Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Age is not the issue

I'm a young writer (still in school) and very interested in becoming a published author. I write fiction mainly consisting of fantasy and supernatural. What can I do to help myself get there? Should I look for agents now or wait until I'm older with more experience?


You can help yourself do what writers of any age do - read, read, read and write, write, write. Your age could be a factor if you were attempting to appeal exclusively to readers over the age of 50 - it would then be arguable that you perhaps should wait until you've experienced what it's actually like to be 50. Except maybe you have a great imagination and you know lots of people in their 50s and you're a really good listener ...

Age is not the issue for writers - that is, it's not that you don't know what you're doing just because you're young. It's actually time that is the issue. The older you are, the more time you've had to spend reading, and honing your writing skills, and finding out all you can about writing. If you're 30, you've had more time to leave manuscripts in the bottom drawer and more time to try out different things than you'd have had at 16 or 17. But you shouldn't let that stop you - you should just be aware that, regardless of your talent, you're submitting to agents and publishers alongside writers who have had more time.

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