Currently, I'm reading the book For Writers Only, by Sophie Burnham.
I enjoy the book for two reasons, one, half of it is quotes of writers and artists. I love to collect quotes.
The other half is a collection of interesting facts about writers that Sophie collected when she was writing. In the chapter, On Knowing You Are A Writer she names famous writers and the age of their first published novel.
George Bernard Shaw 42. Norman Maclean, author of a river runs through it was in his seventies. Laura Ingalls Wilder was in her sixties. Sophocles wrote Oedipus at Colunnus in his eighties.
I'm always encouraged by these little nuggets from the monumental greats of history. I remember in my twenties thinking I wanted to be a writer, I wrote all the time. But after perusing a writer magazine, I felt myself to be a fake, and too stupid to ever be a writer.
I flung the magazine across the room and later, into the trash. Later, I wrote how miserable I was not knowing what I was supposed to do with my life.
I needed more experiences and to get to the other side of a few dramas I was just trying to forget. Who knew? Even then, I was developing material.
It's not too late to start. Begin today.
2 comments:
Not that it matters, but G.B. Shaw was a professional writer long before he wrote his first play, And "Oedipus AT Colonus" was the second of three plays Sophocles wrote in the Oedipus cycle, and there may have been many written before that - hinted at in other works - now sadly lost.
Thanks for your input. I really appreciate knowing these extra details.
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