It’s Not Too Late to Tell Your Story

The Lie That Keeps So Many People Quiet

There’s a story I hear all the time - sometimes in client emails, sometimes over coffee, sometimes buried in the pauses between sentences:

“I wish I’d started earlier!”

It’s often followed by a self-deprecating laugh. Or a shake of the head. Or an apology for “only just” beginning.

But here’s what I want to say, clearly and gently:

You’re not too late. You’re right on time.

Whether you’re coming to your writing desk after raising children, switching careers, leaving a job, healing a loss, or simply taking a breath - your story is still yours to tell. And its timing is not a failure. It’s part of the shape of the thing.

I know this because I’ve lived it, too.

Stories Don’t Expire

We live in a culture obsessed with early success. By 25, we’re meant to have it all figured out. By 30, we’re meant to be settled. By 40, it can feel like the window has closed. But life doesn’t work that way - not really.

Sometimes, it takes years to gather the experiences that make a story worth telling.

Sometimes, you need to live the messy middle before you understand what the beginning even was.

Sometimes, the story changes, because you do.

And so what if it does?

Great writing isn’t about youth. It’s about truth. And the older we get, the more of that we carry.

My Own Pivot, and What It Taught Me

If you’d told me a decade ago that I’d be sitting here now - midlife, mid-pivot, running an editorial studio and writing every week - I’d have smiled politely and thought, “Maybe… but probably not.”

For years, I was in a different season of life. I was raising children, managing a household, and like many people, quietly setting aside my professional identity - thinking, I’ll get back to it eventually.

When I finally began again - in my forties, with more hesitancy than confidence - it wasn’t easy. But it was absolutely right. The work I do now lights me up in a way I hadn’t expected. I get to help others shape their voice, polish their message, and step forward.

And every time someone says, “I wish I’d started earlier,” I can say honestly:

“I know that feeling. But it’s really not too late.”

I didn’t start out as an editor. But the truth is, many of the best stories come from those who’ve lived a little, and then found their voice.

The Creative Clock Is Not Linear

Creativity doesn’t obey the same clock as the working world. It isn’t tied to CVs or timelines. It moves in its own rhythm: sometimes fast, sometimes slow, often interrupted.

Virginia Woolf wrote her most experimental works in her 40s.

Toni Morrison published her first novel at 39.

Frank McCourt didn’t publish Angela’s Ashes until he was 66.

None of them were too late! Neither are you.

Starting Now Means Starting Strong

When you write now - from midlife or beyond - you bring with you things you simply didn’t have earlier:

• Depth. You’ve seen things. Felt things. Lost and won.

• Voice. You’ve had years to learn what’s yours and what isn’t.

• Resilience. You know how to keep going when things wobble.

These are not disadvantages. These are strengths.

They make your story richer, not harder to tell.

Start From Here. Start From You.

Have trust in your timing.

Whatever age or stage you’re in, you’re allowed to begin.

You don’t need to apologise for the time it’s taken.

You don’t need to prove why you’re “ready.”

You don’t need to write like you’re 25.

You just need to start.

Because there’s someone out there who needs the story only you can tell - in the voice only you can use - at the time only you could arrive.

And if you need someone to walk alongside you while you shape it?

That’s where I come in.