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/lit/ - Literature

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6299492 No.6299492 [Reply] [Original]

Is it too late to start writing at 19?

>> No.6299496

>>6299492
Yes, but you seem capable of writing, unless someone else posted that for you.

>> No.6299505

nope, you fucked up big time
unless you start writing at 11 or so, you're fucked

>> No.6299515

>>6299496
Someone else posted that for me.

I pay five bucks a day to a niggerian o make shit threads on this board.

>> No.6299526
File: 107 KB, 700x700, Frederick-Douglass.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6299526

>>6299492

>obligatory Frederick Douglass post.

Escaped slavery at 20, taught himself to read and write, became an influential writer and orator.

>> No.6299571

>>6299505

>11

I'd argue around 8 or so, maybe 6 if you're precocious.

Sorry OP, your literary hopes are objectively impossible.

>> No.6299592

>>6299492
if you can operate a writing utensil or hire a scribe and have something to share (comedy, philosophy whatever) then you can be a writer

>> No.6299598

>>6299526
he looks like the django guy lmao

>> No.6299614

>>6299492
Well there are two ways of writing good shit:

1) Being an inborn genius
2) Simply getting there by sheer force of study and practice

If you start at 19, 2) is going to be much more dfifficult. But who knows. Maybe you're a genius.

>> No.6299731

>>6299614
Please be trolling.

>hurr very smert people dont need to work hard at all, they just create brilliant shit out of nothing!

Is this legitimately how the mediocrity think?

>> No.6299758

>>6299571
Fuck that shit. If you weren't writing basic short stories in Crayon the moment your parents put them in your hands, there is no hope.

>> No.6299762

The best time to start writing is AFTER you actually have something to say. Most six year olds do not actually have anyything to say, so it's unreasonable to expect you to start that early. If nothing really important happened in your life until 19 (that is to say, you had a perfect/sheltered childhood), then starting at 19 is fine.

>> No.6299808

I thought you could just start writing whenever. What's this all about?

>> No.6300010

didnt cervantes write don quixote when he was 56 or so
yeah he wrote some stuff before but lmaoooooooo

>> No.6300016

19 probably to young to start writing TBH

you can practice but anything you write will most likely be shit till your mid 20's

>> No.6300020

it's never too late, op

>> No.6300044

>>6300020
It's never too late for now.

>> No.6300131

>>6299492

Of course not! Give it a go, OP. Don't listen to what anyone else says ITT if they're trying to discourage you, you either have it or you don't, and if you don't you can always work on it.

>> No.6300156

>>6299492
Honestly dude, go ahead and start. You don't have shit to say yet anyway.

>> No.6300180

>>6300131

This, it's to most aspiring writers advantages to get you to give up now rather than become competition later.

>> No.6300191

>>6299492

I suppose that while Faulkner really started hammering down around 18/19, he had started writing poetry earlier in life -- except that even his adult poetry wasn't really that great, so his early poetry was probably basically just complete copycat stuff.

>> No.6300193
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6300193

>>6300044

>> No.6300201

>>6299492
I started writing at like 6

>> No.6300348

>>6299731
>the mediocrity
Obviously not, since that's pretty clearly you.

>> No.6300495

>>6299762
this guy is correct, you can start making words pretty at any time, you just have to try

>> No.6300503

>>6300201
i started at 5 goml

>> No.6300506

>>6299492
There is no ideal age to start, it all depends on your creative ambitions, as well as any ulterior motives you may have.

Racing to get published, which I assume is the purpose of your anxious question, is a sure way to never fulfill your wishes as a writer.

>> No.6300627

I think of that Mozart anectode, where some guy asks how to write symphonies and Mozart says to start with ballads. The dude says "but you started with symphonies when you were 10 years old!" and Mozart replies "yes but I didn't have to ask anyone how"

so my point is, it's never too early and it's never too late if you've really got it in you. I don't think you do yet

>> No.6300726

>>6299526
he was taught to read at 12 actually
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass#Life_as_a_slave

>> No.6300738

It is never too late.

>> No.6300748

>>6299492
No, no, 19 is only 7pm, that's still early.

>> No.6300750

>>6300748

what time is 25? 3 am the next morning?

>> No.6300756
File: 585 KB, 1600x2400, bug pamphlet.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6300756

>>6299492
Asking this is like asking if it's too late to have an opinion, or if it's too late to teach, or tell a story.

It's never too late- I can tell you if you're in it for fame, money, or respect it will be a bumpy road- but you can make it, for you are human, and as such own the capacity of growth and greatness. Get writing, OP.

Pic related, a short story I just put out- I started at 16.

>> No.6300757

>>6300750
No, that would be 1am, dear. #smartarse

>> No.6301052
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6301052

Charles Bukowski didn't write his first short story until he was 24. Leonard Cohen didn't work on his first album until he was 33. You're probably good.

Wait, are we talking "hasn't come up with a serious finished work until now", or "hasn't even developed a lasting interest until now"? If it's the latter, you're fucked.

>> No.6301065

>>6299808
it's a fresh 2015 meme of certified dankisity

>> No.6301096

>>6301052
Guy Fieri makes me irrationally angry. I'm not sure why, it must be something about those signature frosted spikes.

>> No.6301118

>>6299492
Is it too late to start reading at age 19?

>> No.6301127
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6301127

>>6301096

>> No.6301132

>>6299492
Anything that most writers produce before 30 is juvenilia anyway, so it shouldn't matter.

>> No.6301188

nobody cares, take a shot, pussy

>> No.6301205

>>6299492
Lautréamont and La Boétie wrotes their masterpieces at the age of 23 and 18.
Age is no matter, only the maturity.

>> No.6301235

All those faggots ITT.
It doesn't matter when you do, if you make one good piece to be remembered throughout time it was worth it. Most people can write everyday for years and only mediocre material they produce. Don't put pressure on yourself, when you have something to write, do it. If not dont enlarge the queue of mediocrity.

>> No.6301395

>>6299492
see >>6300016

everything you write will probably be some edgy self-insert shit. It's important to read books and to practice but you probably won't accomplish shit before you are in your mid 20s

>> No.6301449

>>6299492
It's unlikely that anybody under mid 20s has enough life experience to write something not shit tier anyway.
Learning how to be a somehow decent writer takes about 5 years, so you should be fine from that viewpoint alone.

>> No.6301695

>>6299496
Raymond Chandler didn't start writing until after a full career as a oil executive, I think he was inhis 40's or 50's.

>> No.6301734

>>6299492
>looking for an excuse not to write
Geeeeeeeeeet
ouuuuuuuuuut

>> No.6301754
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6301754

>every success you ever hear about has been doing their thing since they were 9 or 10
>the only thing I've been doing that long is using the Internet

>> No.6301779

Saramago published his first book when he was 25. And then went 20 years without writing anything and he won a Nobel prize.

However, if you're asking that question, it is probably too late, OP.

>> No.6301786

>>6301754
I've been using the internet since the day I was born, do I get brownie points

>> No.6301805

>>6299731
Not only that, but they think anyone who excel at anything and isn't a genious only got where they are because they started at an incredibly young age, such as OP seems to think. Truth is, lots of millionaires are losers in their thirties who decided to turn their life around and work at it.

The whole childhood master and genious thing is just a rationalization, an excuse for peoples own failure.

>lel, I didn't start drawing before I was 10, so now I won't be a master xD

Pick up a fucking Gotfried Bammes book and start studying. You can litterately go from drawing stick figures to doing Michelangelo copies within three months if you put some effort in and follow real classical academic teachings. Whether you spend the last twenty years drawing animu shit in your room getting praise from classmates means fuck all.

The same goes for writing. Read some fucking books on how to be a writer and copy the style of the old masters.

>> No.6301883

Depends highly on what you want to write, OP.

>> No.6302080

>>6301805
This. Forget all the losers here telling you no. Just start writing. Figure out your goals and go forward.

>> No.6302094

>>6300756
Is it any good?

>> No.6302111
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6302111

it's not even late for hormone replacement therapy, OP, so don't worry about neither.

>> No.6303027

>>6302094
No, but you should see the titles of some of the other tripe that share the list it's on

>> No.6303788
File: 14 KB, 225x346, 41cqe00ZzsL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6303788

This is all you need, OP.

seriously

>> No.6303799

>>6299492
It's too early.

>> No.6304010

i wrote something like 200 pages of kingdom hearts fanfiction when i was in my very early teens. i also wrote a lot of dungeons and dragons adventures in my mid-to-late teens. it was all absolutely dreck but i would say id be a worse writer now if i hadn't gotten the lead out early, so to speak. im 21 and by no means exceptional, but i did recently get published in my uni's lit mag if that counts for anything*

*you probably don't think it does but ive been working up to a point where i feel like what i have to share is worth sharing for a while now

>> No.6304024

I wrote my first book when I was 13, so I don't believe there's an age limit. Granted, I don't think that book was in any way publishable (or probably even readable, for real or cringes). The sooner you start working, and the more practice you get, the better. I'm 21 now and wish I had the time to write that I did, when I was 19.