I’ve been chasing my dream of making a full-time living from writing since I was in my early twenties. I explored different ways of getting there. I worked full time and wrote at night. I worked part time and wrote whenever I could. I even wrote non-fiction for clients and my own fiction on the side.
Right now, I’m doing the last one — write part time for clients, part-time for me. I’m still working on getting where I want to be though. I’m not a full-time fiction writer yet.
Last year, I worked my last day at the waitressing job the day before my 50th birthday. I decided to give it everything I have. It’s do or die time.
I’m not alone in chasing this dream in mid-life
And neither are you. Whether your dream is to be a successful novelist or something else, you shouldn’t give up just because you’re half way through your life. There’s so much time left.
Here are 10 authors that didn’t give up:
#1 Toni Morrison: She was 40 years old when her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published. Since then she’s continued writing and won a Pulitzer Prize and a Nobel Prize. I’ll bet she’s glad she didn’t give up!
#2 Henry Miller: He didn’t publish his first book until he was 44 years old. Tropic of Cancer was almost immediately banned but it came back in the 60s during the sexual revolution.
#3 Marcel Proust: It wasn’t until after he had turned 43, that his series, In Search of Lost Time, was published in seven parts. It was later translated as In Remembrance of Things Past.
#4 Mark Twain: The Innocents Abroad was published when he was 41 years old. It became a best seller right away. Just think, if he had given up, classics like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn wouldn’t even exist!
#5 Raymond Chandler: At 51 years of age, he had his first book, The Big Sleep, published. He went on to become a famous author of pulp fiction.
#6 Richard Adams: Can you imagine life without the beloved children’s classic, Watership Down? If he had given up earlier, the book wouldn’t have been published when he was 52.
#7 J. R. R. Tolkien: He was 45 before his first book was put into print. Can you imagine a life without hobbits and Gandalf? The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy are not only classic fantasy books but they are massive blockbuster movies, too.
#8 Annie Proulx: At 57 her first novel, Postcards, was published and she won the Faulkner Award for it. Later she went on to write a short story that was adapted for film and become one of the biggest movies featuring LGBTQ+ characters. Ever heard of a little movie called Brokeback Mountain?
#9 Laura Ingalls Wilder: I don’t know about you, but the Little House on the Prairie books were a huge part of my childhood. I read every book — several times. I played a game based on the books with my friends. I watched the television series. And none of it would have existed if Wilder hadn’t dared to dream that her writing could be published and become so big when she was 65 years old!
#10 Frank McCourt: At 66 years of age, Angela’s Ashes was published and knocked the literary world on its buttocks. He won both a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Critics Circle Award for the story based on his life.
Thinking of giving up? Don’t! You never know when the book that is going to make your famous is going to pour from your fingertips.
