Am I not well read enough and to old to write?

RumpleTumbler · Nov 30, 2006

I've been wanting to write most of my adult life and have been putting it off for some 20 years. During this period I also put down books for the most part which disqualifies me from being able to write well according to everything I've read. It keeps nagging me and if I'm going to do it I need to get on with it. I'm 45 and that may be to late a start with my lack of experience. I'm unsure of how to proceed. Should I lock myself away and read for a couple of years and then try to start learning? Any advice greatly appreciated!

Mr. Funktastic · Nov 30, 2006

Just write. You may look back on it in the future and think it's terrible, like I have, but you have to start somewhere. Pick up reading while you're at it, too. Mainly, though, try to write every day. I don't think there's really an age that permits one from writing well, so don't worry about that.

Best of luck to you!

anodyne · Nov 30, 2006

Read the "Learn Writing With Uncle Jim" thread on this here board. I would suggest the undiluted version, though it gets a tidge confusing at times.

Secondly, putting down books doesn't make you a bad writer. It makes you a typical reader. No one can define your tastes for you. Write what you know. Work on the areas you're lacking, build the skill. Writing is both art and trade, and the more you practice perfectly, the better you'll become.

As my father always said as I screeched half-chewed violin music through the house, perfect practice makes perfect. If you practice something wrong, it will always be wrong. Which is why I still can't make a good embouchure. I'm from the school of thought that says you run with what works. If studying the method of the greats works for you, then go through and look with a critical eye at what they did, and how you can acheive the same effect.

The way I look at it is, you're the only one who knows the story you want to tell. So tell it. Get it out of you. If it's not salable, then you write another one.

KiwiChick · Nov 30, 2006

RumpleTumbler said:
I've been wanting to write most of my adult life and have been putting it off for some 20 years. During this period I also put down books for the most part which disqualifies me from being able to write well according to everything I've read. It keeps nagging me and if I'm going to do it I need to get on with it. I'm 45 and that may be to late a start with my lack of experience. I'm unsure of how to proceed. Should I lock myself away and read for a couple of years and then try to start learning? Any advice greatly appreciated!

In my humble opinion, you're never too old to start writing if you're willing to learn. I think a lot of authors with a few more years behind them have more interesting life experience to bring to their work than younger writers anyway. You may not have been writing for the past 20 years, but you have been living.

In terms of whether to read first or start writing now, I pretty much agree with Mr. Funktastic. If you know what sort of book (sorry, I assumed oyu wanted to write a novel, though I'm not sure you said that) you'd like to write, start writing, and read everything you can as you go. If you're not yet certain if you're a mystery kind of person or a sci-fi person or a literary person or whatever, you might need to read a bit first to decide, but there's no reason you couldn't start writing something in the meantime, maybe something shorter than a novel.

Browse AW, check out some books on the craft of writing, read Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, and have fun.

Good luck!
KiwiChick

Birol · Nov 30, 2006

Why do you want to write? Why did you put the books down?

Kate Thornton · Nov 30, 2006

How could you possibly think that is too old to start?

Start reading. Start writing. Take Uncle Jim's free course right here on AW.

I only *wish* I were 45 again (actually, I wish I could *remember* back that far!) I graduated from college at age 47. My first story was published that same year. Go for it. Use your experience and wisdom and do it!

(PS I was 45 when the pic in my avatar was taken. I look a bit older now. Hell, I *am* a bit older now!)

RumpleTumbler · Nov 30, 2006

Birol said:
Why do you want to write?

I'm not sure. I think that it's partially because whenever I'm very moved by something written or on film I think I'd love to be able to do that only more so. I enjoy it. I'm plagued by it, it simply keeps coming to mind.

Birol said:
Why did you put the books down?

I don't know for sure. The last book I picked up (can't recall what it was) I was about 100 pages into it and was just in awe of how this person wrote. I thought in a billion years I couldn't even begin to get close to what she was capable of. Haha...greatness discourages me. I never finished the book.

Birol · Nov 30, 2006

Stop being overawed. Study how they did it. Practice what you study.

MidnightMuse · Nov 30, 2006

You loved it so much, you hated it?

I agree with Birol - find a book you love, and study it. Get over the awe and use it as inspiration. Then find another one and study IT. Then, when you think you can see your own story unfolding in your mind, sit down and write it.

That's the only way you'll know if you can or can't - just do it. And don't let age stop you from doing anything, be it writing or jumping out of perfectly good airplanes

janetbellinger · Nov 30, 2006

Just do it. The writing police won't come over and get you if you do.

JeanneTGC · Nov 30, 2006

The reverse questions are -- what books did you finish and why? Did you like them? Why or why not? You can learn as much from what you don't like as what you do.

But, echoing everyone else, if you want to write, write. There are better ways to go about it, but there's probably only one or two right ways for YOU. I didn't write for YEARS because I bought the big lie that you HAD to outline. I don't. Never did, never will. But it works for me. Practice, try things out, and find out what works for you.

As Dear Abby replied to a letter from a reader (oh, decades ago now) when he complained that he wanted to be a doctor but was too old to start because by the time he graduated he would be 10 years older -- you'll be 10 years older ANYWAY, do what you WANT, live your dream. (He did, and wrote back again once he was in school and again when he graduated and had his own practice.) Better to be writing and learning to write and making progress than just thinking about what might have been.

TrainofThought · Nov 30, 2006

Start writing now. It doesn’t hurt to begin writing down thoughts and ideas. As MM states, use the books as inspiration and remember no one writes the same. Some writers have the talent to create incredible characters while others can describe a scene with such beauty. Writing doesn’t have an age requirement or limitation; the limitation comes from how you treat writing. Go for it and Good Luck.

Sean D. Schaffer · Nov 30, 2006

RumpleTumbler said:
I've been wanting to write most of my adult life and have been putting it off for some 20 years. During this period I also put down books for the most part which disqualifies me from being able to write well according to everything I've read. It keeps nagging me and if I'm going to do it I need to get on with it. I'm 45 and that may be to late a start with my lack of experience. I'm unsure of how to proceed. Should I lock myself away and read for a couple of years and then try to start learning? Any advice greatly appreciated!

First, welcome to the Water Cooler, RumpleTumbler. I hope you find the forums to be useful in your writing.

Second, if you want to write, go for it. Like others have said, if you like the way other people write, study their writing. Don't just give up because you feel inadequate. You will never become what you want to be unless you start doing what you want to do.

Like Uncle Jim always says, every published author was unpublished at one time.

Finally, write what you want to write, not just what you know. If you love a certain subject, research it and show yourself that you can write about it.

I wish you the best with your writing endeavors. Good luck to you.

Amiton · Nov 30, 2006

RumpleTumbler said:
I don't know for sure. The last book I picked up (can't recall what it was) I was about 100 pages into it and was just in awe of how this person wrote. I thought in a billion years I couldn't even begin to get close to what she was capable of. Haha...greatness discourages me. I never finished the book.

I think that's typical. Most people are intimidated by a goal that seems so far removed from their self-image. There is a japanese parable about a child who saw his family murdered by a blindingly fast swordsman, and spent his life training for revenge, but he could never achieve what he saw that night. Years later he found the swordsman again and that blinding speed wasn't nearly as impressive as it had been when he was a child. I'm paraphrasing, of course.

What I'm getting at, though, is that you should do what you can and continue to do it to the best of your ability. You'll get better. As far as your age, writing is one of those wonderful activites that you don't have to be young and in supreme physical condition to be a participant. As long as you can use your imagination and your word processor, you're good to go.

Follow your dreams and set achievable goals. You'll be amazed at what you can do.

Amiton.

aghast · Nov 30, 2006

writing and reading are not mutually exclusively - you can do both, reading can teach you a lot about writing but the only way to really learn is by actually putting words down and letting others read it - is never too late, william dielh started writing at age 53 and he never stopped until his death recently at 81

Haggis · Nov 30, 2006

45? I've got Jockey shorts older than that, Rumple, and I just got my self back into creative writing a little over 4 years ago. Don't let age be a barrier to you. One more thing. I find now that the more I write, the more I want to read. It's all good.

aghast · Nov 30, 2006

some people get published when theyre 15 and some start when theyre 65 but what only matters is that they do write and get published

BruceJ · Nov 30, 2006

Go for it, R-T. Although I'm sure I'm not the oldest of the crowd (I hope...), but I didn't start writing until I was 50 (man, am I that old!?).

Birol does have good questions, though. What made you step away in the first place and why are you back? Not being nosy, those are questions for you to answer yourself. If the answers aren't showstoppers in your mind, they sure won't be for anyone else.

ORION · Nov 30, 2006

I guess I am the devil's advocate here but if you can't finish these books and you haven't actually written anything...how do you know you'd like to write? Is is just that you want to hold a finished book in your hands that you wrote?

Gillhoughly · Nov 30, 2006

Writing is one profession where age is not an issue. A very fine writer I know began at your age. With some editing and beta-readers to help he's sold three novels, all garnering excellent reviews.

Go to the 808 section of the library. Read it.

Get Strunk & White's Elements of Style. Read it.

Write what you would like most to read.

Good luck.

anodyne · Nov 30, 2006

<shrugs> Orion, I think you may be on to something.

Writers write. Wanting to write your entire adult life is not writing. Just sit down, plug away at a keyboard and revise.

RumpleTumbler · Nov 30, 2006

ORION said:
I guess I am the devil's advocate here but if you can't finish these books and you haven't actually written anything...how do you know you'd like to write? Is is just that you want to hold a finished book in your hands that you wrote?

There was only one that I didn't finish. It could have just been my mood at the time and the fact that I was fairly ill with the person who had suggested it. I could analyze it to death but I imagine it was the quality of the writing that dismayed me at the tiime. It's never happened that way before or since. That was just the last and maybe only novel I put down and so I used it as an example. I've toyed with short fiction some and just really enjoyed working through it but I've always wanted to write a book.

I wonder why anyone who hasn't really picked up any fiction in 20 years would think about writing all the time. You would think that if I really was that interested that I would be a ravenous reader. I don't know exactly what happened and I don't know why I'm so compelled to write. I guess to everyone here that's like someone asking my name and I have to look at my drivers license to tell them. Actually in that example I'd have a definitive answer would I? I think the only way to find out is to start and see where it goes.

Birol · Nov 30, 2006

You guys make me feel oh, so young.

Kate Thornton · Nov 30, 2006

Birol said:
You guys make me feel oh, so young.

You *are* oh, so young, ya lil whippersnapper! Cute, too!

arrowqueen · Nov 30, 2006

'Nothing ventured, nothing gained.'

Go for it - and good luck.

Am I not well read enough and to old to write?

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