A Dash of Words with Loleta Abi Romance Author

The Writer’s Wheel 7/12/2020: Does How You Age Affect Your Writing?

Loleta Abi

There are those who feel that aging affects your writing. Or is it more likely, the way you age affects your writing. Does the quality of your health play a part on what you’re able to do? Or do you think that you can still tell a decent story no matter the age?

Ageing Affects Writing.

I wonder if others feel that you shouldn’t write blank when you’re not that age? That’s just silly imo. Some of the best writers have written middle grade or YA or older no matter their age. Both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien gave us masterpieces. Stephen King has written from YA characters to adult. Nora Roberts consistently turns out bestselling books for readers of any age.

So, you see, I don’t think that it’s age that affects writing so much as what the reader believes. Do they believe that a writer can’t produce quality fiction or non-fiction after they hit a certain age? Or is it that they can’t believe they’d be able to identify with someone a different age than them?

The Way You Age Affects Your Writing.

Your health affects you at any stage of your life. Maybe you have asthma. Sleep apnea. Diabetes. The list goes on. How you take care of yourself is the key. Someone that’s younger can ignore medical advice as well as someone much older. People get depressed. Their hearts broken. Even bones. How we heal is individual to each of us.

I don’t see that someone younger is in better health to write a story than someone older. Each of you struggle with something different. Or perhaps the same but it’s how you handle it that matters. Some can be stubborn. Others judicious about keeping themselves healthy. Your attitude plays an important part in everything.

The Quality of Age.

If you’re like me, you’ve faced hurdles in life. Some good, some bad. We do what we can with what we’re handed. We might not have the energy of a younger person but then again, they don’t have our experiences. Experience is very helpful in writing. It’s what you’ve faced in life. What you failed at. Both have taught you things.

If you’re handicapped, take a look at V.C. Andrews career. She didn’t allow anything to get in the way of her dreams. Now granted, drinking yourself under the table each night or doing hordes of drugs doesn’t help anything. But if you’re really determined to make it through, you will.

Telling a Decent Story, No Matter the Age.

The most important thing is to remember who you are, what you’ve learned. You can trust yourself whether you’re writing a five-year-old to a hundred-and-eight. There are a lot of stretches for a writer. Writing different genres. Different species. Different cultures and religions. After all, no one really knows what it’s like to be an elf or a hobbit, but Tolkien brought both of them and more to life in his writings.

C.S. Lewis didn’t know what it was like to be a lion yet Aslan is one of the most popular children stories. You can write out of your viewpoint. It’s been done over and over. You can write a different gender. A different culture. Even a different color. But pay attention to stereotypes and avoid the offensive ones. If only this writer or that writer was allowed to write from their perspective, no one would be able to explore an identity but one of their exact self. That would be a boring world indeed.