I realised this week that I can at best be described a late bloomer. The fact that I haven't actually bloomed yet makes it later still! After a horrible week, full of cruel disappointments and an appalling writing crisis, telling myself that I am still to bloom is about all I've got to keep me going. It's the positive flip-side to "total failure." It also helps (though not much) to alleviate the sickening green envy I feel when twenty-two-year-olds win major writing awards and publication deals because, obviously, I wanted to be that 22 y.o. when I was 22. I wanted to be a child star. And the rather lonely, neglected, nightmare-filled child inside me STILL wants to be that star.
So I'm having to placate myself with the fact that many extremely successful writers only found that success very late. I'm sure I'm not the first "ageing" writer to tell myself, again and again, like a mantra "late bloomer, late bloomer, late bloomer....." in the vague hope that it will cheer me up.
After all, don't late bloomers bloom the most beautifully?
Looking for "late bloomer" quotes online made me raise several eyebrows, though. Those quotes by people who say they only bloomed in their twenties........how is that late blooming? From my positively ancient viewpoint, anything below 40 to me is still spring-chicken country.
Wikipedia got it right, though; however, did they have to put "child prodigy" at the top of their "see also" list - right under late blooming authors??!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_bloomer#Writing
So I'm having to placate myself with the fact that many extremely successful writers only found that success very late. I'm sure I'm not the first "ageing" writer to tell myself, again and again, like a mantra "late bloomer, late bloomer, late bloomer....." in the vague hope that it will cheer me up.
After all, don't late bloomers bloom the most beautifully?
Looking for "late bloomer" quotes online made me raise several eyebrows, though. Those quotes by people who say they only bloomed in their twenties........how is that late blooming? From my positively ancient viewpoint, anything below 40 to me is still spring-chicken country.
Wikipedia got it right, though; however, did they have to put "child prodigy" at the top of their "see also" list - right under late blooming authors??!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_bloomer#Writing
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