Writing a book can be a bit intimidating for people.
Many question their skills, and their resolve, while others go a step farther. Others may even begin to question their age. This is understandable, as there is an age for most specialized professions. For example, athletes are often expected to be in their 20s, while people like Presidents are often expected to be above 50 years old.
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That’s because at each age range, the human body is strong at a certain aspect, be it intelligence, experience, or just athleticisms. So which age range is perfect for writing? Which age is the best to be a writer?
The right age to start writing novels is about 25 years old. The thing is writing is not exactly age focused. The writer of Frankenstein was 19 when she penned her work. In the process, she created an entirely new genre of work.
Additionally, the Tolkien was 45 years old when he debuted The Hobbit, which is the prelude to the epic, ‘The Lord Of The Rings’, a book series that reinvigorated the fantasy genre, and made him be dubbed the father of fantasy.
The point is that the age is not exactly relevant. Instead, 3 things are relevant; learning to be productive when they write so they can actually finish their book, learning to have proper writing skills, and finally, learning to make the time to write.
However, the number 25 was not chosen at random. There may possibly be an age where you can teach yourself these 3 skills so you can best write, according to the numbers at least. Let’s get into the details of what I mean.
1. Is There A Right Age To Be A Writer?
The right age to begin writing a novel is 25 years.
Now of course you may wonder where I got this number.
A study found that the average age of when authors first get published is about 36 years old. Another study found that most authors say that it took them 11.5 years before their first work was published. So, putting this to facts together, what do we get? It must be that the average writer begin working on their books at 25.5 years old.
However, this does not mean you have to either.
There are 3 main skills that are required to be a successful author, and these skills could explain why people wrote at the age they did (25 years). Also, they explain why you do not have to. As long as you master these, you can begin writing your book at any time, and even publish it in a quicker time period.
Three skills
The three skills required to write a book are:
Time Management Skill
Writing a book can take up to 6 months, or even more.
And it is 6 months of writing everyday, so there is no time to relax. A lot of people do not have the skills to create this time. They are always busy with work, and school, or other things, instead of their writing. So, they leave writing to the side.
Yet, Tolkien managed to write his books while he was a father of a family, and a college professor. It can be done. You just need to learn how to create time to write your books.
Productivity Skills
The second problem people could face is dealing with things like procrastination, lack of motivation, or just a lack of clear directions. You could find a way to make at least 5 more hours in your day, but it could still be pointless. You could find yourself just sitting there the whole 5 hours, and not writing something. That’s if you are lucky. Some people will promise to do it at 10, then 10:30, then 11, and finally, the whole 5 hours is elapsed, and they never even sat at their work space. On top of time making skills, you need to learn how to be productive, so you can actually begin writing and working on your stories.
Writing Skills
Finally, you will need to learn how to write a good book.
After you can make time to write, and when you have that time, you actually sit down and write, you will need to learn how to write something captivating. How to write a unique story, with a unique world, charming characters, and the type of story that will make people do fan art, and print your books cover to past on the bed posts.
The skill to write that story comes naturally to most people who were already willing to suffer, learning how to make time to write, and how to make themselves productive. But if it doesn’t, now you already have the time, and the space to learn just how to do it, so there is a win.
People who are 25 are at the age where they do not have that much responsibility, yet have developed their brain enough that they can now learn responsibility and productivity.
Then they spend 11.5 years learning how to write a good stories. But with modern day internet resources, you can learn these things so quickly, you could write books at any age, and in a short amount of time.
2. What Is The Youngest Age To Write A Book?
The youngest age a person wrote a book was 4 years, and 356 days.
The youngest person to ever writer a book was Dorothy Straight, who was 4 years old at the time she wrote her book, ‘How The World Began’.
To be fair, Dorothy was not exactly a normal child.
Yes she had the mental functioning, and behavior of a normal child.
After all that’s what led to the writing of this book. Like any curious child, Dorothy asked a lot of questions. Eventually, she asked her mother how the world came to be. Being an evangelical Christian, her mother told her that it was God who created the world.
Upon hearing that, Dorothy set out to write and draw her mother’s words. Upon seeing their daughter’s work, her parents were extremely proud. They would then send the book to the publisher Pantheon Books. The book was then published in 1964, making Dorothy the youngest writer of all time.
However, she is different from an average child due to her lineage.
Multiple members of her ancestors were members of the senate. They were high ranking senators and politicians. Other members of her family were high ranking officials in the army. The point here being that she was a fairly affluent young child.
Meaning she had the money, and connections to make publishing easier for her in her era.
At that time, only traditional publishing existed. This was a route of publishing that could only be accessed with a certain amount of money. Also, it could only be accessed through a specific set of connections.
3. How Old Is The Average Book Writer?
The average age of the book writer is about 42 years old.
The average age of an employed author in the United States of America is 42 years old.
That is the estimation given by wordsrated.com. For the rest of the world, we can assume that it is a similar estimation.
4. What Age Do Most Writers Start?
The age at which most writers begin writing their books at 25 years old, and start their career/ publish their first book at 36 years old.
According to medium.com, it takes approximately 11.6 years for the average author to sell their first book.
In all the research I have done, I have noticed a recurrent number. That number is 36 years old. Most authors publish their first book at 25 years old. On top of that, I have seen that on average that it takes 11.6 years for a writer to publish their first book.
As a result, we can then assume that most writers started writing at 25 years old. Therefore, this is probably the best age to start writing your book.
However, if you want to start writing a book, the best age to start is the age you already are. Once you begin to understand this, you will be that much closer to mastering mastery.