I wrote my first fiction when I was around 55.
I’m an inveterate reader, so I had a good sense of what a story looked like, but I’d never written fiction before. I’ve now published seven fantasy novels with small presses. As I think about my journey to becoming a writer, three pieces of advice come to mind:
Here’s what I mean by each.
I’ll start with a confession that’s slightly embarrassing: The first fiction I wrote was Lord of the Rings fanfiction. Peter Jackson’s first movie had come out, and I was entranced. I was searching online for news about the second movie and unexpectedly found thousands of stories about the LOTR characters written by fans who loved them so much they’d written their own stories about them.
Eventually, I wrote one too.
When the moment to post my story came, I was terrified. I was a fraud! Why would anyone want to read something I wrote? (This is known as imposter syndrome and I’m sorry to say that if you take up writing it will likely stick with you forever.)
But then I looked at a couple of stories written by twelve year olds who were eager to share their mutual love of these books with their friends. And I decided, if they could be brave enough to post their stories, so could I.
To write and share stories, you have to be brave.
If you want to take up writing, you have to be willing to be bad. When I look back on that first story, I cringe. It’s bad. Actually, the characters and story arc are promising, but the writing is bad.
Mostly, I tell rather than show.
Nobody is born knowing how to write a short story or a novel. Writing is like anything else. When you take up something new, you’re likely to be bad at it for a while. As adults, we’re used to being competent. We don’t like being bad, so we stop trying new things
But it’s okay to be bad. You have to be bad before you can be good. Think of it as having space to learn. And when you look back on a story, the way I look back at that first fanfic, rejoice when you notice that it’s bad.
That means you’re learning.
Do you want to publish or just share with friends? Are you willing to do the work of self-publishing? Or the different kind of work involved in getting an agent and submitting to big presses? Or would working with a small press make you happy?
(I can’t agree with this more. I see so many amazing writers burn out because they start writing against their purpose. Not everything needs to be monetised or even shared. – Editor)
At first, I went through the difficult process of getting an agent. While she couldn’t immediately convince a big press to take one of my books, she reassured me that if I kept trying, the odds were good. But that kind of publishing is very slow, and I eventually decided that I didn’t need a big press contract to be happy. What I, personally, needed was to have my books out in the world for people to read.
If I’d been younger, or meant to make writing my career, I might have made a different decision. But I’d already had a career. I was closing in on 60 and didn’t have forever. So, I reluctantly parted with my agent and started submitting to small presses. That was what worked for me. If you take up writing, you will eventually have to decide what works to make you happy.
So go on out there and be brave and bad. When you figure out what makes you happy, do that.
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