Too Late to Start Writing?

Too Late to Start Writing?

A common piece of advice that authors give is that you should write every day. My own practice is to try to write five days a week. I take weekends off and I try not to worry if something important gets in the way of my weekday efforts.

I write because I love to write. There’s something inside of me that needs to tell stories. Even before I started writing books, I thrived on communication. One of my favourite parts of my work as a veterinarian was explaining to farmers about the problems their animals had.

Doing this well took as much skill as diagnosing a disease or performing a surgery. Through my career, I came to realize that this telling of the story of an animal’s illness was perhaps my greatest strength as a veterinarian. I saw that having an owner understand what was wrong with their animal was very important. There was real value to communicating with my clients.

From very early in my veterinary career I dreamed of writing a book about my work in Newfoundland. The procedures I was involved with, the people I worked with and the landscape around me were all fascinating. I was confident that readers would be interested in hearing the story of my adventures.

A seminal piece of writing advice for me was from Stephen King’s “On Writing”. I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever contemplated any kind of literary endeavour. King says there are two things you need for a good book. You need a good story, and you need to be able to tell it well.

There was never any question in my mind whether I had a good story to tell. The appeal of animal stories from a place as strange and wonderful as Newfoundland is obvious.

The second part of King’s suggestion is where things get tricky. Once we have a good story, how can any writer ever learn to tell it well or have the confidence to think we are up to the task?

I think this is where the advice to write every day comes from. The way to learn how to write is simply to write. Like with any skill, we get better by doing.

So where does that leave a person in middle age or older who decides they would like to become an author?  You must be far behind someone who has been writing steadily since their teens. Surely there is a huge disadvantage to the late starting writer.

I believe that there are some benefits and perhaps even advantages to beginning a writing career later in life. There are other ways to improve your work beyond just putting words on pages. It’s important to read widely and there are books and courses specifically on the craft of writing. Letting others read your work and getting together with other writers can be of immense help. Sometimes age brings on a humility that helps us to listen and ask others for support.

The other advantage of age for a writer is the idea that all writing is about life. In our books we hope to explore the realities and subtleties of existing together on this planet. I sometimes wonder if young writers have lived enough to really understand what life is all about.

Maybe there is value to being a little older when we write. Writing isn’t all about raw talent (though it certainly helps). Being around for a few more years may offer insights that will be helpful.

My own thought is that it’s never too late to begin. The only thing you can really do wrong is to continue saying that you will write someday. Today is the day to start!