/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.13314481]

How old is too old to become a writer? Is 30 the cutoff? 35?
Also, please list writers who started when they were boomers.

[Anonymous No.13314495]

My old language teacher told me once that you need to live at least 40 years to say something with actual meaning.

[Anonymous No.13314505]

>>13314481
Writing and publishing are different things. You have to start writing young. All the greats started young. Publising's another matter.
>>13314495
He clearly value "meaning" more than aesthetics.

[Anonymous No.13314509]

Let us say you are 30.

You take 10 years to learn the basics of writing and to aquire a knowledge of world literature.
In the end you are 40.

Let’s say you take the next 10 years to write something like War and Peace.

You will have created one of the greatest novels of all time by the time you are 50.

Let’s say you can still write up to the age of 80: you will have more 30 years to write smaller works and increase your name.

It’s hard to say when it’s too late. If you start learning at 30 but got hit by a bus at 31 then 30 is too late. If you start writing at 80 but remain sane and healthy up to 100, you might create a great work even if you start that late.

[Anonymous No.13314514]

>>13314509
Interesting perspective. I like it.

[Anonymous No.13314518]

Ever think you just wanted to be a writer because you liked the image rather than actually having something you want to tell the world?

[Anonymous No.13314520]

>>13314481
>You have to start writing young
All you need to know is your genre well, that's it.

[Anonymous No.13314523]

>>13314518
No. I love the act of writing, but I don’t have time or energy to give it what it deserves. I made bad choices early, and the consequences of those mistakes oppress me ceaselessly.

[Anonymous No.13314524]

Edith Hamilton was in her 60s when she published her first book

[Anonymous No.13314530]

>>13314481
these days i suppose 30 is young (to have an actual good novel published).
kingsley amis published his first novel when he was 32 and he was considered a 'young man' (angry young man movement). he said he was a very bad and unpromising writer until the age of 25.

>>13314495
bizarre

[Anonymous No.13314532]

Dickens was 26 when he wrote Pickwick Papers, so if you’re a genius I guess you can go ahead and get started.

[Anonymous No.13314538]

>>13314518
lots of good writers wanted to be writers for that reason tho

[Anonymous No.13314545]

You're never too old to become a writer because people aren't just creative from the get-go and it's creativity that has an impact in your writing. The only thing that can happen as you grow older though is that your learn to polish some of your own consciousness to the point where you realize you were actually creative. This sense of creativity should be the deciding factor in whether or not you want to become a writer.

[Anonymous No.13314557]

>>13314518

Most writers did what they did because of pure egocentrism and a desire to be respected and admired. And generally what writers tell the world are variations on the same eternal questions: love, death, fear, hope, power, war, peace, lust, hate, etc.

[Anonymous No.13314568]

>>13314481
Retarded question

[Anonymous No.13314575]

>>13314568
/thread

[Anonymous No.13314612]

>>13314532
Didnt he not even go to school either?

[Anonymous No.13314669]

>>13314481
Di Lampedusa kind of (he didn't even get to properly finish his only major novel before dying of age)

[Anonymous No.13314769]

>>13314568
Care to elaborate, Monsieur?

[Anonymous No.13314774]

>>13314481
It doesn't matter. I don't where this meme comes from.

[Anonymous No.13314785]

>>13314774
It comes from the fact that every “great” writer started going.

[Anonymous No.13314805]

>>13314481
One of the few guys who could pull off a mustache. Even if he had glasses with it he wouldn't look bad, and it's not because he's attractive. Ryan Gosling wouldn't be able to pull off that look.

[Anonymous No.13314812]

>>13314805
Brad Pitt is a super human. I cannot believe he exists.

[Anonymous No.13314823]

>>13314785
ok, then kill yourself once you turn 30 because dosto started out young.

[Anonymous No.13314827]

>>13314545
Nice take, also it matches my recent experience somehow. I used to try to write with no idea what to say, to an agonizing degree. In the past few motnhs I've started to realize everything I might want to say was already there in my life, I just didn't give it consideration.

At the pace I'm currently going I might have a decent work strung together by the time I'm 30.

[Anonymous No.13314835]

>>13314805
Goose can perfectly pull of a moustache and glasses.

[Anonymous No.13314838]

>>13314812
Same

[Anonymous No.13314840]

>>13314769
Not that anon but
Patrick O'Brien didn't start Aubrey/Maturin until he was in his mid-50's, and Penelope Fitzgerald didn't start writing at all until around 58. Both had amazing careers

[Anonymous No.13314844]

>>13314805

[Anonymous No.13315048]

>>13314840
I don’t know either of them

[Anonymous No.13315054]

>>13314481
You're not looking to be a fucking fashion model, anon. The only "wall" for writers is fucking dementia; not losing your six-pack.

[Anonymous No.13315082]

>>13315054
Youth is the writer’s equivalent of a six pack, no?

[Anonymous No.13315128]

>>13315082
What does that even mean? Do you want to be a writer to simply have people believe you are one, letting you score pussy before you grow hair on your back?

[Anonymous No.13315140]

>>13315128
Unrelated but do you think Brad Pitt has hair on his back?

[Anonymous No.13315147]

>>13315140
Yeah, unless he waxes his back. Maybe there are some films from recent years in which his back is shown? For empirical evidence.

[Anonymous No.13315261]

>>13314518
At first I only wanted to become a musician because of the cool image. Seven years down the line, I have more band and gig opportunities available than I can reasonably undertake. Imago is a vain drive, sure, but you may suddenly find yourself proficient in a field thanks to it.

[Anonymous No.13315282]

>>13314481
Didn't Laurence Sterne start writing in his 40s?

[Anonymous No.13315307]

>>13315261
Musicians and comedians must have the most based lives. I’m a lawyer, but always wanted to be a comedian, or anything else really. If I wasn’t such a coward piece of shit though I woulda kept doing comedy. Something about working the evening crowd, whether music or comedy, seems magical.

[Anonymous No.13315321]

>>13315282
Yeah, possibly even later

[Anonymous No.13315638]

>>13315307
Just quit and do it

[Anonymous No.13315687]

>>13314509
The problem with this is several fold:
1. 10 years in youth =/= 10 years in old age, things like neuroplasticity, available time, energy, are all variable with age
2. War and Peace was written in a single year, it requires genius to write a great work, hard work alone is not enough
3. Average lifespan is 76-80 for males so the hard cut off is closer to 60

The truth is that you need to have started at age 3, that is, the seeds should have been planted back then and nurtured till the completion of adolescence. Doesn't mean you need to have a perfect environment, plenty of great authors had terrible childhoods, it just means the exposure needs to be early.

[Anonymous No.13315723]

>>13314481
Toni Morrison published her first book at 39.
Haruki Murakami started at 29 and didn't write anything at all before that.

[Anonymous No.13315737]

>>13315723
both suck, though. terrible examples, but I'm sure there's actually good authors who started rather old.

[Anonymous No.13315772]

>>13315737
Well OP it's not like OP asked for literary geniuses. They're both highly successful writers, regardless of one's personal preference.

[Anonymous No.13315794]

>>13315687
>2. War and Peace was written in a single year,

Anon, it took Tolstoy at least 6 years of work.

The earliest recorded references to the work are in a letter from Tolstoy's father-in-law in which he mentions the son-in-law's interest in the year 1812 and the society, the fashion, and the customs of the day. That was 6 or 7 years before the last volume was published.

Tolstoy spent a whole year trying to get the book started, rewriting the opening scenes several times. In addition he had to read a small library of books on Napoleon, Alexander I, the years 1805 and 1812, as well as various memoirs, books of letters, journals, and so on.

[Anonymous No.13315803]

>>13315687
>2. War and Peace was written in a single year,

Do you know he was talking about the novel by Tolstoy, right?

[Anonymous No.13315815]

>>13314481
A writer I like, Donald Ray Pollock, who writes literary fiction, has been published in some of the best literary journals in the world, Tin House and Granta among others, and had a novel published by Doubleday. He worked at a paper mill his whole life, didn’t go to college until he was 50, and published his first collection of short stories at 54.

[Anonymous No.13315828]

>>13314612
I think he dropped out at 12 to work on a shoe polish factory to support his family. Pretty impressive imo.

[Anonymous No.13315843]

Based japanese poetry granny laughs aloud

[Anonymous No.13315879]

>>13315737
>t. college aged pretentious twat

[Anonymous No.13315894]

>>13315879
YER A TWOT MATE YER FACKING MENTAL INNIT