Why The Best Stories Don’t Happen at 25 and Why You Should Stop Waiting

Dec 10, 2025
2 min read

Updated: Mar 2

There are only a handful of careers where getting older makes you better at the job. Surgeon? Questionable. Stuntwoman? A hard no. Influencer? Only if you’re prepared to discuss moisturiser with alarming enthusiasm.

Writing is different. Writing loves older people. Or to be more accurate, writing loves the stories experienced by older people.

The Value of Life Experience in Writing

Let’s be honest: you can’t write a compelling novel at 21 unless you’ve:

a) survived a small civil war,

b) dated at least one narcissist with a podcast,

c) or been raised by wolves (and even they would tell you to wait until you’ve lived a bit).

Most of us try to write too early. We crack open a laptop in our twenties and announce, “I’m going to tell my story!” Your story? You haven’t even paid council tax yet.

The truth is this: your writing gets better when you have some life under your belt. Heartbreaks. Triumphs. A few career misadventures. A kitchen appliance you still regret buying (the sandwich toaster languishing in the dark cupboard somewhere). You need experience. You need hindsight. You need at least one dramatic moment where you whisper to yourself, “Well, this is going straight in the book.”

That’s the gold. When you are cooking, it's the seasoning that provides the flavour. Without it, you’re writing tofu.

The Midlife Writing Desire

And yet, so many people hit midlife with a burning desire to write and then don’t. They postpone. They procrastinate. They convince themselves they’re too busy, too tired, too late.

If anything, this is the stage of life where writing finally slinks over, hands you a glass of something potent, and whispers: “Are you ready now?”

You have more material than you know what to do with. You have opinions. You have perspective. You’ve survived at least three plot twists and a shock ending.

The Unique Perspective of Age

And most importantly, you have something younger writers haven’t developed yet. "You have gas in the tank," Lee Childs. Not the frantic, caffeine-fuelled gas of youth but the slow, powerful, steady burn of certainty.

It doesn't matter whether you are writing fiction, fact, or poetry; life experience will create the texture and layers that good writing benefits from. You know who you are. You know what you think. You know what matters. And if you don’t, you certainly know what annoys you, which frankly is half a book right there.

Your Wake-Up Call

So here’s your wake-up call, delivered with love and a nudge:

If you’ve always wanted to write something—a novel, memoir, poems, rants, monologues, blogs, or an advertising pamphlet—it’s probably time. Not someday. Not when things calm down and definitely not after Christmas. Now!

Because the world does not need more 23-year-old philosophers writing about heartbreak they will forget by March. It needs you;

your lived wisdom,
your bite,
your humour,
your stories,
your mess,
your magic.

Writing rewards age. It rewards depth. It rewards people who have been knocked about a bit and still walk around muttering, “This’ll make a cracking chapter."