Five Authors Who Prove It's Never Too Late To Start Writing
Column by Kimberly Turner	April 29, 2013	17 comments
Some women are badgered mercilessly by biological clocks that tick louder and louder as infertility approaches. "Have a baby," the clock tells them. "Just look how cute that baby is! You need a baby. Now! While you still can." That part of me doesn't exist, but in its place is some sort of literary clock, every bit as annoying in its insistence and ubiquity. "Write the book," it says. "Look at that store full of books. One of those should be yours."
Around my birthday, it turns rather mean spirited. "Another year with no book," it mocks. "If you were going to be a successful author, it would've happened by now. You should probably find some other career path." This literary clock knows how to push my buttons, reminding me that Jonathan Safran Foer wrote Everything Is Illuminated when he was 19. Stephen King published Carrie, 'Salem's Lot, and The Shining before his thirtieth birthday. Dave Eggers was a Pulitzer Prize nominee by the age of 30. Even Elizabeth Wurtzel pulled herself together long enough to write a best-seller by 26.
But when I can get my internal literary clock to hush long enough for me to think logically, I realize that turning 30 without a novel under your belt doesn't mean you'll never see your name on the best-seller list. Neither does turning 40, or 50, or 60, or 70 for that matter. Here's what we need to remember: We are writers. Not Olympic gymnasts. Not runway models. Not strippers. We don't need to cash out at age 20. We've got plenty of time to master our craft, ditch some manuscripts that don't work, get rejected, and start again. We've even got time to build another career that's altogether unrelated to writing, decide that it's not right for us, change direction, and become successful in publishing. As long as we can move our fingers on the keys, we still stand a chance at making our authorial dreams come true. So if you've been questioning whether you've missed the literary boat, stop worrying and start writing. Here are five late-blooming authors to inspire you...
Bram Stoker (1847–1912)
"We learn from failure, not from success." —Bram Stoker in Dracula
Before writing: Even poor Bram's Wikipedia page comes right out of the gate with the fact that, during his lifetime, he was better known for being an actor's personal assistant and manager of London's Lyceum Theatre than a writer, which just goes to show that even if you pen a genre-defining classic, your stint as an Applebee's bartender is still going on your Wikipedia page. The internet misses nothing.
Prior to his PA and theater management days, the author of Dracula got a degree in math, worked in civil service at Dublin Castle for a decade, and wrote some unpaid reviews of plays. Through those reviews, he got hooked up as the assistant to actor Henry Irving, who was, from what I gather, the Tom Cruise of his day—exceptionally famous but batshit crazy. When Stoker asked Irving to give his opinion of Dracula, Irving told him it was "dreadful" and flatly refused to play in the theatrical adaptation.
Turning point: Stoker had dabbled in writing for years—theater reviews, a number of short stories in his late twenties and early thirties, and things like a guide to the duties of clerks of petty sessions in Ireland—and some of it had been published in magazines, but he didn't devote himself to longer works until 1890 when, at the age of 43, he published The Snake's Pass. Heard of it? Probably not. That's because it would be another seven years before Stoker wrote Dracula, the book that became his legacy. The author was 50. He hit a prolific streak at the end of his life, churning out seven more novels before he passed away in 1912 at the age of 64.
Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957)
"There is no great loss without some small gain." ― Laura Ingalls Wilder
Before writing: As a child, Wilder lived in a little house on the prairie. Go figure. Her father moved Laura and her four siblings around the Midwest until she settled into a teaching position in a one-room South Dakotan school house at the age of 16. She went on to help her husband through diphtheria, lose a child, watch her home burn down, get smacked around by drought-induced crop failures and other prairie challenges, and struggle to make her family's settlement profitable. She moved around some more, worked as a seamstress, served meals to railroad workers, became an authority on poultry farming—pretty much conquered everything except for writing.
Turning point: Enduring the kind of hardships that Wilder endured without telling those stories to anyone outside the family would've been downright criminal. After all, if David Hasselhoff and Paris Hilton can sell their stories, certainly the harrowing tales of a family struggling to survive frontier life were worthy of some ink. Fortunately, Laura's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, was a writer who was able to inspire (and probably assist) her mother in writing down the dramatic stories of her youth, first in a column in the Missouri Ruralist, then in the elder Wilder's famous Little House series. Wilder published her first book, Little House In The Book Woods, at the age of 64. The eight-book series has since been translated into forty languages.
William S. Burroughs (1914–1997)
"When you stop growing, you start dying." — William S. Burroughs in Junky
Before writing: Before becoming a voice of the Beat Generation and acclaimed author of eighteen novels and novellas, including Naked Lunch, Burroughs lived a life so absurd, it sounds fictional. He got an English degree from Harvard, and that's the last standard step he took on the path to writerdom. His wealthy parents bankrolled him, which left him with plenty of time to develop a wicked drug habit, pick up boys in Austrian steam baths, drop out of med school, and get arrested several times. He married a Jewish woman in Croatia to help her get to the U.S. He severed the little finger of his left hand at the last knuckle to impress a dude he was crushing on. He enlisted in the army but was discharged because being infantry rather than an officer made him too depressed to carry on. He was an exterminator and waiter in Chicago.
And that was before he became BFFs with fellow Beat Generation writers Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac in NYC. Burroughs and Kerouac were too busy getting fucked up on morphine to bother reporting a murder they knew about, which landed them in a touch of legal trouble. Then Burroughs forged a narcotics prescription, which landed him in more legal trouble. He married Joan Vollmer and had a child with her. They fled to Mexico after police discovered letters about pot that he had written to Allen Ginsberg. South of the border, Burroughs studied Spanish and "Mexican picture writing" (aka How To Draw Chihuahuas In Sombreros 101) for a while before drunkenly shooting his wife dead in an ill-advised game of William Tell. For the record, all games of William Tell are ill-advised. He was charged with manslaughter, but thanks to a combination of bribery and lies, was able to get his sentence suspended. He drifted through South America, like a drug-addled Ponce de Leon, for a few months in search of a drug that supposedly gave its users telepathy.
Turning point: Sadly, it took shooting his wife in the head to get Burroughs focused on writing. He said, "I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan's death, and to a realization of the extent to which this event has motivated and formulated my writing." He began writing Queer while he awaited trial and, once off the hook, moved to Morocco and started writing like mad. He was 39 when he published his first book, Junky, and 45 when Naked Lunch saw its controversial release into the world.
Frank McCourt (1930–2009)
"Keep scribbling! Something will happen." — Frank McCourt
Before writing: When the author of Angela's Ashes was kicked out of school at the age of 13, he turned to theft and odd jobs to help support his single-parent family in the Irish slums. We're guessing nobody saw that kid swiping bread from the local shop as the future Pulitzer Prize winner he was to become. He headed back to the States, where he had been born, when he was 19 and got a job at a New York hotel until he was drafted for the Korean War. McCourt was shipped over to Bavaria to train dogs. Despite his lack of formal education, McCourt was able to use his G.I. Bill and love of words to get into New York University. He was, presumably, one seriously smooth talker to make that happen. He earned a bachelor's and eventually a master's degree then spent most of his life as a teacher.
Turning point: McCourt did not start writing until he'd retired from teaching and did not have his first book, Angela's Ashes, published until 1996. He was 66 years old. Were it not for his second wife—Ellen Frey, who told him he should write down his stories rather than just sharing them down at the pub—McCourt might never have put pen to paper at all. Just in case you never meet your Ellen Frey, let me be the one to say this: Those stories you're telling everybody? Write them down. My job here is done. He went on to win the Pulitzer, National Book Critics Circle Award, and L.A. Times Book Award. Angela's Ashes was made into a movie and the author wrote two more memoirs.
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994)
"My ambition is handicapped by laziness." — Charles Bukowski in Factotum
Before writing: You could assume by reading prolific poet, novelist, and short-story writer Charles Bukowski's work that he didn't have a picture perfect Brady Bunch upbringing. And you'd be right. Born in Germany and raised in the U.S., Bukowski was regularly beaten by his father, mocked by boys for his accent and clothes, and rejected by girls because of his severe acne. The combination was sure to lead to either a prom involving pig's blood and fire, or a ten-year bender. It was the latter. He moved to New York to become a writer and had two stories published in his mid-twenties then hit on a streak of rejections that left him disillusioned with the whole process. Cue ten-year drinking binge. He worked at a pickle factory for a while, married a woman he'd never met, and nearly died from a bleeding ulcer. He eventually settled into a routine and worked at a post office for more than a decade.
Turning point: While working at the post office, Bukowski was able to get some poetry and shorter works published. When small indie publisher Black Sparrow Press offered him a deal in 1969, he quit his day job to devote himself to writing at age 49, saying, "I have one of two choices-—stay in the post office and go crazy ... or stay out here and play at writer and starve. I have decided to starve." He did not, in fact, starve. He had finished his first novel, Post Office, within four weeks of leaving the post office and just kept going from there, eventually publishing thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories, and six novels.
Photo courtesy of the Estate of Charles Bukowski
The New Yorker has a great piece on late bloomers that ponders the difference between taking a while to discover that you have a natural talent and taking a while to develop a talent. It's a pretty inspiring read.
Do any of you guys share my (admittedly unhealthy) habit of comparing yourself to the accomplishments of writers younger than yourself? Do you feel like you should've started writing earlier? Comment away so I don't feel neurotic by myself about this.
Column by Kimberly Turner
Kimberly Turner is an internet entrepreneur, DJ, editor, beekeeper, linguist, traveler, and writer. This either makes her exceptionally well-rounded or slightly crazy; it's hard to say which. She spent a decade as a journalist and magazine editor in Australia and the U.S. and is now working (very, very slowly) on her first novel. She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics and lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband, two cats, ten fish, and roughly 60,000 bees.
Follow @kimber_regator
These Are Your Heroes On Drugs, And They Kind of Suck
5 Famous Authors Who Became Infamous
10 Big-Time Literary Druggies
12 Unpublished Novels We Wish We Could Read
Drunk Dubliners and Other Irish Writers Worth Reading
10 Holiday Gifts Every Book Lover Needs This Year
The 10 Weirdest And Most Wonderful Libraries In The World
Liars, Madmen, Demons and Children: 10 Unforgettable Unreliable Narrators
Ten Unbeatable Holiday Gifts for Book Lovers
LitRock: 9 Odd Stories Behind Book-Inspired Music
Sprebas	from Sweden is reading Frank Herbert - Dune April 29, 2013 - 1:44pm
A very inspiring and interesting text!
Scott Hinderer	from America is reading Art of Fiction by David Lodge April 29, 2013 - 2:24pm
A contemporary writer I would add to this list is Donald Ray Pollock.
Gavin	from Boston, MA is reading This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald April 29, 2013 - 2:38pm
Brilliant article and very encouraging! Great job!
cristina	from Tucson, Arizona is reading The Peripheral by William Gibson April 29, 2013 - 2:58pm
yes, oh yes, I've fallen into that same 'compare and contrast' trap, too. in my head, I realize there's no real deadline, but it still felt great to read about the late bloomers - especially in that new yorker article. thanks for the attitude adjustment!
James Storie	from Alabama is reading The Fireman April 29, 2013 - 4:02pm
I think we all compare ourselves to every writer we read and then tell ourselves that if they did it at such an age then why am I not doing it. We just have to keep on writing and sending it out there. Besides if Snooki can get published with her crap, then I know most of us have a chance at it.
SConley	from Texas is reading Coin Locker Babies April 30, 2013 - 5:36am
I forget who and the quote is probably wrong but some author said not to write a novel until you're at least 40.
Rob Torres	May 9, 2013 - 3:23pm
Gee, a few are just dreadful scum,..maybe there is hope for me after all?
Bad Girls	from Massachusetts is reading The House Girl May 19, 2013 - 8:19am
Sadly, I found this list thoroughly depressing. A bunch of old dead men and one woman from the pioneer days? Age does matter. No need to worry if your in you're in your 30s or maybe even 40s but, if you're a woman and you are in your 50s, or God forbid, 60's it takes a miracle to publish fiction! I'm a published author of a non-fiction book, was a free-lance journalist and completed a novel in my 50's. (It will be published soon by a small press.) However, my sisters, look around at the women who are able to acquire literary agents and become published by the big houses and even some smaller ones; go to the book talks and readings, take a look at the reviews of popular contemporary women authors: they are all, with very few exception, in their 30's and 40's. To publishers, as is true everywhere, authors are as much a product as the books. To be saleable, you must have the background, a platform, and promotability. And I hope you are attractive, it helps just as much as having an attractive book cover. Men do not seem to have the same challenge. Good luck fellow women writers. Do have a sense of urgency!
Kim Dark	July 18, 2014 - 11:01pm
I don't think people have much to say until they've really lived life, lost a lot, struggled a lot. I don't think age matters at all as long as the writer have something really interesting to say. Thanks for the article Kim. I think most people who are successful are just persistent and truly believe in themselves. Also goof to keep spirits up. Its tough on everyone. We just have to keep at it.
Kym Darkly
www.thehorrorinmyheart.com
SConley	from Texas is reading Coin Locker Babies January 8, 2015 - 7:08am
I know this is an older column but this post was offensive and misinformed:
How bitter and judgmental.
jenever	from Portland, Oregon is reading The Boys in the Boat February 25, 2015 - 11:46am
Thank you for wrting this inspiring work. I encountered it during a very low mood cycle about my writing and you turned things around for me. I find it very depressing when I hear of young authors becoming so successful. Stephen King comes to mind.... so young and so inspired. Often criticized for not being a "quality" writer. It is a shame he is thought of so poorly. I find it impressive that he has been in the ranks so long as a bestselling author. However, where would he be if his wife had left him to raise the kids? Where would he be if she had not encouraged him to write Carrie???? He had a good wife, a good lot of talent and even more staying power. However, I do get depressed when I think of his successes and I have yet to obtain mine.
Back to your article.... inspiring and I thank you for it! I will print it and hang it up by my writing desk to encourage me to keep typing!!!!!!!
Karmacoma12	December 8, 2015 - 9:08pm
I signed up for this by typing on my phone. And it took awhile because my thumbs are big and it wAs super annoying. However... I really wanted to reply. I spent hAlf of tonight googling first time careers for woman at 40... And I got a panic attack because I have been writing since I was able to know what my compultion was. What is it? That watches the watcher? I would love to say I experienced a breakdown of ego that made me Zen. Made me feel at peace with the "I don't know mind" but that is not really true. To me, writing is a curse. It is a need of the ego to seek recognition or togetherness from others via perfection of story. But story has no perfection. It is story. It is at best peaceful desire for understanding. And. To put a time line on that. To attempt as many writers do... To control it in some way... Is a product of our grand misunderstanding of each other. And our hopeless desire to rectify it. I think. I would far rather have faith than be a writer... And that has no age restriction... I will feel that way until I die... Regardless of any effect words or stories I may have to tell touch others. I think being a writer is almost to ask for some proof of meaning.. And to scream for it when and if none is found or the opposite... But I wanted to comment here because I am scared. Scared that I risked my comforts for truth and truth can't comfort me. Which sounds depressing but I love to dance. Get over your "self"... I am trying. More money more problems.
Writing has become like any grand dream of a rescue
fantasy. Create a great enough fantasy or write a truth enough reality... But really? What is this accolades shit? Where you trying to go? Writers are always trying to go somewhere that is better in a way... It's the ultimate medium of control freaks. I think, humbly. Please, someone tell me I don't know shit. Lol. I signed up for this.... More than anything what I want is to feel connection via writing... In a world where it seems a lot of the time you are stupid if you see human nature and don't try to use it to benefit yourself. In closing my comment is... If you want to write because you want to be a star... Bless you. And... What do you really have to say? From that place? I like to think of Prince in purple rain when the guy says... No one cares about your music except you. That is he art. And I am agnostic. That is why I write. Because people have some fucked up drama and shit. For real
And if I have to live and survive in other peoples drama... Best believe I am going to keep my voice. Even if it's in a drawer no ons
ever reads.
Seriously though. Can someone please reject the shit out of what I have to say? Please. Lol.
BonSue	from St. Louis, MO, USA is reading Before We Were Yours, Lisa Wingate October 14, 2017 - 4:30pm
I just stumbled across this post and wanted you to know that I enjoyed it so much, I joined this site just so I could comment on it! Unlike some of your other commentors, I didn't find this post depresssing at all, and I enjoyed your wit. I figure if these five people could write great works in later life despite having huge personal and financial issues, then I (who doesn't carry nearly as much baggage) should be able to keep writing until I'm at least a hundred or so. Thanks for the inspiration! ...BonSue
Cam_petrie	from canada-west is reading Writing With Style- Silver Addition- John R Trimble November 9, 2018 - 10:32am
I'm glad the list wasn't all men! I'm 34 and still very new to writing. Great article, Thanks for the encouragement.