No, It’s Not Too Late To Write That Novel
I remember clearly the day I started writing my first novel. I was 23 years old, working as a receptionist in Leicester, England, to fund my “backpacking around Europe” odyssey, and bored out of my brain. So, I typed the words “Chapter One” and embarked upon creating a romance novel about Celeste, who was fond of “winter-white” suits, and her hero, Dan, a pub owner who drove a slick black ute.
I also remember the day I heard the words, “You’re going to be a published author.” I was a 43-year-old mum who had just written my first children’s novel.
In the 20 years between those two days I had, among other things, returned to Australia, worked in magazines, got married, had two children, began freelance writing, moved to the country, started a top-rating podcast, begun online courses in writing and authored three (unpublished) romance novels and two (unpublished) life lit novels.
As my 40th birthday approached, I was beginning to think I was never, ever going to “make it” as an author. I was never going to see my novel in a bookshop or in a library. I was too old. It was all too late.
Then I had an idea about a story for kids about a race to map the world … and a boy who really didn’t want to go. And so my first series The Mapmaker Chronicles was born and, six years later, my seventh novel The Fire Star (A Maven & Reeve Mystery) was published in September.
One thing I’ve discovered about writing novels is that the older I get, the more I have to say. When you create an entire fictional world, full of three-dimensional characters living life on an epic scale, that really helps!
One of the most beautiful things about writing, whether you do it for your own pleasure or professionally, is that it doesn’t have a shelf-life. For Imbi Neeme, who was 49 when her debut novel The Spill was published in June, this has been a great comfort.
“Until I was about 21, I wanted to be an actor and that really does have a shelf-life,” she says. “Writing always felt like something I could do later. Once I hit my late 30s and early 40s and was writing with small children dangling off me like Christmas baubles, I did regret not writing earlier, when I had more energy and fewer commitments.”
Children’s author Bren MacDibble also experienced her breakthrough moment at 49. “I won the Ampersand Prize for a YA thriller [In The Dark Spaces, written under her pseudonym Cally Black] with Hardie Grant Egmont,” she says. “It didn’t hit the shelves until I was 51 and went on to win three major awards the following year, as did my children’s novel [How To Bee]. I went from obscurity to big awards within a couple of years.”
It’s important to remember, says MacDibble, that you can continue writing for a very long time. “Why do we imagine that writers are young?” she says. “You’re more likely to find writers in their 40s, 50s and 60s than any other age group. I have friends in their 70s who are still delivering great novels to publishers, and no doubt they’ll be doing so in their 80s, too.”
Her fourth novel, Across The Risen Sea was published in August.
Stop making excuses. It’s time to look at the roadblocks you may have put up in your own writing journey – and smash them.
Excuse #1: I don’t have time
Joanna Nell was two weeks shy of her 52nd birthday when her first novel, The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village, was published in 2018. Now, at 54, her third novel, The Great Escape From Woodlands Nursing Home, has hit bookshops across the country and she’s wondering why she didn’t start sooner.
Oh wait, she does know why. As a full-time GP with two children, Nell felt she didn’t have time. “I was a doctor and felt that I’d already had my bite of the cherry,” she says. “It felt almost greedy to want more, and selfish to do something that was purely for me and would take time away from my family.”
For Nell, the answer came in rather unexpected form. “If I hadn’t had an accident that left me lying flat on my back for six weeks, I probably wouldn’t have started writing at all,” she says. “It was only because I had time to jump off life’s crazy hamster wheel that I had a moment of reckoning, an awakening really. I’d always had this nagging feeling I should be writing and, after coming through such a painful ordeal, I decided I couldn’t put it off any longer.”
How to get over it Fortunately, you don't actually need anything as dramatic as a serious accident to banish this excuse – you just need to realise that you will never FIND time to write, you need to MAKE time to write.
If that means getting up early or staying up late so as not to inconvenience anyone else, do it. If it means writing on your commute to work, or in your lunch hour, or in the waiting room at the doctors, do it.
Write your writing time in your diary, in the same way you’d jot down a meeting with a friend. Before you know it, you’ll be meeting up with this particular friend as often as you can.
Excuse #2: I feel like a fraud
Time is one thing, but convincing yourself that locking yourself away in pursuit of a solitary goal is worth it, well, that’s another.
“I felt like a fraud for even daring to assume I could be a writer,” says Nell. “It sounded a little pretentious and totally out of reach. I hadn’t had any formal training, I hadn’t done a literature degree, I wasn’t a journalist.”
Imposter syndrome is one thing, but sometimes our self-confidence is undermined by outside influences as well, as Imbi Neeme discovered.
“I wrote a rather earnest novella in my early 20s and showed it to someone I was in a relationship with – also an aspiring writer,” Neeme remembers. “The first bit of feedback he gave me was that it was unpublishable. Other people had read it and said good things, but I hung everything on that feedback and didn’t write fiction for almost 20 years.”
How to get over it Whether it feels like over-reaching to dream of being an author, or whether you’ve had a bad experience in the past, the key to moving beyond this excuse might be a case of simply getting some help.
Nell completed two online writing courses with the Australian Writers’ Centre, which prompted her to write a series of short stories and attempt a novel. “Despite pitching to a number of agents and publishers, that first manuscript was never published, but by then I could see the bigger picture and it was a case of continuing to work on my craft.”
For Neeme, however, it simply came down to getting started again. “At 36, when my youngest child was four, I started a blog called Not Drowning, Mothering,” says Neeme. “This helped build my confidence and strengthen my writing muscle. Then, when I was in my early 20s, I finally embarked on writing long-form fiction. By then I felt ready for the deep dive that writing a novel requires.”
Excuse #3: I’ve left it too late
Young writers make headlines: how often have you seen a story about “the youngest writer to ever XYZ”?
To make matters worse, some of our most prestigious literary prizes are only open to writers under 35, which can send the message that if you’re older than that, you’re over the hill.
Bren MacDibble certainly thought so. “When I hit 35 and was no longer eligible for any youth categories and prizes, I had a small panic that I'd never get any help or recognition,” she says.
But time and experience changed her mind. “You need to build up writing stamina and tune into what it is you can offer,” says MacDibble. “What’s your unique perspective? Wheels don’t need reinventing.”
For Neeme, the idea of “too late” is something to hide behind. “Writing is a very courageous act and sharing your writing with friends and submitting your writing to publishers or agents requires even more courage.”
So ask yourself this: am I too old to begin, or am I too scared to share?
How to get over it “Start today,” says Nell. “Right now, this minute! Don’t let fear stop you from trying. Be prepared for rejections and above all, be patient. There will be hurdles along the way, but age shouldn’t be one of them.”
Remember what we said about writing not having a shelf-life? That means it’s never too late to begin.
Allison Tait (A. L. Tait) is the author of seven stories for middle-grade readers. Her latest novel is The Fire Star (A Maven & Reeve Mystery). She is also the co-host of the podcast So You Want To Be A Writer and co-founder of the Your Kid’s Next Read and Your Own Next Read Facebook communities. See allisontait.com
Images_ Supplied, Miles Standish