I would like to be a writer but I'm wondering how that will go in midlife. So I'm wondering what @neilhimself.neilgaiman.com's advice would be? Is 48 too late to even think about starting?
On a related note, I was hoping I could get your insight on something.
I haven't finished/published any books. I have, however, self-published several D&D adventure modules. One even won silver in the ENNIE Awards (I also wrote comic reviews until recently).
Is that enough to call myself a writer?
Thank you, Neil, and I mean that sincerely.
The fact that I have unfinished stories and half-written drafts just gathering dust has made me feel like I've failed at being a writer, but if you say that my adventures qualify, then, well, that's pretty dang validating.
On the contrary! Having unfinished stories and half-written drafts lying around means you're definitely *succeeding* at being a writer. (And that's not an attempt to be funny!) It means you're *working* at writing. There's absolutely no more rleiable diagnostic.
... (argh: "reliable...") It sets you apart from—and miles ahead of—the people who never get any further than "I've got a book in me, someday when I have time I'll write it..." ...You're a writer. Now just get busy answering the basic question: "What do I write next?" :)
Would it be gauche to ask for a word of encouragement for a discouraged writer, my spouse, who struggles with ending and finishing her works? That last mile (~1-5k words?) wears on her heavily and she sometimes wonders if she's even a writer. (Four manuscripts in, she can't not be!)
I've got two novels languishing in my hard drive I haven't looked at for months, but I've recently gotten into the habit of writing a very quick poem every single day. I have to remind myself that that isn't failure - it's just a different form of success.
Thank you for this. I started a short story in the 80s with an idea I found challenging. Never finished. Last year, I realized who the characters were and what it was really about. It will be one of my best works.
You have written, yes? In my view, at least, that makes you a writer. And since some of your writing (modules count, just ask the spirit of John M. Ford) has been published, you're a *published* writer. I just write mediocre fanfic about Star Trek Online that only exists in their forums.
I've contemplated putting it on there from time to time, but it seems almost mandatory for AO3 to have some sexual content, and the closest I get is some innuendo with the comms chief and an unnamed Caitian woman on a beach at Risa.
If it makes you feel better, my 3rd Audiobook comes out in 10 days, and my 8th novel comes out in 30 days, and I still have days where I feel like I'm not a real writer, because the words won't get on the paper. If you've published award winning DnD modules, you're doing fine.
Did people read your work and get excited about it?
You're a writer.
Did people pay you money for the work they got excited about?
You're a professional writer.
Do people recommend your work to other people?
You're an author.
Welcome to the Secret Society of Wordslingers!
Right now I feel like I still need to put an asterisk at the end of "award-winning," since it came in second, but we'll see if the adventure I'm working on now makes it into next year's ENNIES.
I'm no Neil, but I think waiting until publication to call yourself a writer is rubbish. You write, you're a writer. You let people read your stuff, you risk rejection, you struggle over a blank page. There are thousands (millions?) of fanfic writers out there earning the title every day!
Incorrect, your family could release your book posthumously
Although, at that point you wouldn't BE an author, you would instead have BEEN an author, but that's just semantics
You joke, but those were the circumstances behind the publication of A Confederacy of Dunces.
His mother approached a publisher who avoided reading it for a while because he didn't wanna have to tell this grieving mother that her son was a bad writer, but then he read it...
That's what they want you to think!
"I came up with this cool idea all by myself. No, it wasn't a ghost taking advantage of its noncorporeal form to plant ideas directly into my brain. Don't be ridiculous. That's impossible." 🤭
It always struck me as a love letter to misanthropes.
Like what if Dostoevsty's Notes From Underground was funny?
Not that NFU doesn't have its moments, but it's not nearly as light hearted. 🤭
