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  • #16
    Re: Having problems

    i started writing when i was about five. wrote a book about Abraham Lincoln. wasn't a long book. two pages. maybe about five words in the whole thing, and was illustrated. Abe looked kind of the same in all the crayon illustrations at the top of the pages and in the margins...a stick figure wearing a tall hat. but sometimes he'd smile. sometimes he'd frown. sometimes he was riding a stick horse, etc. it didn't really look like a horse at all, but anyway, i kind of quit the whole mostly heartbreaking writing thing for years after nothing came of any of that. i couldn't believe it. i got back into the writing again years later...not sure why. just crazy i guess. i put the whole Abraham Lincoln book mess behind me and finally moved on.

    don't set a timer. keep at it. good luck!
    Last edited by AnconRanger; 07-11-2017, 05:19 PM.

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    • #17
      Re: Having problems

      Wrong place to post about being worried about being over the hill at 28 haha. If this were music and you were wanting to make it big then age is more of an issue. Most people here and in the industry will be of a certain age and they would have spent many years getting to that point.

      I'll be honest I feel really guilty when I go on my rants about the frustration and burn out but I still have plenty of time to course correct. I started screenwriting at 17 and I'm currently 25. Now 17 year old me thought it would take three years before making progress. Current me knows it could take decades, if ever. But rather than worry that you're getting to the age where you might need to prioritise other things you can just be grateful that people like you and me basically had a head start.

      It took a while for me to notice that I was younger than most and without rubbing it in, it helped. I had a lot of unrealistic expectations that put a lot of pressure on myself. To discover that others were happy to start in their 40s and 50s was reassuring. And I have to give credit to those that started later in life, it takes a lot of guts in life to chase your dreams and as the years pass by it feels like the path you're on is narrowing. To go in a new direction later on is to be commended.

      If your work is good enough then you'll be considered. Which is where the real problem is. If you are pretty confident in your ability or the potential of your ability then there is no issue because you'll get to where you belong in due time. If you're having doubts about your ability and if you can make it the age thing comes into play. You're at a point in your life where you could look to a different career and still have your life ahead of you. Decades of working at something for free is a hard ask that has stopped many people in their tracks. For every Jeff Lowell who wrote like 50 scripts before his career took off there are thousands who keep plugging away, unaware that they don't have 'it'. Not to say that is your case at all but something to be wary of. If you've still got confidence to do something with your talent then you owe it to yourself to give it longer.

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      • #18
        Re: Having problems

        Originally posted by TheConnorNoden View Post
        I started screenwriting at 17 and I'm currently 25. Now 17 year old me thought it would take three years before making progress. Current me knows it could take decades, if ever. But rather than worry that you're getting to the age where you might need to prioritise other things you can just be grateful that people like you and me basically had a head start...If your work is good enough then you'll be considered. Which is where the real problem is. If you are pretty confident in your ability or the potential of your ability then there is no issue because you'll get to where you belong in due time. If you're having doubts about your ability and if you can make it the age thing comes into play. You're at a point in your life where you could look to a different career and still have your life ahead of you. Decades of working at something for free is a hard ask that has stopped many people in their tracks.
        As usual, TheConnorNoden proves preternaturally wise, respectful and thoughtful.

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        • #19
          Re: Having problems

          Originally posted by SBdeb View Post
          As usual, TheConnorNoden proves preternaturally wise, respectful and thoughtful.
          So much so that I began to regret adding The to my name many years ago.

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          • #20
            Re: Having problems

            Jeff Lowell is 117. Just saying is all.
            Free Script Reads and Notes

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            • #21
              Re: Having problems

              Originally posted by Mark Somers View Post
              Jeff Lowell is 117. Just saying is all.

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              • #22
                Re: Having problems

                one other dumb thought-

                i know this guy. retired from the marines and wanted to fix up a 1970 Harley 3 wheel golf cart for his kids to ride around on, hit some balls late evening at the nearby country club when no one but a jerk would care, etc.

                the cart had been sitting in an open shed for over 25 years. had not moved. it had algae and stuff growing on it. it was no longer white, it was green. the chrome no longer looked like chrome. he did some real looking around, found three used tires, bought a used carburator (sp), new hoses, dumped the old gas and put in new gas, etc, and cleaned it up.

                when done, that golf cart would outrun a horse in front of rich folks sipping mint julips (sp). and that cart, besides being fast, had a lot of character...an older war vet (not me) was driving it with a big smile on his face, kids piled into it, a hoe to search for golf balls in the weeds and woods, an old bag of clubs, etc.

                good stuff.

                new stuff is good, but old school is good, too. when people call the cops when you are hollering and flying down the road in an ancient harley davidson golf cart...you're doing something right in life, and have something to write about.

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                • #23
                  Re: Having problems

                  It's funny, back in college when I used to read how Shane Black and other young writers like the guy who wrote Scream (forget his name) were breaking in left and right I was under the impression the best writers were in their early 20's....then I realized that definitely was not the norm as I begin to hear from other working writers and talk to people in the industry.

                  But yea 28 being too old to do anything of importance in Hollywood is laughable lol
                  One must be fearless and tenacious when pursuing their dreams. If you don't, regret will be your reward.

                  The Fiction Story Room

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                  • #24
                    Re: Having problems

                    117. Liar. Based on pix I've seen, I have way more gray hair on my head than he does, and I'm only 61 (next month).

                    So, from the responses so far, it looks like I have everybody beat - started to write at 52.

                    However, in response to the writer of the Lincoln epic at five years of age, yeah yeah of course I wrote bits of things before I was 52. I did comics book when I was under ten. And we were too poor to buy books, so when I borrowed Bram Stoker's Dracula from the library and renewed it over and over because I liked to reread it, till they wouldn't let me renew it any more, I hand REWOTE the whole darn thing!

                    Of course put it in my own words and added pictures. Still have it here, in a bottom drawer.

                    A-ha, my first writing adaptation!

                    Anyway, at school, Composition was always my fave course, up to maybe grade 7 when I switched over to serious subjects.

                    So from about 13 years of age to 52, nothing.

                    Oh. Wait. There was a 3-month attempt out of the blue in my late 20s, to try to write a political manifesto disguised as a novel. But I didn't get far.

                    The only lesson I learned from that 'novel' attempt was, 25 years later when I started on screenplays, was to use outlining.

                    With the novel, I launched from a blank page one and got about 100 pages in, using an old word processor, before it got too complicated to track all the subplots and events.

                    With the screenplays, I learned (probably as a result of my organization and multi-tasking skills as a computer programmer for decades) to PLAN everything first, which made punching out 100-page screenplays a fairly simple thing by comparison.

                    Though of course that still doesn't mean that what I write is marketable!

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                    • #25
                      Re: Having problems

                      Originally posted by ACE21 View Post
                      First, I'm not too sure if this belongs here or not, if it doesn't could the mods move it to the right place?

                      I am wondering how old is too old? I'm 28 years old right now and I have been going at this for about the last 7 years. I have had little nibbles here and there, which to me is better then nothing.

                      But, I do wonder is 28 years old getting to the point where I may be getting too old to be considered anymore?
                      I began writing in my twenties, was first published (it was my 13th effort) when I was 35, began writing teleplays for the British market when I was 24, and even after returning to the States continued writing them, until my first novel was optioned and I was commissioned to adapt it as a feature film (that, of course, wasn't made).

                      I'm creeping towards 70 now, have published 6 novels, have screenplays out to several producers and managers who've requested them, and my next novel has just gone out to publishers. I still go to meetings with producers and execs, and not one has called me Gramps or asked where my walker was. Age is nothing but a number. Don't sweat it. Or just beat them with your cane.

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                      • #26
                        Re: Having problems

                        Oh, and one of my novels is being adapted for TV, and the producers wants me to be part of the writing team.

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