or are never excellent writers. Some of them definitely are! But the OP was wondering why groups of writers tend to skew more toward the older end of the spectrum than the younger end. I was offering my opinion on that point: because USUALLY (not always) it takes a person more time and experience to develop not only the skills, but (and I think this is more crucial) the INTEREST in writing for other people.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

50


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## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

When I was younger I found it difficult falling asleep. So, from age five or so, I started telling myself stories, often the same ones, with minor variations, night after night. By age seven I had an intuitive grasp of what worked and what didn't.
I love people but I don't like them very much. But I love listening to older people. They're full of stories, and often they're grateful someone, especially a younger person, wants to listen to them.
When I was young, at family gatherings, when my nieces and nephews went playing in some other room after dinner, I stayed at the table, just to listen to my parents, grandparents, uncles and great-uncles talk. The funny thing was how my grandparents and great-uncles talked down to my parents and uncles, like my parents did to me. I loved my Grandfather saying to my father, "Oh, you'll change your mind when you're my age."
I absorbed everything like sponge. As a result I feel like a male Bene Gesserirt. I have hundreds of people living inside me. I can draw on them at will. In fact, I sometimes find it hard to make them shut up.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> But people get more conservative as they get older, too. So you risk losing a lot of that edge.


I laugh at you! While I've become more conservative about some things, that's only because of experience. As far as losing one's edge, I'd dare say that I'm sharper at 56 than I was at 28. Perhaps doubly so.


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## nikkarina (Jan 15, 2013)

I'm 21 and I wrote my first self-published novel when I was 14. It isn't something I'm terribly proud of, but for a first novel I think The Bullet List does okay. I'm coming out with my third novel this August. I feel very old. But I think young authors are becoming a more prominent trend. I.E. Veronica Roth, Amanda Hocking, and I am sure there are more I can't remember at the moment. I wish I would have published when I was 10 or something.   I just feel like there isn't enough time in my life to write every book that I have in mind.


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## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

vmblack said:


> It's not a shame at all. Writing well requires both maturity and practice. I got the practice in because I wrote hundreds of pages before I left middle school. Most of what is unpublished should absolutely stay that way.
> 
> People who do things like play instruments more typically get their practice in much younger, but that's like saying it's a shame that more 10-year-olds aren't concert violinists. Whatever they may be at 20, they aren't that yet at 10, and it's no shame that their voice is not heard in the same way. They need to work on craft, first.
> 
> It's a peculiar thing that so many writers believe that the first thing that they write should get published. I think it's fed by the myth that debut authors who have actually been writing for years if not decades create. "Oh, I had this idea, and I just sat down and wrote it!" That pretty much never happens. In reality, the amazing first time writers have piles of paper or dozens of notebooks of other work that simply hasn't ever seen the light of day--almost always for very, very good reason.


That's what happened to me, actually. I had a great deal of marketing writing experience, but had never written any fiction, even as a child. The first book in my signature is my first fiction. I wrote it two years ago. I am 54.

I know that Mara Jacobs, who isn't on here but also sells very well, is the same as me. One day she decided to write down the movie in her head, just as I did. That was "Worth the Weight."

I started writing at the right time--for me. As always, I'll just say that everybody is different.

ETA: Bryce Courtenay's "The Power of One" was also his first fiction. He had a great story of how he assumed his first three books would be rubbish because everybody said so, and was using the TPoO ms as a doorstop tied with string while he worked on book 2. One day he came into the kitchen to find his daughter's friend on the floor, papers all around her, tears streaming down her face. She looked at him and said, "You have to publish this book." She had kicked it by accident and broken the string, sat down to put it back on order, started reading and was immediately sucked in, as so very many others have been since.

He too didn't start writing until he was older. I'm sure he would have said that he wouldn't have had the understanding and experience to write that book until the time when he did.

And Wayne--you've got only one year on me!


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## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

Sarah Woodbury said:


> I'm 45. I started writing novels at 37.
> Age doesn't necessarily lead to wisdom, but I feel like I've become more thoughtful since I started writing fiction.
> But then, at 28, I'd just had my third child, and I had no time to think.
> What I find now is that in order to write, I need that space to think. It isn't as if I write all day, but in order to write at all, I need to not have every waking moment filled with everybody else's emotional needs.


Absolutely and positively. Oh so ditto.


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## B&amp;H (Apr 6, 2014)

The only thing that actually matters to the reader is that you are a good storyteller and have a story worth telling.


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## Lefty (Apr 7, 2011)

43.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

jackz4000 said:


> Back when I was 18 I knew everything. At 25 I knew I knew it all. By the time I hit 30 I began a realize how little I really knew.


Same here!

And now at 50 I am happy to let everyone else do the work of knowing it all.


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## ♨ (Jan 9, 2012)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> It seems a shame. Think of all those voices not being heard, all the cultural trends being overlooked and ignored.





vmblack said:


> It's not a shame at all. Writing well requires both maturity and practice.


Practice, yes, but maturity need not come from the passing of years which is too often the implication.

It's advice I've seen for many years--that people should "wait" to become writers until they have more "experience" or "maturity" or whatever. And that sort of advice does quiet too many voices because they stop practicing because why should they practice when they need to wait for more experience and the passing of years?

I think that sort of advice comes from the era of traditional publishing when the people giving the advice may not have had altruistic motives but were instead keen on reducing the competition. But that advice continues on, as writers pass it along to younger writers, not necessarily because they are also trying to cut out competitors but merely because it was advice they heard and they have come to believe it and propagate it for the next generation.

And that is a shame because writers tend to be a sensitive lot and there may be some younger writers that get discouraged by such advice and stop writing. And then we never see anything from them with regard to books and stories. Meanwhile, there are some older writers that would probably be doing reading society a favor by switching careers and flipping burgers at a fast food joint.

Things go both ways sometimes.


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## ThePete (Oct 10, 2013)

I'm 31. Began writing the day I turned 30 when I realized my life was already a quarter over with. Time to quit procrastinating!


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## nikkarina (Jan 15, 2013)

Dan C. Rinnert said:


> Practice, yes, but maturity need not come from the passing of years which is too often the implication.
> 
> It's advice I've seen for many years--that people should "wait" to become writers until they have more "experience" or "maturity" or whatever. And that sort of advice does quiet too many voices because they stop practicing because why should they practice when they need to wait for more experience and the passing of years?
> 
> ...


 THIS ^^ Maturity isn't measure by years alone. I think I'm as mature as any other 40 or 50 year old. I have always been mature for my age, and I easily make friends with people who are twice my age because I can relate to them. Where as I find it hard getting along with other 20 year old's. I think its sad that young writers get discouraged by those who say you must have experience to be a good writer. That's ridiculous. You need talent. If you have talent in the art form of writing then it doesn't matter if you are 5 or 55. As long as you can make others see the story that you see in your head- it's all that matters. Just my opinion.


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## EC Sheedy (Feb 24, 2011)

My age? Hm-m. I forget. My short term memory isn't what it used to be. But see that gray hair; it's not from a bottle. 

As a statement of belief: Writing is an ageless art practiced by the ageless. Youth brings it passion and drive. The ancient ones bring it perspective and learned values--which may or may not be interesting to those with passion and drive.

Years ago, someone said the real enemies in life are the calendar, the scale, and the mirror. Get rid of those, you're good to go.


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## Ronny K (Aug 2, 2011)

EC Sheedy said:


> My age? Hm-m. I forget. My short term memory isn't what it used to be. But see that gray hair; it's not from a bottle.
> 
> As a statement of belief: Writing is an ageless art practiced by the ageless. Youth brings it passion and drive. The ancient ones bring it perspective and learned values--which may or may not be interesting to those with passion and drive.
> 
> Years ago, someone said the real enemies in life are the calendar, the scale, and the mirror. Get rid of those, you're good to go.


This might go on my wall. <3


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## Evan of the R. (Oct 15, 2013)

I'm 41.

Happy birthday, Elle.


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## Redacted1111 (Oct 26, 2013)

I'm so youthful, all the twenty year old boys want to hang out with me.


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## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

EC Sheedy said:


> My age? Hm-m. I forget. My short term memory isn't what it used to be. But see that gray hair; it's not from a bottle.
> 
> As a statement of belief: Writing is an ageless art practiced by the ageless. Youth brings it passion and drive. The ancient ones bring it perspective and learned values--which may or may not be interesting to those with passion and drive.
> 
> Years ago, someone said the real enemies in life are the calendar, the scale, and the mirror. Get rid of those, you're good to go.


*Applause*


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## Redacted1111 (Oct 26, 2013)

EC Sheedy said:


> Years ago, someone said the real enemies in life are the calendar, the scale, and the mirror. Get rid of those, you're good to go.


I read about this scientific study where a group of middle aged men were put into a simulated environment for a week or so and told to act as if they were twenty years old again. At the end of the study, they had measurably higher levels of things like "drive and passion" and were actually taller and thinner than when the study began. I wish I had a link to that because the results sound fantastical.

Edit: Found a link to this study so I don't sound like a BSer. http://scholar.harvard.edu/langer/publications/counterclockwise-mindful-health-and-power-possibility


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## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

CB Edwards said:


> 43.


Me too. Can't speak for my mental age, though. I just acquired one of these and am significantly more delighted with it than my four-year-olds are.


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Baby Boomer here. A child of the sixties


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## ♨ (Jan 9, 2012)

Annabelle said:


> I read about this scientific study where a group of middle aged men were put into a simulated environment for a week or so and told to act as if they were twenty years old again. At the end of the study, they had measurably higher levels of things like "drive and passion" and were actually taller and thinner than when the study began. I wish I had a link to that because the results sound fantastical.
> 
> Edit: Found a link to this study so I don't sound like a BSer. http://scholar.harvard.edu/langer/publications/counterclockwise-mindful-health-and-power-possibility


It's also available for Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0028M9EZK/


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## LeahEmmaRose (Mar 16, 2014)

I am 41. I have only had some magazine articles published. I am currently learning and practicing on the fiction side of writing. I have a long way to go!


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## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

Here's what John Scalzi wrote today about his age and where he is today.

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2014/05/10/45-2/#comments

"not afraid" - I like that as a life summation.


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## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

Annabelle said:


> I'm so youthful, all the twenty year old boys want to hang out with me.


Me too. For, you know, cake.


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## LanelleH (Jul 4, 2013)

Just turned 22 a few weeks ago, April 29th, nothing published yet but I'm working on it.   The first real novel I ever wrote was in the sixth grade, since then I've written dozens of stories, some are posted online while others are kept away in notebooks, thank god because they were HORRIBLE.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

I just turned thirty, though every time I try to claim I'm now old, I get lots of eye rolling from others I know. So maybe not quite there yet.


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## Ronny K (Aug 2, 2011)

Rosalind James said:


> Me too. For, you know, cake.


CAKE?


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## Writerly Writer (Jul 19, 2012)

Just turned 29. Started writing at 25. How you process information definitely changes as you get older, however, imagination can compensate for so much in fiction writing.


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## Scott Pixello (May 4, 2013)

A couple of further thoughts- are certain genres easier to write at certain ages? Not just in terms of life experience but for example, are fast-paced narratives easier to generate as a younger writer?
I don't think age precludes anyone from inspiration but people learn the craft of writing at different paces and appreciate the amount of time and effort at different points in their lives.
Worth remembering too that even if it may be true that some people drift towards political conservatism as they age (according to surveys- can we always trust them?), I would say many writers don't fit this pattern. If there's one thing that binds us together it's a strength of will (often to the point of bloody-mindedness). To put mountains of words together out of nothing is proof of a certain kind of crazy. Most writers don't tend, in my experience, to be conservative folk.
Last point- it is these older, so-called conservative folk who are leaving sometimes secure jobs/careers and making the leap of faith into full-time writing. That takes guts and dare I say it, edge.


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## Rick Soper (May 2, 2014)

I tell myself a very youthful 47, but my knees argue that point every time I go to the gym...


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## Ty Johnston (Jun 19, 2009)

45 next month.

Geez, I can remember when 25 sounded old. And now I feel like anyone younger than 40 is a pup.


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## ElleChambers (Nov 5, 2013)

The Other Evan said:


> I'm 41.
> 
> Happy birthday, Elle.


Thanks!


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## tknite (Feb 18, 2014)

22.

I published Echoes the day after my 22nd birthday. As a gift to myself.


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## Going Incognito (Oct 13, 2013)

tknite said:


> 22.
> 
> I published Echoes the day after my 22nd birthday. As a gift to myself.


I got my first tattoo on my 30th, as a gift to myself. Sigh, I wish I could return it. But I love the two I got later.

Happy Birthday, Elle! How was the chocolate?


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## AndreSanThomas (Jan 31, 2012)

I just hit 50.


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## Debbie Bennett (Mar 25, 2011)

Crossing the half-decades are the worst. Moving up from the [35-44] age bracket on forms to the [45-54] check box!


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## sstroble (Dec 16, 2013)

Flopstick said:


> 39. I thank God daily that ebooks weren't around when I started writing. I dread to think of the total bumwash I would have inflicted on an undeserving world if they were.


Your reply got me to thinking that it's a good thing that my first six stories never made it to print.


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

Dan C. Rinnert said:


> Practice, yes, but maturity need not come from the passing of years which is too often the implication.
> 
> It's advice I've seen for many years--that people should "wait" to become writers until they have more "experience" or "maturity" or whatever. And that sort of advice does quiet too many voices because they stop practicing because why should they practice when they need to wait for more experience and the passing of years?
> 
> ...


I agree with all of this.

Another consideration: the earlier you start, the longer you have. If you start publishing in your late twenties, you can do it for the next 40-50 years.


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## Sapphire (Apr 24, 2012)

EC Sheedy said:


> My age? Hm-m. I forget. My short term memory isn't what it used to be. But see that gray hair; it's not from a bottle.
> 
> As a statement of belief: Writing is an ageless art practiced by the ageless. Youth brings it passion and drive. The ancient ones bring it perspective and learned values--which may or may not be interesting to those with passion and drive.
> 
> Years ago, someone said the real enemies in life are the calendar, the scale, and the mirror. Get rid of those, you're good to go.


THIS is the prize winner. EC, I intend to quote you often. I hope that's all right with you.


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## 41413 (Apr 4, 2011)

I recently turned 26. I published my first book just after my 23rd birthday.

I think most folks who write seriously at my age have been doing it their whole lives, though. Except for Terah. But she's kind of a unique special butterfly and everyone should adore her.


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## ecg52 (Apr 29, 2013)

Thank goodness I'm not the oldest one here! I just turned 62 last month. Besides what's in my sig, I write erotica under a pen name and I don't have any problem with that conservative thinking someone mentioned earlier getting in the way of my hot, steamy scenes.


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## Maia Sepp Ross (May 10, 2013)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> But people get more conservative as they get older, too. So you risk losing a lot of that edge.


I really disagree with this, I haven't seen this at all in myself or my friends (and since you're only 28, how do you know for sure? 

I've always been very liberal and have become more so over the years. I'm 42. I wrote 2 books in my 30's (took 4 years for 1 and 6 for the second) and I've written 2 in my 40's. I'm the youngest person in my writing group, probably by at least 10 years.

ETA: I ditched a successful career in the tech sector to write full-time when I turned 40. I don't see that as conservative


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

I'm young enough to say stupid things, but old enough to know when I'm wrong. I'm happy to concede on the conservatism thing. It was based on population-wide stats and observations, but it seems that writers are a different breed. I think writers are more likely to be more liberal, in general, and perhaps that increases with age?


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## Daniel Dennis (Mar 3, 2014)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> I'm young enough to say stupid things, but old enough to know when I'm wrong.


That sounds like you're married 



S. Elliot Brandis said:


> I'm happy to concede on the conservatism thing. It was based on population-wide stats and observations, but it seems that writers are a different breed. I think writers are more likely to be more liberal, in general, and perhaps that increases with age?


I'm somewhat libertarian with more conservative leanings than liberal. Most people I know tend to become more conservative with age. But that may have something to do with geography too.

Sent from the back of a white CIA van using Tapatalk. Please help!


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## 69959 (May 14, 2013)

I'm a spring chicken at 37! I started writing chapter stories around nine years old and kept it up through college. Stopped for about ten years and started back up when I heard about the indie revolution. I never had any interest in agents or trad publishing, so this was a dream come true. I'm livin' la vida loca.


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## Ronny K (Aug 2, 2011)

Maybe it's not that the aging process cultivates conservatism but rather that folks born in the early 20th century were raised in a more "conservative" culture. (GENERALLY speaking)


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

Ronny K said:


> Maybe it's not that the aging process cultivates conservatism but rather that folks born in the early 20th century were raised in a more "conservative" culture. (GENERALLY speaking)


There might be some truth in that. I think most people, of any age, would describe themselves as less conservative than their parents. No?


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> There might be some truth in that. I think most people, of any age, would describe themselves as less conservative than their parents. No?


Not in my case. My father was a died in the wool liberal.


----------



## Thisiswhywecan&#039;thavenicethings (May 3, 2013)

51


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## Sylvia R. Frost (Jan 8, 2014)

I'm 23, still an egg, but an egg who and enjoys writing. (And design.) I have no problem with the idea that my work might be derivative, because I'm young and love derivative things. Hell. Things that fit in tropes and follow patterns sell!  I do have a problem with not thinking my prose is the best, but I find myself invigorated by that. Nowhere to go but up baby. And who knows, maybe us young whipper snappers will surprise you! 

Also I think the debate could be reframed. I went to school for classical voice. Opera singers don't reach vocal maturity until they hit 25. Now no one should send a 19 year old to sing Queen of the Night at the Met, but that doesn't mean the 19 year old couldn't be a great singer, perhaps even better than some other 25 year old singers -- just that she'll be EVEN BETTER when she ages a little. Writing and Opera are two blessed blessed arts where you actually have time to build a career and skills and don't have to be ready by the time you turn 25. It's liberating. Really.


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## Dave Dykema (May 18, 2009)

I'm 49, a few months away from the big 5-0.

Yes, I remember _both_ versions of "Hawaii Five-0."


----------



## ricola (Mar 3, 2014)

I considered studying voice, but I was horrified at how SHORT so many vocal careers are!  You reach maturity at 25, and by 45, you're probably past your peak.  

Writing appealed to me because you continue to improve AS LONG AS YOU WORK ON CRAFT (most writers don't, after a point) until you start going crazy.  

There are two ways to become skilled as a writer.  Either write something new, or keep revising what you have.  Both have merits, but I think moving on helps you improve faster.  You can speed up the process somewhat by having an editor in the mix, but "aging" a manuscript is really VERY important, as well.  Things read SO much differently two months later than they do one week later, and that gives you some of the best growth possibility of all.

The hardest things are the ability to see your own weaknesses and the fortitude to attack them--every day.  If you don't work on improving areas of your writing, they just don't get better.  (That's what the REAL study on improvement discovered--it's not just 10,000 hours, it's hours of concentrated work on improving specific areas of performance.)


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## Sylvia R. Frost (Jan 8, 2014)

> I considered studying voice, but I was horrified at how SHORT so many vocal careers are! You reach maturity at 25, and by 45, you're probably past your peak.


Nah, that's when the Wagnerian's are just getting started, but yeah if you're a light lyric by 50 you might run into some trouble. (That said Opera is way better than say acting or even worse musical theater!) But I'm a mezzo and we have time, although my singing career is semi-on-hold at the moment. Got burned out at conservatory. But nah, people's voices really don't start to decay till fifties, and then there's always teaching.


----------



## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

ゴジラ said:


> I recently turned 26. I published my first book just after my 23rd birthday.
> 
> I think most folks who write seriously at my age have been doing it their whole lives, though. Except for Terah. But she's kind of a unique special butterfly and everyone should adore her.


 Unique butterflies together it is. And happy belated birthday.


----------



## Dave Dykema (May 18, 2009)

Sophia Feddersen said:


> But nah, people's voices really don't start to decay till fifties, and then there's always teaching.


No wonder my shower singing is really starting to sound like the pits!


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## Going Incognito (Oct 13, 2013)

Hmmm I wonder if people would pay me more _not_ to sing than they do to write.


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## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

One thing I'm very grateful for. I'm old enough to have the courage to follow my dreams, old enough to understand and accept how much I have yet to learn, and young enough to hope I'll be granted the opportunity to learn it.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Hey, folks---

I've been out and about all day--thanks for keeping it civil but I do want to remind y'all that politics are not discussed here, and the conversation is veering in that direction.  Let's try to keep it on topic, ok?

Betsy


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## ElleChambers (Nov 5, 2013)

Jamie Klaire said:


> I got my first tattoo on my 30th, as a gift to myself. Sigh, I wish I could return it. But I love the two I got later.
> 
> Happy Birthday, Elle! How was the chocolate?


It was so good I ate it all (and a ton of ice cream). I'm going to be sick in the morning.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Happy Birthday, Elle!

Betsy


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## joyceharmon (May 21, 2012)

I'm 60, and like to think I'm a spring chicken. Main problem with getting older isn't that you get more conservative, because you don't. What you DO do, though, is - you start outliving your teeth.


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## lukas dvorak (Mar 18, 2013)

I'm 39. Don't feel that old. Maybe I have kboards to thank for that.


----------



## WG McCabe (Oct 13, 2012)

I'm 42 until September. And I feel every day of that age.


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## Alba Arango author (Dec 29, 2012)

I'm 44.

My characters are all 12.

Not sure what that says about me...


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## ElleChambers (Nov 5, 2013)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Happy Birthday, Elle!
> 
> Betsy


Thanks, Betsy!


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## ricola (Mar 3, 2014)

I wanted light lyric, lol.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Thought this pic that an author friend posted on her FB page was appropriate to this conversation:










Betsy

Sent from my KFTHWI using Tapatalk


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

Betsy, that is great!


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## Rick Soper (May 2, 2014)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Thought this pic that an author friend posted on her FB page was appropriate to this conversation:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Too cool!


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## Lyoung (Oct 21, 2013)

I don't know that my age has much to do with anything, except that my writing has gotten more nuanced. My ideas aren't any more or less risky or daring than when I was younger.

I still have all my WIPs when I was in my teens and early 20s, and the core ideas aren't much different than what I would write now.  Hell, my current WIP is a spin-off of one of my story ideas from 10 years ago...and I'm still going to write that story. It's my precious, but I want to get a bit more writing in before I work on it.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

54.

And I would take issue with the idea that "people get more conservative as they get older."  I started writing when I was in my teens (but only got serious at 21). I got lucky and in with a group of pros very early on and have watched the development of a lot of writers.

While some people do get into a rut as they get older, most artists get more creative as they go.  It takes confidence to take chances, and confidence comes with experience.

The reason young people think older people are less adventurous is because most of the ideas you come up with when you're young are not at all new -- they just sound new to you.  Most older people don't get excited about such ideas because they've tried it.  They want to move on into newer more subtle territory that sometimes the young can't even see.

Of course, all that I said above is relative: creative and talented young people will have burned through more ideas in a few years than your average person will in decades.  So yeah, there are young  people who are FAR advanced over older people -- but generally speaking, when you are young, you are actually not as creative as YOU will be later, even if you are tons more creative than the old coot standing next to you.  (And he, oddly enough, is more creative now than he was -- it's just that he wasn't so creative in the first place.)

No, I don't worry about wonderful ideas being lost because people started late. I regret more the young geniuses who burned out or got discouraged early.  Or those who will never try at all.

Camille


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## DocAggie (Jun 29, 2013)

I can understand why authors would skew toward the older side of the Bell curve.
I'm 38 next month, myself.
I've now been writing for about 7 years, on and off.  For those of us who never jumped into authorship as a primary career, it takes a lot longer to get all the crap writing out.  Besides, a lot of my time before the age of 30 was all about studying:  in college for grades to get into med school, in med school for grades to get into residency, in residency to be able to pass the written and oral exams to become board certified.  It wasn't until I got through all that that I found the time to write.
Then I had to spend a fair amount of time learning the craft of writing in my spare time.  Some might argue I still am!


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Anyone doing a tally of the age range? Seems to me that the average is about 40 years


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> Anyone doing a tally of the age range? Seems to me that the average is about 40 years


Yep, I think you're about right. Good to see that we have a wide range, though.

Questions for the 'vintage' folks:

- How do you think your writing has changed since you were younger?

- What's the most important lesson you've learned along the way?

- If you could offer a single piece of writing advice to your younger self, what would it be?


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## von19 (Feb 20, 2013)

Uh... I think I'm the youngest so far? I just turned 20 two months ago. I suddenly feel very small lol. Maybe I should come back in a decade or two. My writing still screams "noob!" it seems.

When I first started writing and looked / googled into it, a large consensus of authors said the best thing I could do is save EVERYTHING I write. Because many had forgotten what it was like to be a teen and various other reasons. And so I did. And its really nice to see how much I've improved.

Sent from The International Space Station using Tapatalk


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> ...how old are y'all?
> 
> Today, I was part of a panel discussion for a community anthology launch. Everybody in the audience (besides by girlfriend) was older than me. I'm pretty sure that all the authors in the book are, too. Many by a considerable margin.
> 
> But the thing is: I'm no spring chicken. I'm 28.


You're still a pup.

I'm 47.


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## Ceinwen (Feb 25, 2014)

I'm 27, started writing professionally when I was 21 (television) and came back to novels for the first time since high school last year. I write for young adults, which might be a reflection on how young I still am (or feel). I guess we'll see what I'm writing in ten and twenty years!


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> Yep, I think you're about right. Good to see that we have a wide range, though.
> 
> Questions for the 'vintage' folks:
> 
> ...


A quick reply - might come back to it once I've cogitated.

1. _How do you think your writing has changed since you were younger?_ Much improved, and I've developed my own style (several styles, actually) instead of trying to write 'in the style of' a writer I admire. Although I did a formal writing course and read lots of books on the craft of writing there are now far more opportunities on the www to learn from other writers, and however long you've been writing there is always something new to learn. I also feel that having a couple of books trad published has given me confidence

2. _What's the most important lesson you've learned along the way?_ To always be willing to listen to the advice of others. When our work is evaluated our first instincts tend towards being defensive. I've found it's best to put the work aside and think about the criticism before deciding whether it's valid. If more than one person (someone you trust) is saying the same thing then it probably is valid. Learn your craft and don't be impatient to publish.

3. _ If you could offer a single piece of writing advice to your younger self, what would it be? _Long before the Kindle was a twinkle in Amazon's eye a clairvoyant told me that I would have success in a way I wouldn't imagine. I suppose it depends on your definition of 'success' but I have been able to publish all the books that were turned down by trad publishers, and by return of copyright have re-published the ones that were. The e-published ones have been re-edited and in some case re-written to improve them, so looking back I would say that 'all rejections happened for a good reason'.


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## EllisaBarr (Apr 22, 2014)

I'm 40, I wrote professionally for video games for a long time, but didn't have the desire or make the time to write books until I quit working.  I admire people who can work all day and then come home and write.  

Camille - wonderful insights, I agree.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> - If you could offer a single piece of writing advice to your younger self, what would it be?


Self publishing is going to move beyond vanity publishing and become a lucrative option when you're 46. Write and edit a book a year in the meantime and save them up so you will have thirty books to publish when the time comes!

I'd be rich now, I'm tellin' ya!


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## zoe tate (Dec 18, 2013)

daringnovelist said:


> I would take issue with the idea that "people get more conservative as they get older."


I suspect there may be an overall tendency in that direction, partly because there's an overall tendency for people to become more conservative as they become more affluent, and one for people to become more affluent as they age?


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## Bluebonnet (Dec 15, 2013)

zoe tate said:


> I suspect there may be an overall tendency in that direction, partly because there's an overall tendency for people to become more conservative as they become more affluent, and one for people to become more affluent as they age?


More affluent? I wish!


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## Kia Zi Shiru (Feb 7, 2011)

Lydia Young said:


> I don't know that my age has much to do with anything, except that my writing has gotten more nuanced. My ideas aren't any more or less risky or daring than when I was younger.
> 
> I still have all my WIPs when I was in my teens and early 20s, and the core ideas aren't much different than what I would write now. Hell, my current WIP is a spin-off of one of my story ideas from 10 years ago...and I'm still going to write that story. It's my precious, but I want to get a bit more writing in before I work on it.


I see the same thing. I might only be in my mid 20s, but I see a definite theme in my work that I did when I was in my early teens. Much of the work I did then was in Dutch though, so that's definitely never going to see the light of day.
But many of the topics I wrote about then i still write about today.


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## pagegirl (Feb 3, 2014)

32


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## Going Incognito (Oct 13, 2013)

Ceinwen L. said:


> I'm 27, started writing professionally when I was 21 (television) and came back to novels for the first time since high school last year. I write for young adults, which might be a reflection on how young I still am (or feel). I guess we'll see what I'm writing in ten and twenty years!


I like your avatar


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## L. L. Fine (Dec 29, 2013)

42 and dropping


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## Ceinwen (Feb 25, 2014)

Jamie Klaire said:


> I like your avatar


Thanks! My friend drew it for my website header and business cards. Much cuter than the real thing


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## Daniel Dennis (Mar 3, 2014)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Thought this pic that an author friend posted on her FB page was appropriate to this conversation:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yep. Pretty much says it all.

Sent from the back of a white CIA van using Tapatalk. Please help!


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## LBrent (Jul 1, 2013)

SevenDays said:


> Ah, the ignorance and arrogance of youth.


I'm 52. Yup.

I'm always surprised when young women with tongue rings and tattoos see MY tongue ring and tattoo and tell me, "OMG, you're so cool! I hope I'm as cool as you when I'm old!" 

Lol. Young people from every generation think that THEY are cooler than their parents and grandparents, etc.

Funny thing is, the generations before us invented cool. Lol


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## G. M. Washburn (Jan 23, 2014)

In the minority, 20.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> - How do you think your writing has changed since you were younger?


It had gotten more subtle, less commercial and broadened out more. I can't keep up with the ideas. Ironically, I'm going back to the kinds of stories I imagined when I was young, but didn't write because I thought they were too silly/dumb/uncool/etc.



> - What's the most important lesson you've learned along the way?


Don't hide your light under a barrel, and don't let other people tell you what to write.



> - If you could offer a single piece of writing advice to your younger self, what would it be?


Stop worrying. Make as many mistakes as you can. (Failure is not optional - you must do it.) Do what you love.

Camille


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## brendajcarlton (Sep 29, 2012)

Almost sixty, which is probably old enough to stop using the almost.  To the young know-it-alls:  How many people that you loved have you buried?  How many descendants have you watched grow, and thrive or flounder?  How many of your dreams have not survived contact with reality?  How many of your dreams have come true?  You won't know who you really are until you've been forged a bit.  Then you will be ready to write.  At least to write about something besides pairing up, and childish nightmares.  Not that I'm prejudiced or anything.


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## Nope (Jun 25, 2012)

.


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## Crime fighters (Nov 27, 2013)

I turned twenty five this year and my hangover that I'm suffering at this current time is a reminder of that.


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## ricola (Mar 3, 2014)

I'm not so sure that actual suffering makes you a better writer.  I had a very nasty illness in college, and I actually had to revise my first book that described someone else with similar symptoms because many of the subtleties of being so sick for so long are lost on people who haven't gone through that.  The part of her day that she keeps pushed back out of mind had to be brought to the front-and-center for readers.

In a broader sense, I've been through enough trials that I shocked a table full of people who were homeless with what I'd gone through, and several of the ladies said that they simply couldn't imagine dealing with what I had.  I don't think those made me a better writer, either.  Quite the reverse--they crippled my writing for an entire year.

Understanding people, how people think, what they go through, etc., is key.  Living through it?  Thankfully, not so much.  Most great writers didn't have particularly sad or tragic lives for their era.  That's a bit of a 20th century myth, cultivated by people like Fitzgerald, who was a media attention whore, anyway.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

vmblack said:


> Understanding people, how people think, what they go through, etc., is key. Living through it? Thankfully, not so much. Most great writers didn't have particularly sad or tragic lives for their era. That's a bit of a 20th century myth, cultivated by people like Fitzgerald, who was a media attention whore, anyway.


There's a great line in Singin' In The Rain -- when the movie studio announces it is going to switch over from silent to talking pictures, Cosmo, who's job is playing "mood" music on the set, figures he's going to lose his job. He says:

"At last I can start suffering and write that symphony!"

When told that, no, he isn't out of a job -- he will be needed to write music for the new sound department he says:

"At last I can STOP suffering and write that symphony!"

Life is kind of like that. It will throw all sorts of things at you -- ALL of it can be used to help you create your work.

Camille


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## ElleT (Feb 2, 2014)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> ROFL. No, really, my sides hurt. 28? No spring chicken? *starts laughing again* *gasps*
> 
> OK. Sorry. I'm better now.
> 
> ...


That. Funny.


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

A spring chicken is slaughtered at 2-3 months. A regular chicken is slaughtered at 6 months. A typical chicken, left alone, may live to be 8ish.

So, if people were chickens... A spring person is about five, a typical roast would be ten, and most of us would only be good for stewing.

Aaaaaand that is the weirdest post on the forum.


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## ricola (Mar 3, 2014)

But are we broilers, fryers, or roasters?  That's the question.


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## JV (Nov 12, 2013)

I'm 29. My goal was to be "traditionally published" before I was 30. With two books out, I've exceeded my goal twice over. However, as many others have said, I have been working at it for quite a long time. I did a lot of querying and experienced many rejection letters before landing a contract.


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## JaroldWilliams (Jan 9, 2014)

Sixty three going on thirty.


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

Ceinwen L. said:


> Thanks! My friend drew it for my website header and business cards. Much cuter than the real thing


Is your friend Sam Keith? It looks like art from THE MAXX.


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## Sarah M (Apr 6, 2013)

I'm 30-something-ish.

I started writing last spring. I haven't written anything fictional since high school, or held a professional job that required any sort of writing. And I'm a college drop out.

I published my first novel this week. You know, that one you're supposed to trunk and move on from.

I'm basically old enough to know better, but young enough to still do stupid things _just to see what happens._


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## N. Gemini Sasson (Jul 5, 2010)

48 1/2.

But like a lot of people here, I started in my youth. A page here. A paragraph there. 

The great thing about getting older is that it gives you a lot of life experience to draw from. That experience gives you perspective. And that perspective gives you the kind of wisdom you don't get in school.


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## C. Michael Wells (Feb 26, 2014)

I'm an old 28...


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## K&#039;Sennia Visitor (Jan 14, 2014)

Hey, can I play too?

  I will be 31 soonish. I wrote my first story at 9, but looking back pretty much everything I wrote back then was stolen from the books I was reading at the time. By my twenties I graduated to marvelous, somewhat newish story ideas but never wrote any of them. Mid twenties? I decided I wanted to be serious so I wrote my first novelette a chapter a day on my blog. 

  Then I created an epic universe and spent the next ten years thinking about it and talking about it and writing notes about it, occasionally starting a story and stopping. So I guess writing wise I'm still a toddler, and I'm hoping that by 40 I will have changed my ways and have written out all of my most-likely terrible rubbish and will be a real writer. 

  I did take some time for some real life pain/growing though. I know I still have a long way to go though.


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## ricola (Mar 3, 2014)

What does age get you? Well, let's take a reasonably prolific author with a typical kind of trajectory: Shakespeare. Since he self-published everything, the major forces in his work are related to his skills and his perception of the public rather than the demands of a publisher.

http://shakespeare-online.com/keydates/playchron.html

He wrote his first of his 37 plays in 1590 or so and the last in 1612. His first great tragedy wasn't until four years later, his 11th work, and it was marked by less excellence thann his greatest ones. The height of his tragedy writing was in 1604-5, more than halfway through his career. His first great comedy was in 1595, though most would argue that really that work is remarkably inferior to Much Ado About Nothing (159. His greatest histories were in 1597, Henry IV parts 1 and 2, which are really the only ones that can keep a modern audience's attention.

In his later years, his tragedies seem rather phoned in, BUT he pioneered a new genre, a kind of romance, in works like The Tempest and A Winter's Tale, which were revolutionary. (They are called comedies but are nothing like his early ones and aren't, strictly speaking, comedic at all.) These are considered some of his greatest work of all, though some of it is less accessible than his early work. His very, very last works were weak as they were written in failing health.

There may be some frivolity in his earliest works that were absent from his later works, but there's also a demonstration of technical weakness, quite a bit of tediousness, and an overall lack of the level of linguistic mastery he'd acquire later.

Want another? Try Terry Pratchett.  He's got a 30+ year career to evaluate. Again, you see what maturity does for a writer when he continuously seeks improvement.


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## SparrowRed (May 11, 2014)

I was about 14 when I first started taking writing seriously, 16 when I first self-published, 17 when I attracted the attention of my dream agent and signed with her. Now I just turned 18 and recently went on sub to major houses. Honestly, I don't feel like my age has affected my writing journey much. Some people (mostly critique partners and workshop leaders) tried to go easy on me because of my age, and I quickly learned to ignore pretty much everything they said. (I respect those types for being kind, but at the same time, I don't spend time and money on workshops just to get a pat on the back.) Others felt like they had to constantly one-up or belittle me, because my age somehow offended them, and that got annoying very quickly. And then there are the majority of people, who just treat me like every other writer, and those are the types who have become my treasured critique partners and steadfast friends. 

There has never really been a time when my age was a huge advantage or disadvantage. I've never advertised myself as a "young writer", like some have. I'm just a writer, period. So most of my readers either don't know about my age, or just honestly don't care. And that's how I like things. I want people to enjoy my stories because of, well, my stories. Not because I was however-many-years-old when I wrote it. 

Essentially, my age has had little impact on the business aspects of my writing. But the writing itself? That's a different story. As quite a few other people on this thread have said, it's pointless trying to capture the essence of characters' experiences if you have no experiences to draw on yourself. Personally, I've found this to be very true. My characters and their emotional arcs were utter crap until I became really sick. After going through that emotional and physical pain, my writing started to improve. All the sudden I "got" my characters, and stories just flowed more naturally. Despite that, I would never dream of writing a novel with adult characters or a literary plot. I "get" my teenage characters, but I'm still too young to understand most adult minds.

But that's just my personal experience. It seems like every writer matures at their own pace, so I don't think it would make sense to say certain age groups are strictly better/worse than others. It all comes down to the individual writer and their rate of development, both in regards to technical writing skills and their ability to accurately portray characters on an emotional level. Or at least that's how I see things. 

Oh, and one other thing--this business is incredibly brutal, so I can definitely see why a lot of young writers end up getting shoved to the side or bailing. Which is just another reason it makes a lot of sense that most authors are 30+ years old.


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## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

Donna Alam said:


> This I love! Where has this phrase been all my life? I just snorted grey goose but it's not something I'd recommend.


You are clearly not from Idaho. 

(The phrase in question is, "Been rode hard and put away wet," referring to a quote above this post by Joe Nobody-- but generally not used to refer to his, um, gender persuasion.)

My other favorites from my childhood are "close enough for ranch work" and "lower than a smashed snake in a wagon rut."

I plan to use all three in my next book, set in Idaho (where, yeah, I'm from).

Laughing. Surprised it took me this long to read through the thread and see that. Thanks for the reminder, Joe.

[end threadjack]


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## Kristopia (Dec 13, 2013)

vmblack said:


> But are we broilers, fryers, or roasters? That's the question.


I'm a layer. Just sayin'.


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## Kristopia (Dec 13, 2013)

Rosalind James said:


> You are clearly not from Idaho.
> 
> (The phrase in question is, "Been rode hard and put away wet," referring to a quote above this post by Joe Nobody-- but generally not used to refer to his, um, gender persuasion.)
> 
> ...


Love the "rode hard and put away wet" reference - I grew up (til I decided to stop growing up at age 3 in Missouri - we had a lot of those little weird quotes. My favorite, though, belongs to an Amish uncle (yeah, I had Amish relatives that didnt' "shun" my dad for leaving). When referring to a guy he thought was a little nuts, he said, "The pizza's all there, but the cheese done slid off."


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## RArcher (May 10, 2014)

39.


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## Alleycat (May 2, 2014)

I'm 42. I wrote non-fiction (news) professionally for 15+ years but have only been writing fiction (my current interest) for a couple of years.


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## ricola (Mar 3, 2014)

Kristopia said:


> I'm a layer. Just sayin'.


You and me both! LOL


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## Aaron Schultz (Jan 20, 2014)

I'm forty, which is the new... nope, it's still forty.


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## Going Incognito (Oct 13, 2013)

Rosalind James said:


> You are clearly not from Idaho.
> 
> (The phrase in question is, "Been rode hard and put away wet," referring to a quote above this post by Joe Nobody-- but generally not used to refer to his, um, gender persuasion.)
> 
> ...


Yeah I grew up with Joe's quote. There was another one somewhere on this thread that was new to someone too, reminds ya of how regional things can be.

Yours made me think of another we hear a lot, especially around Dallas, where people have a tendency to dress the cowboy part without living the cowboy life, and when they pass by you hear, "Well he's all hat and no cattle."

As far as the cheese on the pizza, we've got, "He's not the sharpest knife in the drawer." "Not the brightest crayon in the box." "A few French fries short of a happy meal." And "His elevator doesn't go all the way to the top."
Bless his heart.


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## Guest (May 12, 2014)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> - If you could offer a single piece of writing advice to your younger self, what would it be?


Writing won't save you. It's what you do, not who you are. Only years of hard work will take you out of the dark place you're in. Writing a story which makes you happy won't save you. Because when the words fail, which they will, you won't have anything left. Still write, but don't think it will rescue you.


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## donnajherren (Mar 7, 2013)

My great-grandmother had a hen who lived to be 12. It was insane. She was the meanest thing I ever met, too. (The chicken, not my Mawmaw, obviously, or she would have stewed that $%@#.)

I'll be 38 in October, and I think the greatest gift my age has given me is the ability to flip the world the middle finger and do what I want.  I couldn't when I was younger.  Tattoos and purple hair?  Yep. I'm THAT soccer mom now.


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## Sapphire (Apr 24, 2012)

Rosalind James said:


> You are clearly not from Idaho.
> 
> (The phrase in question is, "Been rode hard and put away wet," referring to a quote above this post by Joe Nobody-- but generally not used to refer to his, um, gender persuasion.)
> 
> ...


My husband grew up on a farm in southern Iowa and he frequently used (uses) this phrase.


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## Jason Halstead (Mar 18, 2011)

39 here, was published at 34 and went self pub at 36 and never looked back.


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## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

Jamie Klaire said:


> Yeah I grew up with Joe's quote. There was another one somewhere on this thread that was new to someone too, reminds ya of how regional things can be.
> 
> Yours made me think of another we hear a lot, especially around Dallas, where people have a tendency to dress the cowboy part without living the cowboy life, and when they pass by you hear, "Well he's all hat and no cattle."
> 
> ...


I DID use "all hat, no cattle" in a book! Lol! (About a guy who talked a great game but failed to, um, satisfy when it mattered.)


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## RJ Licata (Apr 18, 2014)

Sam Winterwood said:


> 31.
> I wish I took my writing way more seriously years ago.


I'm 32 and I totally agree with you, Sam.


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## Carradee (Aug 21, 2010)

I'm a few days over 27. Started getting paid for my non-fiction writing the week after Christmas in 2005. Goal is to be making steady income or enough to live on from fiction by the time I'm 30.

Unfortunately, my health keeps getting in the way of my write & release plans.


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## Going Incognito (Oct 13, 2013)

Rosalind James said:


> I DID use "all hat, no cattle" in a book! Lol! (About a guy who talked a great game but failed to, um, satisfy when it mattered.)


Lol yep. The ones who have to announce it very rarely have a good follow through. I learned that one young. Some guy would tell how great of a kisser, or whatever, he was and I immediately thought, "Well crap."



Kitten said:


> Writing won't save you. It's what you do, not who you are.


Love this!



donnajherren said:


> My great-grandmother had a hen who lived to be 12. It was insane. She was the meanest thing I ever met, too. (The chicken, not my Mawmaw, obviously, or she would have stewed that $%@#.)
> 
> I'll be 38 in October, and I think the greatest gift my age has given me is the ability to flip the world the middle finger and do what I want. I couldn't when I was younger. Tattoos and purple hair? Yep. I'm THAT soccer mom now.


And this!


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## Bilinda Ní Siodacaín (Jun 16, 2011)

26 (27 in June) and considering all that has happened in my short life, I've already gathered enough life experience to last several lifetimes.


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## Nope (Jun 25, 2012)

.


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## meh (Apr 18, 2013)

I'm 43. I had my first short story published at age 32, so I've been writing for a while. Family did take up my time and delay things. I wish I'd gotten into the self-publishing earlier than I did--I started halfway through 2012.


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## Twizzlers (Feb 6, 2014)

Well I'll be turning 30 in July.


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## WDR (Jan 8, 2014)

SBright said:


> I'm basically old enough to know better, but young enough to still do stupid things _just to see what happens._


Which-by my reckoning-puts you somewhere between 6 and 99.


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## Paul Kohler (Aug 14, 2013)

I'm currently 43, but I "Level-Up" in September. I started writing when I was 28, but didn't take anything too serious until last year. I wish I could have all those years back, but I don;t know if my tone would be the same as it is now. I think I have 'learned' to tell story better with the years of practice.


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## Joseph J Bailey (Jun 28, 2013)

Holding not so firmly at 39.

I started writing at 29.

I hit the publish button at 37.


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## JohnHindmarsh (Jun 3, 2011)

I'm sorry - what was the question?


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## heidi_g (Nov 14, 2013)

Rockin 51! Oh yeah, oh yeah, I'm BAaaaaaaaD 

For me, growing older has been AWESOME. Every decade is better, richer, more layered... more like, wow!!!!!! 

I love life. I love being here on this planet. I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E experience. I try to rein that into my stories... but you know, wild horses... they've a mind and will of their own... so I just hang on, and do my best to enjoy the ride!


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## trublue (Jul 7, 2012)

36 ( and no I don't know how that happened)


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## Mark Finn (Apr 7, 2014)

I'm 44 (but I read at the 48 year old level, so that's good)
I've been writing and getting paid for it since I was in my early 20s. I've been published and self-published on and off since 2001. I've had a minor career that I am now trying to massage into a medium-sized career. Hence my journey into self-publishing this year. 

I don't regret a thing of it. I knew what I wanted to do ever since I was 15 years old.  Over the years, I've written a lot (no, really A LOT) of different things: comics, scripts, radio plays, short stories, reviews, essays, articles, novels (and -las and -lettes) and I've been fortunate to cultivate a small but dedicated group of people who read my stuff and like it. So, for me, it's been worth the work, the journey, and all of the books I've read over the years to be able to entertain and occasionally illuminate other people in this particular fashion.

Hope that's helpful.


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## T.M. Blades (May 1, 2013)

Paul Kohler said:


> I'm currently 43, but I "Level-Up" in September. I started writing when I was 28, but didn't take anything too serious until last year. I wish I could have all those years back, but I don;t know if my tone would be the same as it is now. I think I have 'learned' to tell story better with the years of practice.


I'm 27. From now on I will be leveling up instead of aging. DING! Grats! : D


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## sstroble (Dec 16, 2013)

S. Elliot Brandis said:


> Yep, I think you're about right. Good to see that we have a wide range, though.
> 
> Questions for the 'vintage' folks:
> 
> ...


Answers:
Writing has gotten more complicated, convoluted, contorted, complex, conscientious, and alliterative.

Just because I write it does not mean any one is obligated to read it.

Successful one-person operations occur in about 1 out of 10,000 writers. God gave others talents to be editors, cover designers, and formatters so that writers' end products can be more enjoyable for readers.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

Diana & Lacey said:


> I wish I could live to be 200, but in a fully functional body.


And mind. Let's not forget we need both or what's the point?

Camille


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## Elliott Garber (Apr 8, 2013)

What an enlightening thread! 

I'm 33 and still very much in the early stages of my professional writing career. It's refreshing to see that my fears of starting too late are probably unfounded.


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## Gabriel Beyers (Jan 28, 2011)

I will be 37 in just a couple of weeks. I've always been drawn to writing, but have only been serious (trying to make writing my profession) for around 12 years.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Redacted1111 (Oct 26, 2013)

My daughter is going to be three this week and I finished my first novel the year she was born. She's my little muse. I've written the equivalent of about seven novels since she was born.


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## 41413 (Apr 4, 2011)

donnajherren said:


> I'll be 38 in October, and I think the greatest gift my age has given me is the ability to flip the world the middle finger and do what I want. I couldn't when I was younger. Tattoos and purple hair? Yep. I'm THAT soccer mom now.


You mean the sexy as heck soccer mom? THAT soccer mom?


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## AnnetteL (Jul 14, 2010)

40. I've been writing solidly for 20 years, way before the e-publishing/self-publishing boom. Back when you had to ship actual paper manuscripts in a box through the mail. I learned to type on a typewriter. And it took eight years to get a book published traditionally. Now I'm a hybrid, and I've been publishing a long time. But back in my rejection days (although I'm sure more are in my future; it's the nature of the business), I had people assuring me that author X or Y hadn't published their first big bestseller until they were 65! Yeah, well, they also weren't writing consistently and trying hard since the age of 20 either.


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## Joseph Turkot (Nov 9, 2012)

29. Started writing books around 12. Took me a long time  (about a year and a half ago) to figure out I could take my writing destiny into my own hands through indie publishing.


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## Kj (Jan 17, 2014)

> Took me a long time (about a year and a half ago) to figure out I could take my writing destiny into my own hands through indie publishing.


Same here. It's been almost a year since I realized self-publishing was a viable alternative... and man, do I wish I'd realized THAT five years ago.

I'm 24... but have been writing seriously for over a decade and am well over my first million words/10,000 hours.

One of my favorite things about writing is that, unlike a lot of other artistic fields (dance, singing, etc.), you don't peak young and then have to find a new career. We get to keep doing this as long as our minds will let us. That's pretty darn awesome.


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## Cheryl Douglas (Dec 7, 2011)

I'm 40. Didn't start writing full-time until three years ago. I'm glad I waited. I tried a few different careers prior to that and they turned out to be fodder for my writing.


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## jackiesexton (Dec 17, 2013)

Ember Forest said:


> Same here. It's been almost a year since I realized self-publishing was a viable alternative... and man, do I wish I'd realized THAT five years ago.
> 
> I'm 24... but have been writing seriously for over a decade and am well over my first million words/10,000 hours.
> 
> One of my favorite things about writing is that, unlike a lot of other artistic fields (dance, singing, etc.), you don't peak young and then have to find a new career. We get to keep doing this as long as our minds will let us. That's pretty darn awesome.


23 here, and feel the same way. I have 20 years to look towards my peak, and it feels pretty good


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

Ember Forest said:


> Same here. It's been almost a year since I realized self-publishing was a viable alternative... and man, do I wish I'd realized THAT five years ago.


Yeah, it's pretty great. I wrote my first novel out of love, thinking there would be minimal chance of it actually being publishing... because, that's how the industry works. Or that's what people told me, anyway.

Reading up on self-publishing was a liberating experience.


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## Kia Zi Shiru (Feb 7, 2011)

Ember Forest said:


> One of my favorite things about writing is that, unlike a lot of other artistic fields (dance, singing, etc.), you don't peak young and then have to find a new career. We get to keep doing this as long as our minds will let us. That's pretty darn awesome.


Unless you ruin your hands or eyes, although there are ways to get over that.

Career Starcraft players only have a few years, after which they've lost the feeling in their hands and can no longer play the game because they can't feel if they're clicking. Talking about short careers...
They count their playing in "actions per minute", aka, how many times in a minute they click or press a key on the keyboard and they're not useless clicks either, those clicks do something. Most career Starcraft gamers have an average of over 300 clicks per minute. So 5 clicks per second.
The average word in the English language is also 5 letters long. Technically that would mean they could write 300 words per minute. Imagine how quickly you'd be able to write a book if you could type that fast.
If you think your hands hurt after a day of typing, you can understand why these guys only have a few years to compete.


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## Lloyd MacRae (Nov 18, 2012)

I am 66 years old

...told I make up for it by acting like two 6 years olds 

Didn't start writing until two years ago when I had a heart attack and was stuck in bed for a long time with little to do...so I tried writing a book...still trying


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