A few weeks ago a friend of mine who has been writing and doing
it masterfully all her life undertook her first mystery novel. She is incredibly creative and has far
greater skill in the mechanics of writing — where to put a semicolon, for
example — than I could ever hope to have. I remember specifically her catching my phrase
about a “dense population,” when I actually meant “densely populated.” She is only a few years behind me
chronologically, which means she’s not exactly standing in line for a Justin Bieber concert, but she thinks
about the idea of starting a mystery writing career at this time in her life
and wonders, as any of us might, whether it is too late.
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| P.D. James |
I started a bit late in life myself. While I had written to
support myself most of my life, I was 44 before I submitted my first book to a
publisher and 46 when it was published.
That was in 1990. And it was, in
fact, a late start. After briefly
communicating with my friend about the subject of age and writing, I googled
“writers with a late start.” There was a
list of very well known writers who started late, according to the list maker’s
criteria. His idea of “late” meant writers in their upper thirties to
mid-forties. That seemed harsh. It was later than I thought. Any others? I
couldn’t’ find any. I did find Frank
McCourt, who didn’t begin until he was 62.
But, overall, there was little to support the Grandma Moses concept in the writing field.
A few weeks ago, I looked through the October issue of Vanity Fair. The subject of the month’s
Proust Questionnaire interview was Herman
Wouk, the Pulitzer Prize winning author who wrote, among other great works,
The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War and War, Youngblood Hawk as well as War and
Remembrance. He is 97.
His new novel, The Lawgiver,
is due out this year. And in the mystery
genre, there is P.D. James. She is 92.
Death Comes to Pemberley was
published last year to raves. Agatha Christie was writing well into
her eighties. So, if you are sixty now,
you might only have 20 or 30 years to make a name for yourself. There were many other writers who wrote late
into their lives. But, again, few who started after they received their AARP membership
request letters.
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| Herman Wouk |
Even so, I would tell anyone considering that first novel at
midlife or beyond to ignore history. And I would offer these thoughts instead:
The first is, of course: if you want to and have the passion to carry it
through, do it. The second is if you
have spent your whole life dealing in words, communicating as an art or craft
or discipline, you cannot really say you are just beginning when you decide to
write a book. You have years of
practical experience that lends itself to what you only consider to be a new
calling. Third: There is something else
that is vital here. An artist friend of
mine said many years ago that creative people have to fill up their bucket
before they can put brush to canvas or, I contend, pen to paper. This means you need to have experienced or
actively observed life before you have anything to say. What do you know? What have you seen? How have you dealt with
all the challenges that simply living a life give you? Living more years is
actually an advantage, not a disadvantage — unless you want to be a ballet
dancer or a short stop.
When one ages, there may be some loss of mental agility and
certainly energy levels may diminish.
But we have lived long enough to work smarter, observe better and draw
from a wider range of experience. Painters,
writers and musicians have that slight advantage over football players. If it takes us a little longer to construct a
sentence than it did when we were 18, at least we won’t get head butted and
thrown on the ground.
Now would I advise a 60-year-old to quit his or her job to
write that first novel? No. I would echo the advice given to EVERY new
writer, young or old. Unless you’ve
written your fourth or fifth Harry Potter, don’t quit your day job. Of course, I foolishly ignored that advice
several times. But if you can take the
time, however you steal it from every day you can, and have the passion to write
that first novel, do it. Do it now —
before you forget.
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