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There are very good reasons why you’re never too old to write, says Adrian Magson
Adrian Magson
We shouldn’t harbour any illusions about young being the best age for a writer. Even though my first ‘success’ was winning a schools writing competition at the age of thirteen I’ve never considered the question seriously. (The prize, incidentally, was a small geometry set – Ihated the subject with a venom.) Give me double English any day.
It took me a few years to sell my first short story for actual money, and many more years to sell my first novel. This encompassed periods when the words simply wouldn’t come when needed, but that happens to us all and can be best viewed as a test of how serious we are about the craft.
The reason for this reflection came about when I heard a lady ask whether she might be considered too old to start writing. I don’t think she felt unable to write – she was simply wondering whether, being beyond ‘the halfway mark’ (her words) and close to wearing a purple hat, she should be contemplating doing something she’d always had a longing to try.