From Medium:
The pressures of life can really catch up with us. As we get older, we know we need to keep working hard to make sure we can pay the bills and make an effort to keep our savings ticking over.
For many of us, that means taking up jobs in professions we might not really be all that passionate about. All that effort elsewhere can take time away from doing the things we really care about. For many of us, that thing is writing.
The purpose of this article is motivational. By showing you the ages a few writers published their first books at, I hope to emphasize that it’s never too late to start writing, and there’s always time to get going — that is, if you are prepared to find the time for yourself.
One — Ernest Hemingway
Let’s start young and get older as we go. Ernest Hemingway was 24 years old when he published his first work. It was a short story and poetry collection entitled Three Short Stories and Ten Poems, published in 1923.
His first full novel, The Sun Also Rises, was published when he was 27 in 1926. For Whom The Bell Tolls wasn’t published until 1940, and it was not until Hemingway was 53 that The Old Man and the Sea was published.
Although Hemingway did publish for the first time at the age of 24, his first real success came in 1926 with The Sun Also Rises. Hemingway’s story goes to show that writing to achieve publication is a process that requires finding a style that sticks through effort, perseverance, and hard work.
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Four — JK Rowling
A writer who nearly every millennial in the world grew up reading, JK Rowling did not publish Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone until she was 32. JK Rowling graduated from the University of Exeter, having studied French and Classics there.
The influence of her classical education on the Harry Potter series is quite clear, when you consider the names of spells such as lumos, which is derived from the Latin word lumen, meaning lamp or light, as well as the fact that Harry and his friends have to get passed a three-headed dog before encountering Lord Voldemort in the first book.
In Greek mythology, the three-headed dog Cerberus guarded the gates of Hades to prevent the dead from leaving the Underworld. JK Rowling’s life can tell us a couple of things about writing. Firstly, that it’s crucial to surround yourself with sources of possible inspiration. And secondly, that it can sometimes take a while to get going. We all know how it turned out.
Link to the rest at Medium