Updated for 2023.
When I lived in Kansas, my husband and I had a flower garden. We planted all kinds of flowers, annuals and perennials. The spring and early summer flowers—tulips, peonies, irises—were lovely, but they didn’t bloom for long.
I loved the garden in August, when the zinnias, black-eyed Susans, and Russian sage were in full force. A thunderstorm didn’t leave them dropping petals or drooping their heads like sulky adolescents. They didn’t care. They were sturdy. They bloomed longer.
I think about those flowers a lot.
When I graduated from an MFA program in creative writing, I felt pretty confident in my talents as a writer. After all, I’d gotten a coveted fellowship to attend the MFA program. I’d published poems in respectable literary magazines, like Ploughshares and North American Review. I had the amazing fortune of getting a fun full-time writing job soon after graduation, and I didn’t have trouble working on my own writing on the side.
But then, nothing really happened with my writing.
I entered poetry book contests and didn’t win. I could still get individual poems published in literary magazines, and that was always satisfying, but it would never really change my life.
I tried to write a novel, and I expected to know how to do it, since I’d read thousands of them. It didn’t work that way at all. It took me years to figure out how to even finish one. It took me even longer to learn some basic things about genre, structure, point of view, clean prose, and so on, so that a novel was actually decent.
It would’ve been reasonable to give up on writing, and a couple of times—once when I took my first job in management, and once when I was working in retail advertising—I tried. I’d wind up going back to it after a year or two, because I loved it.
This would be the time where I would talk about my big break, or my big breakthrough. I didn’t have one! I had a bunch of small breaks, though.
I got my first contract for a novel—with a small, digital-first publisher, but I was thrilled. Then I got another one.
I started understanding who I was for the first time. I wasn’t hip and snarky, though I’d tried to be in the past. I was happiest when I was positive and fearless. This led to a few awesome things: my kidney donation to a stranger, and my own line of cards and gifts that expressed that optimism.
I started this blog and discovered I had both a talent and passion for pulling together resources and help for writers…exactly because writing hadn’t come easily to me. I published a reference book for writers that people liked a lot…and then published another one.
I wrote paranormal romance novels. I started up a publishing house for an entertainment company (and wrote one book and two detailed treatments for movies for them.) After I left that job, I got an agent…and then a 2-book deal with a major publisher.
Maybe none of these things are huge successes, but they meant a lot to me. They all happened after many people would think, “Well, nothing interesting is ever going to happen. I’ve missed my window.” And I believe even better things are ahead.
There are some wonderful benefits to being a late bloomer.
You’re stronger. You can push through frustrations and setbacks, and a disappointment doesn’t lay you low.
You have more experience. You’ve interacted with many more people. You know what it’s like to be young and also what it’s like to be not young. This helps you to get along with others. If you’re a writer, it also helps in creating all kinds of characters, including those who are nothing like you.
You’re not anxious about whether you can live up to the big successes in your past, because hey! You don’t have any! It’s actually freeing. If a person hits it big when they’re young and then can’t attain that same success later, it can really mess them up in the head.
If you haven’t achieved what you want to achieve yet—finishing a novel, getting married, or what have you—you haven’t missed your opportunity. Well, maybe you have for a few select careers, such as being an Olympic gymnast, but for most things, you haven’t. You might just be a late bloomer. And that’s beautiful.
Are your biggest successes still ahead of you? Is age something you think about much when you think about dreams and goals? Share your perspective in the comments! Thanks for reading, and I hope you’re having a good week!
I didn’t start taking my writing seriously until I was in my forties and I didn’t publish my first novel until I was in my fifties. Now in my sixties I’m still writing and loving it. It’s a second career. No, it’s never too late and I don’t intend to retire anytime soon. 🙂
PS I’m loving your 5000 Writing Prompts book.
Anne, it’s great to hear your story, and great to hear that you’re loving writing. It’s definitely never too late! Oh, and I’m so glad you like the book! Thank you!
This is a beautiful post, so uplifting! For a variety of reasons, I’m definitely in the late bloomer category. Sometime ago I recall reading in a writing magazine that many writers don’t achieve their first success until their fifties, some even later. That gave me hope! My dear late mother was also a wonderful example. She didn’t start painting until her seventies (!) and then became a marvelous artist. For most folks, I’d wager, success doesn’t come with one big leap, but in a series of baby steps of accomplishment along the way. It takes time and fortitude to build a writing career, but if writing’s something you love, it’s important to keep at it. If for nothing else, for the love of creating alone. Thank you for the lovely reminder that it’s never too late to bloom. Happy writing!
Ginny! Gosh, I love everything you’ve said here. Your mom sounds amazing. 🙂 I totally agree about the baby steps, and how it takes time and fortitude. Thanks for posting. This is great.
I can tell you a few things about being a late bloomer. I decided early in life that I wanted to be a writer. I wrote a lot, scribbles here and there when I was school age. When college came along, I was told by some of my professors that I should write. I tried, but got frustrated. I realized there was a lot I didn’t know.
Skip through marriage, children, a career, several creative writing classes, to a small university in Lawton, OK. There I found the guidance and encouragement I needed to believe I was a good writer. The young professor who taught short story and novels classes, told me I was a novelist. My classmates always wanted to read more of my work
Skip through several more years of moving with my husband’s job and my own career that blossomed at every new location, then an illness that nearly ended my life. Skip ahead to my husband’s retirement and my healing and my first real concentration on writing a book.
I joined a local writers group and learned the rules and ups and downs of writing. I cowrote an inspirational book about attitude and hope, won a lot of contests at regional conference and was published in various publications. Then I was inspired to write the first novel in a series of four. It’s finished, been through several revisions and has the blessings of my critique group. I’m well into the second while I get the first ready to send out to my beta readers.
I now have grown grandchildren. We’re back home where we started and I’m loving my writers groups here. I’m a late bloomer for sure, but I think that’s a good thing. I can’t imagine writing this series when I was younger. I needed the life experiences I now have to get it right.
What a wonderful story, Bonnie. You give me hope?
Never give up your dream. I have to write whether I get my babies published or not. It’s part of who I am.
Keep going. You’ll get there.
Bonnie, I love hearing about your story. Thanks for sharing it! And I know what you mean…there are some things I couldn’t have possibly written when I was younger!
Thank you, Bryn. I’ve been told that wisdom comes with age. I’m much wiser than when I started trying to write for publication. I know now that I can’t make all my characters happy campers if I want readers to take them seriously. They must be believable if I want them to work.
Life is a learning process that becomes a teaching process. I hope my characters bring a bit of hope to a reader who might be on a slippery slope, or encourage some to reach out to those who are struggling.
I write to being hope.
Beautiful Bonnie. Thanks for inspiring!
Thank you, Jessie
I try.
Here’s to all the late bloomers out there. I didn’t get published until I was close to 60. Now 7 books later and going strong. Timing has a life of its own. A great post Bryn!
Darlene, that is so inspiring. Thanks for sharing!
Bryn, you and your commenters are proof it is not too late for me. Thanks for the encouragement. Gotta go, I have a book to write. ?
Yay, go do it Jo! 🙂 Thanks for reading!
Thank you for this post! I do think that my success are ahead of me. I don’t know if I would call myself a late bloomer because of it. More or less I think of it as I just didn’t have the right support system and lacked a positive direction in my life. I do think about my age in relation to my goals and dreams, but not as a number, more of as a ticking time clock. Since I see a lot of medically and physically complex cases in my day job, my viewpoint is distorted toward the negative. This is not the average persons’ life, but being surrounded by it both helps and hurts my future views.
Hi, friend! That is so interesting…the day job affecting your perception of time. Well, we never know how long we’ve got, but chances are you have a TON of time. 🙂
Thank you for the encouragement. I was teaching for 28 years, bringing up 4 children and writing for myself. But ,I could see a local need for books about where we live. I retired at 57 and I have written 17 books which i have self-published fairly successfully. I am now 82 and have 3 books that I need to work on. I vary from picture books to historical novels and wish i had more time for it all. All the best to the writers who commented above. It is a joy to see others aover 55 getting the desire to write well.
Jane, you’ve done so much…really impressive! I think that’s so inspiring. Thanks for commenting!
2019 03 27 On Being a Late Bloomer
Perfect timing, Bryn! I’ve been a closet-fantasy-writer for more than thirty years. Though I meticulously followed the procedure outlined by my novel writing instructor, my first experience with marketing a book ended in disaster with me literally on the verge of breakdown. I continued to take writing classes, research to hone my skills, and write novels, but I refused to submit myself to the emotional battering of finding a publisher. It was a matter of self-preservation.
Now ten fantasy novels and novellas later I have found a mentor who believed in the very first one and who sees potential in the others I have written. My inner voice is now speaking loud enough to propel me onward to re-brand myself and share my stories with the world.
I don’t know if I am a late bloomer or a bloomer at all. That remains to be seen, but I am now willing to step forward as a fantasy writer. I even let my granddaughters paint dragons on my mailbox.
Jessie, that is a great story (well not the first part, but the rest of it.) I love it. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Bryn. I must not forget that there are so many more options open now than when I first started. It’s a great time to share!
Great post Bryn! I always feel apologetic when people ask me “did you always want to be a writer?” Not really. I think as a kid I loved to write stories, but I never thought about pursuing it seriously. But then it happened. It fell into my lap at a time I desperately needed it and I’m so grateful. Writing has saved my sanity over the past ten years and has brought me a whole circle of friends that mean the world to me. So maybe not a late bloomer, but a phoenix. I’m caught mid-rise, though, because I’m not ready to transition from my life as a teacher fully, but I know writing is my passion and I want to achieve all of my goals.
That is wonderful! And you bring up such a great point…you meet so many amazing people through writing. I’m so glad you came to writing just when you needed it!
Late Bloomer reporting for duty. Well said. Thank you.
Oh thank you, Tina. Thanks for reading!
I hope I can be a late bloomer. I’m still a stalk that just poked through the spring ground and is trying to bud. I learn a lot from you, Bryn!
Hey Diana, all blooms start that way. 🙂 Thanks for the kind words, and thanks for reading!
We’ve got watermelons growing in our greenhouse — well, watermelon vines with plenty of flowers. They should’ve had fruit weeks ago, but it’s all just vines and flowers. I don’t know what the problem is — soil? water? temperature? They look super-healthy…just no fruit. I’m feeling like one of those plants lately — plenty of potential, but nothing’s happening! Hopefully a big watermelon is on the way!! LOL
Hi, Lisa! I bet things are going to come to fruition! And I hope they do in a BIG way. 🙂
Always with the right words, Bryn. <3
Aww, too kind. Thanks for reading!
Great post. I’m working on a novel now about reinvention and romance at a later age. I enjoy your blog and also this blog about “success” when one is older than 21 – https://www.laterbloomer.com/
Age has a tremendous bearing on my thoughts of dreams and goals. You see, I’m too old now to ever complete any dreams I may have had and too old for setting any future goals. Dreams and goals are for the young who have a lifetime ahead of them. But what little I have written was enjoyable and rewarding.
I can relate to what you are saying, Judy, but don’t give up. If your character made that comment about dreams being for the young, how would you move her through her character arc to become someone deeper and better? You have a character arc, too. The fact that you are reading Bryn’s posts proves that there is a spark of optimism in you. You are drawn to that optimism. That says a lot about you!
Jessie, you have a wonderful way of expression and I thank you for your comment! I’m sure your writings are a joy to read!
Thank you, Judy, I really don’t know if it’s appropriate to do this, but I feel strongly that one of the poems I wrote long ago would be of use to you. So I’m going to send it.
YESTERDAY’S DREAMS
By Jessie E Turner
Hanging on to empty dreams
You’d like to live again
You can’t see what you’ve got right now
For how it might have been
Yesterday’s dreams
The ashes are cold
You can’t bring them back anymore
Dream a new dream to hold in your hand
Turn loose of the dream from before
Dream a new dream to fill up your heart
Let it live. Let it grow. Let it soar.
Looking at what might have been
Through shadows of the past
You grieve for what you may have missed
Of dreams too frail to last
Don’t keep looking behind you
Yesterday’s dreams will blind you
Yesterday’s dreams
The ashes are cold
You can’t bring them back though you try
Hold on to the dream now in your hand
Turn loose of the phantoms gone by
Hold on to the dream now in your life
Let it live. Let it grow. Let it fly!
Jessie, that is truly beautiful and written straight from the heart! Thank you for sharing! You are correct in that I do follow Bryn because she is so positive and such a grand role model for all the writers. Thanks again and God Bless!
Thank you Judy.
In a world that worships youth, being a late bloomer never seems to be anything positive. But I love this idea that later bloomers are more resilient, even if it’s by necessity rather than choice. Thanks for the encouragement.
I just started following your blog and have found your ”lists” very useful. In fact, I just ordered the book! I, too, am a late bloomer in the literary world. Thank you for your insight and help for writers.
Thank you so much for this Bryn. I really needed it today.
But Erin, you’re a bright young thing! 🙂 Big hugs.
Fabulous post, thank you for this. It does feel strange, getting older and not having those big milestones, but it makes me anxious and uncomfortable to think that I’ve missed such opportunities. It makes me sad to hear older people, especially women, giving up such dreams because so much life has already passed. But that can’t be true, right? In fact I’m using one of the characters in my first novel (hope to publish in 2020) to look at this. I see the older women in my life and some of their thoughts along these lines and it makes me say no, no there is still more for you. When I read this post it made me smile that you were addressing this.
My BF and I often say we don’t want to be famous but it would nice to have success in our passions. I don’t need to be J.K. Rowling but I want my book(s) to do well and be met with success. Small successes are special; they’re an achievement through which you more than likely remain grounded. I like the hope you’ve revealed here and your truth that well some things are passed you, like the Olympics, I’ve used that exact same example! Seems we have some common thoughts. 😀 Thank you!!!