Just keep swimming

[Juliana]

I was just reading a news story about swimmer Diana Nyad's record-breaking crossing from Cuba to Florida. The 64-year old had 3 messages for the press which could just as well apply to writing, I thought.

These messages were, quoting her when she arrived on the beach in Florida: "we should never, ever give up. Two is, you're never too old to chase your dream. Three is, it looks like a solitary sport, but it is a team."

She had been dreaming about this crossing since she was 8. it took her 35 years and 5 tries to succeed.

To quote Dory from Finding Nemo, "just keep swimming".

 

[Boneman]

And she was promptly arrested for illegal entry, right?

I had read about her before, but it is amazing what you can achieve when you put your mind to it. (Goes back to wip, heartened by story of woman older than him achieving her dream...)

 

[Tecdavid]

Yeah, it's inspiring stuff. What makes a goal hard-going is when you realise success is always further away than it looks. With writing, there's always another scene to revamp, another plot-point to reconsider, another reader's comments to dwell on, or another complete redraft to get started with. The 'To Do' list never seems to get any smaller, but stories like this remind us that there's always time for it to get smaller.

 

[StormSeeker]

I like hearing that your never too old to chase your dream. As it took me a long time in life to get motivated to do the music thing.

 

[Juliana]

I especially like her comment about team work. Everyone needs their support crew; in writing you have friends, family, beta readers, critique groups etc. Hopefully one day agents and editors too!! Takes a lot of people to make it.

 

[Glen]

... you're never too old to chase your dreams

Yay! I once heard someone suggest that if you hadn't published by the time you were forty then you never would. Maybe that's true, but I've still got a few years left to take up long-distance swimming.

 

[mosaix]

I once heard someone suggest that if you hadn't published by the time you were forty then you never would.

Ignore it, Glen. The older you get the more ideas you get. Okay, it may take longer to get down on paper but experiences count for a lot when you're writing fiction.

 

[Boneman]

I didn't start writing until I was over forty, does that exempt me?

 

[Juliana]

I started writing 'for real' last year when I turned 40. I suddenly thought: what am I waiting for?

 

[Coragem]

The older you get the more ideas you get.

The older you get the more immune you are to naive tat. While I often wish I'd started writing ten, fifteen years ago, I'm pretty sure I'd have written a lot of childish stuff that'd be embarrassing me now.

(Although, okay, no doubt what I'm writing now will embarrass the hell out of me in a decade …)

Coragem.

 

[Sunseal]

I like to think that as I get older I will have a lot more time to write as my children won't be hanging off my legs! I will still be writing on my death bed, whether or not I "make it" is irrelevant.

 

[Gumboot]

The older you get the more immune you are to naive tat. While I often wish I'd started writing ten, fifteen years ago, I'm pretty sure I'd have written a lot of childish stuff that'd be embarrassing me now.

As someone who began writing when they were 15, I can confirm that this is the case. The main reason I'm currently on the 8th draft of my WIP is because I had to rewrite it 8 times as I matured and my writing improved from "hideously awful and derivative" through "abysmal and vaguely familiar" and "cringe-inducing but unique" to "actually readable and distinct".