More Conversation about What Age Brings to Writing . . .

Our last conversation post was on Monday, August 6th… 

It was unique in our full series of conversations since it began at the behest of a reader’s comment…

I’d been the one to begin the new topics: yet, this conversation began in the comments, not out here…

So, no matter what we’re talking about, in any post here, if you bring up a topic (in the realms of Reading, Writing, and Publishing), I’ll start a conversation about it… :-)

Now…

To continue the conversation of “What Age Brings to Writing”—three experienced writers…

First, an author from Germany:

“My first thought was “experience”; but then, I hesitated.

“Experience, yes, but young authors also have experience. And even people who worked at the same time with the same kind of people have different memories and experiences.

“In the late 1990s, I taught German to Russian speaking migrants. Now my students mostly speak Arabic. There are differences, but there are also similarities. When I discuss students with other teachers who are my age, have worked with Russian migrants and work now with Syrian migrants, it seems as if they see the 1990s as the golden Age of teaching, with educated, intelligent, interested, hard working, open minded students, whereas students now are passive, uneducated and biased. Even when we talk about the same person, the impressions are totally different.

“So – experience?

“Looking back at the discussions over the last years I came to the conclusions that, as a writer, I have a different look at my surroundings and at my students. I see more facets to them – which doesn’t always help teaching, especially when a student has very many facets to consider (or to overlook – as a kind of self-defence by filtering out).
Meeting and getting to know people on the other hand helps me when I create characters. So experience comes into my writing, my personal angle of looking at the world.”

Now, an author from Australia:

“I believe that my ability to write a paragraph has changed little since I was quite young. However I think/hope that my ability to THINK has changed. Hopefully, I see more layers and more paradoxes where once I just skimmed the surface of life and wrote accordingly :-)  “

And, an author from Canada:

“With age comes experience – a precious commodity. :-)  “

Three quite different responses to what age brings to writing; yet, they certainly have at least one similarity—age brings More to writing—more facets, more layers, more experience…

In my own case, I didn’t even become a writer until my very late 50s; though, there was that poem at 13…

So, all I have to ponder about what “age” brings to my writing are the profoundly subtle changes in my last bit-more-than-a-decade—years that can seem so long and also as brief as a breath………

Here’s hoping you’d like to add your response to this topic :-)
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