Comments on: Writing, Time, Age

By: Mark Charan Newton

Mark Charan Newton — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 18:55:28 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Zoe – and yeah, I think there’s no good or bad stage here, just whenever the time is right.

Dave – thanks for stopping by! Absolutely, that’s something I really hope happens. The culmination of talent. But what about the ferocity of youth? Those punk works of art. Musical innovations tend to favour the young, though that might be linked in some way to culture.

By: Dave Bradley

Dave Bradley — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:45:15 +0000

Another great blog, Mark. I agree with you about the perspective that time gives. Surely the novel is one art form where personal life experience is the ultimate skill. Unlike in music, say, where Mozart’s youthful accomplishments hinge on technical ability, can a teenager ever write convincingly about themes like love and death? Don’t you have to experience those things? There are writers who produce outstanding debut stuff but I’d also argue that some of the best writers ever – we could name Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, George Orwell, TS Eliot, Virginia Woolf – wrote their masterpieces later in life.

By: Zoe

Zoe — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:40:41 +0000

I only have personal anecdotes to share, but when I was a teenager dying of boredom at school I wrote constantly. In lessons, in the evening…I churned out stories on every available bit of paper I could find (there was a whole drawer in my room full of ink-covered scraps). Then I went to university and got a job and well, the writing stopped. Life just got in the way and whilst writing is something I want to go back to, it’s really hard to fit it in around everything else.

My mum wrote her first book a couple of years ago. It’s on local history and self-published, but sold a few hundred copies. She’s working on another now…but she’s retired

I wouldn’t say that talent necessarily changes over time (although your experiences influence your writing). I’d say you need to be in the right frame of mind to write…whether it’s an outlet for a bored kid, a hobby for a retired person or a way to live out someone’s fantasy world…you need to be at a stage in your life where you have the compulsion to set it all down.

By: Mark Charan Newton

Mark Charan Newton — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:04:24 +0000

Adrian – I’d never looked at it like that. But I’ve don’t really agree with the Amis thing anyway. I think that’s interesting from an “ideas” perspective, but what of skills of the trade? You do get better the more you write, for the most part…

Daniel – I know. I should give up now.

Adelie – I would say that the young know full well the old have sex. They just don’t want to acknowledge it.

Eric – Happy birthday! I guess yes, you only have the now, and you can only really work with that. Then again, that’s the same for everything in life…