The Place Where Wrinkles Count As Research

Wendy Garcarz
Dec 10, 2025
2 min read

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

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.

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 lanuishing 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.

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.

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).

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 definately 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;