The most excellent writer, John Scalzi, explains this better than I ever could over on his blog post: Why New Novelists are kind of old. (btw, buy all his books; they’re wonderful.)

I agree with everything he says.

My experience was similar…with a few differences.

I started writing when I was 27. The first thing I wrote (after one back up to get a better running start) was, indeed, published. Age when it was published: 30.

Not to say that my writing hasn’t had its ups and downs since then. Oh boy, that’s that the subject for another eye-popping post (or one that I might save for my never-to-be published biography and exposé on the video gaming industry).

There are many exceptions to what Sclazi is saying, too. Stephen King was 24 when he wrote Carrie, and Christopher Paolini was 14 or 15 when he wrote Eragon. If you’re an aspiring writer, I hope you’re one of these lucky (and extremely hard working people!). But the vast majority of writers follow the it-takes-years-of-hard-work-and-rejection-and you’ll-be-middle-aged-by-the-time-you-break-into-print method.

The point is: it is harder and takes longer than most people think to write, write well, and get published.

This is normal.

Don’t be discouraged. Take heart. Just keep your head down and write and learn how to improve your writing along the way.

If it were easy, everyone would get published…and then there’d be more competition!