Lee Child spent nearly 20 years of his career working in television.
Then he got laid off.
With no fallback plan, he started writing a novel about an ex-military cop named Reacher who traveled from town to town cleaning up ruffians with nothing but a toothbrush and the clothes on his back.
He’s now written nearly 30 books1 in the Reacher series which has spawned two movies2 and a TV show.
Child was interviewed on the Art of Manliness podcast recently and talked about the importance of starting as a writer later in life (he was 39):
A successful writing career is almost always a second phase career because it is good to wait till you’re older. Writing is wonderful from that point of view. Your first career, whatever it was, has had all kinds of ins and outs and problems and highs and lows. That teaches you something so that by the time you are in the middle of your life, you’re ready. You’ve got gas in the tank. You’ve got ideas stored up. I think it’s really difficult to write when you’re young.
Mick Herron is another author who got a late jump on writing. Herron had a day job as an editor for a trade publication but wrote for an hour when he got home from the office. His goal was just 350 words a night.
His spy series, Slough House, was a slow burn, taking years to become a smash hit. Now the books have sold millions of copies, and Slow Horses is in its fourth season on Apple TV. For my money, it’s the best show on TV right now that no one talks about.
Herron told The Wall Street Journal he too was glad his success as an author came later in life:
“The main