Writers who start later in life
Writers who start later in life
Is it ever too late to start writing? With some careers, youth is the best time to start – with more athletic careers, including ballet dancing, it’s pretty much a requirement. Some sports and forms of dance can be taken up later. And so can drawing, painting, music, and writing – even if you never mean to pursue them as a career. But what if you do want to be a professional writer? What happens with writers who start later in life?
While the publishing industry often seems more interested in younger and more photogenic writers, the truth is there are plenty of older writers too. Of course, they may have started out at a younger age. The average book buyer is older and if representation really matters in publishing, then it ought to apply to older readers finding characters like themselves in books too.
Of course, this is not to say that older readers always want to read about older characters.
Just starting out? But are you really just starting?
One thing I’ve noticed about many, many older writers who are starting out is that they say they’ve been writing since childhood. Or they started young and somehow life got in the way.
For women, who may have childrearing and carer duties on top of other demands, it can be especially difficult to make the time to continue writing. Indeed, some women writers feel guilty about the time they take away from parenting or domestic duties to spend time writing.
This can lead to gaps in writing experience. A passion that started early can often be sidelined to make way for more serious responsibilities. Plans to get started on writing again can get delayed indefinitely. Or they can be put off until the children grow up or retirement comes.
But that then leaves some writers looking around at the youth of so many writers on social media, thinking maybe it’s too late. Maybe I’ve missed my chance. Maybe no one will be interested in what I have to write. Maybe it’s too late to make my mark.
There is also the issue of not having a long career if you start too late.
Self-publishing versus traditional publishing
The reality is that it’s not too late and I will list some examples of different writers further down. Sometimes a writer has published earlier in life and then left a long gap before they return to writing. Sometimes a writer’s earlier books didn’t take off so well and the real masterpiece comes much later.
Joan Lindsay was 71 when she wrote her masterpiece, Picnic at Hanging Rock. And she wrote it fast, after a series of dreams.
While Lindsay was dealing with the mainstream or traditional publishing industry, self-publishing is the new game in town. Though by this point – 2025 – it’s far from new. Many working in indie publishing have long established careers by now.
In indie publishing it really doesn’t matter how old you are, or what you look like, or what your background is. You don’t have the publishing industry acting as a gatekeeper.
Working with older writers
As a developmental editor I’ve worked with a number of older writers. Sometimes they have retired and are now dedicating their new free time to their writing dream. That writing dream has often been around for a long time.
One writer I worked with, who must have been in her seventies, was going through old diaries from the 1960s and novelising them. She brought the world of 1960s San Francisco to life, complete with the social movements of the time, the music, and the vibrancy of her long-gone youth. Because she had her own journals, her writing was fresh and youthful.
During the Covid period, when many people were locked down, there was a sudden flurry of writers looking for developmental feedback. I was very busy during this period. Many of the writers I worked with then were starting out, or they’d been writing as a hobby for a while and were now looking to take their writing further. This led to me offering quite a bit of coaching feedback during that period, helping those writers develop their skills further.
Examples of writers who started late
Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are huge classics of the fantasy genre, right? But did you know that Tolkien was 45 when he published The Hobbit? His work is so influential that it’s impossible to imagine what fantasy would look like without his books. Tolkien was an academic, and that experience and background was hugely beneficial to his later career as a writer.
Ian Fleming, who created the iconic James Bond, was 44 when he published the first in the Bond series, Casino Royale. Imagine he’d decided it was too late to become a writer? Not only would publishing and readers be deprived of an iconic series, but Hollywood would have suffered too. Bond triggered a number of espionage films in the 1960s. Even Austin Powers owes his existence to Ian Fleming’s Bond.
Bram Stoker was 43 when he published The Snake’s Path, and 50 when he published the iconic Dracula, which changed the vampire genre forever.
Or how about Watership Down, published when Richard Adams was 53?
Then there’s The Wind in the Willows – published when Kenneth Grahame was 49.
Meanwhile Daniel Defoe was 59 when Robinson Crusoe was published.
Here are some more writers and the ages they were when they started:
Author of the Jack Reacher novels – Lee Child (44)
Tropic of Cancer author – Henry Miller (44)
Raymond Chandler (51)
Black Beauty author – Anna Sewell (57)
Writer of The Shipping News, Brokeback Mountain, and more – Annie Proulx (57)
Mary Wesley (57 for her children’s fiction, and 71 when she published her first adult novel)
Author of Little House on the Prairie – Laura Ingalls Wilder (65)
Angela’s Ashes author – Frank McCourt (66)
What about even older?!
Here is an article about a woman whose first novel, a thriller, was published when she was 93. She had actually written the book three years before and her daughter-in-law found it and convinced her to get it published.
Dorothea Tanning also published her first novel, Chasm: A Weekend, when she was 93.
Here’s Babette Hughes who published her first novel at 91, and had her seventh novel published at age 101. She did have a memoir published earlier, but her prolific nineties is quite shocking!
Are you a writer starting late in life?
If you’re an older writer and you’re looking for feedback on your novel or memoir, feel free to contact me about your manuscript. I have different feedback options, ranging from alpha reads (giving you feedback on an earlier draft), to manuscript critiques (with different price tiers), and full developmental edits. I also offer outline critiques and opening chapters developmental editing packages.
If you want to check to see if we’re a good fit, I offer a free sample edit. I work in adult fiction – science fiction, fantasy, horror, historical, literary, thriller and romance. I have also worked with memoir. I have no experience with children’s fiction.
You can email me at: karen@indiecateditorial.com
Here is my services main page. You can click on most of the buttons and you’ll be taken to the page for each service.
Other useful blog posts
Wondering what the difference is between a manuscript critique and a developmental edit? Go to this post for more information: Developmental edit or manuscript critique?
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