An ode to late bloomers

[pjthompson]

Much thanks to julia_reynolds for pointing out this great article about artistic late bloomers. I found it quite comforting and inspiring—even if I ain't no fricking genius.

Comments

[kythiaranos.livejournal.com]

That was an awesome article. Thanks for pointing it out.

I think our notions of genius and talent are skewed a lot by the media--hot young geniuses with exotic pasts are much more attractive subjects than fifty-somethings who've been toiling away for decades getting a handle on their gifts.

Maybe I'm just paranoid, but there's definitely a sense to me that attractive authors, or ones with some sort of 'hook' in their lives outside their work, get hyped by publishers much more than others. I'm always secretly amused when that sort of thing backfires on them.

[pjthompson]

Thanks to Julia.

I don't think you're paranoid, I think it's true--or seems to be, from what I've observed. Like you said, if it's an interesting story, it will get more press and sell more books. And selling more books is what the marketing folks are all about.

I'm always secretly amused when that sort of thing backfires on them.

James Frey, anyone? Though he was hardly young. There was that girl last year who blatantly plagiarized another chick lit book for her chick lit book...

[bummble.livejournal.com]

That's a very interesting read, thanks!

I wonder if it's possible to be a combination of both?

In my late teens & early twenties I wrote quite a few short stories (and I wrote them *fast*), even published a couple, etc.

Then the writing sort of fizzled - and now, hopefully (at 36), I'm evolving into a Cézanne sort of writer.
Although I have always discovered what I'm writing just by writing it, I've always been very bad at planning ahead.

[pjthompson]

Sure, I'd say anything's possible. Nobody's ever just a pure "type." I'm probably more of a combo myself. I'm an explorer, for instance, when I write, but I do tend to do a lot of research reading before throwing myself off the cliff.