There are no specific age qualifications for becoming a creative writer. If you can complete a book, send it to a publisher and see if they'll buy it! If you are under 18, you cannot legally sign a contract, but your parents or other guardians can sign for you until then.

I meet far too many people who are going to be writers 'someday.' When they are out of high school, when they've finished college, after the wedding, when the kids are older, after I retire. [...] You will never have any more free time than you do right now. So, whether you are 12 or 70, you should sit down today and start being a writer if that is what you want to do.

--Robin Hobb

A good suggestion would be to get writing now, and try to get some of your work published in places such as:

School magazine (if your school has one)
Local newspapers
Online

Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents and everyone is writing a book

--Cicero, circa 43 BC

More Ideas from our Wiki Contributors:

Always have an imaginary audience (readership) in mind, and try to see your work from the reader's point of view as well as your own. Good writing is 'reader-friendly'.
Good writers love to read. Don't limit yourself to one type of reading. Read all kinds of books, even ones you don't think you'll like. You might be surprised. Even if you're sure that the only thing you want to write is fantasy, for example, you still need to read many types of books - history, science fiction, poetry, biography, westerns, mythology ... The more you read, the more you will have to bring to your own writing.
Writers use words in the same way that an artist uses color. The more choices you have, the better the picture. Learn how to use a dictionary. If you don't know what a word means, stop and look it up. Mark Twain said:" The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug."
Start a journal if you haven't already. Write about anything and everything. What you think and feel and want to be. Make up characters. Create imaginary worlds. Really look at things and try to describe them so that someone else can see what you see. Play with words. Make up new words. There are no rules in a journal. Try on different voices. Have fun.
Learn to touch type. You'll be glad you did.

There's only one difference between published and unpublished writers and it is this - the first group see their work in print on the shelves of Waterstone's or Tesco or online at Amazon; the second group are yet to have physical evidence of the hours, weeks, years spent fashioning words into their patterns. You are already a writer.

--Kate Mosse

Writing a Book at a Young AgeI not only think it's possible, I think it's a wonderful way to learn! Writing can teach you patience, persistence, reasoning, discipline and more - that will benefit you all your life, even if your book never sees the light of day. Think of Anne Frank - she was 13 or 14, I believe, when she wrote her book, an acknowledged classic. Many authors in their 70s and 80s have written successful books. If you have concerns about discipline, etc. I would advise you to try a novella first. Novellas are longer than short stories but shorter than most books, about 17,000-30,000 words, or perhaps a bit more.

The most important thing is not to take this exercise too seriously. There are many things a young writer needs to learn before even thinking about publishing. View this process as an exercise, for that is what it is. You may have to write three or four of these, or ten or 12, depending on how receptive you are to advice from experienced writers, to finally arrive at one that is publishable (you may e-publish at any time, however).

Here are more opinions and answers from other contributors:

I wrote my first (not good enough to publish) book at the age of 12-13, and another at 14-15, also not good enough to publish. As the previous writer said, the learning you get from doing it is worth having if you will have a future as a writer. Teenagers have actually written books sold for publication. Two are called Eragon and Speak.

Possible, yes, but not likely. You can write a book at any age of your life, but practice makes perfect and many people don't find that their work is good enough to publish until an adult age.

Actually, it is likely. Eragon is a pretty good published book so is Speak. They where both written by underage individuals. Underage people can sometimes be more creative than adults. They can't be underestimated at all.

There was an article in a writing magazine called The Writer (August 2006 issue) about a girl who did exactly that. Check it out at the library. It should be very inspirational for you.
Isobelle Carmody wrote her first novel at the age of 7 (not published). Nancy Yi Fan is a published author age 13, I've read her book and it's great. I'm 13 and four chapters into my first novel, which has gone through six drafts and 80,000+ words of planning and drafting so far. - LauraFrog.
hey I am a twelve year old boy writing a book and I can get mine published so that means you too
Your age doesn't matter - if your book is well-written and interesting to people, you will be able to sell it. Look at Chris Paolini, the author of the Eragon series - he sold his first book when he was in his teens. Worry about finishing your book and editing it, and once you're done, you can think about selling!
I am 13 years old and 11,000 words into my first novel (That I would like to try and publish one day!), it's taken me four months to get to this stage and all my friends think I'm crazy for writing a book. But personally, I think that if every writer gave up after criticism then there would be no books in the world (which is a terrible thing).
You can be any age. I'm 12 and I am planning on publishing my book at the end of 2010 so you should all look for it.

Thanks for writing this! It gave me alot of courage because I'm also 12 and have written three books, I was just scared that they wouldn't take it seriously because of my age.

I am also writing a book. I just think, and fear, that they won't take me seriously, if i do find someone who will publish my book. I haven't gotten very far yet, and i was seriously afraid i would have to just give it up to someone to publish for me.

I have wrote a book and am working on getting it published. You need to get an agent first a literary agent. Google the process of getting a literary agent and then go step by step to get one. but you have to be patient you may not get feed back for a long time but don't worry Patience and confidence is a huge part in getting published. also you need to get used to rejection you will get 100 rejections for every acceptance. if you just send you manuscript to a publisher unsolicited they will throw it away do your research on literary agents and then work your way from there. i am also 13 and have a literary agent interested in my manuscript. try hard and you can go far.
I'm twelve- writing a book- hoping to get it published. I think a book written by a younger person would seel better- it would be like "Is that the book that the little person wrote? I'm gonna buy it just to see what the youth of today are thinking of.." and that sort of stuff. What's the word length that you're aiming for? I'm trying for 80000 and have done just over 16000- so about 1/5 of the way. Thank you to everyone who has helped on here- it helps to know that there are other people in the same boat, and thanks for all the advice- it helps a lot.

I have written a book and am now working on my trilogy. By law there is no law at all saying you have to be a certain age. If you don't want to get rejected just self publish it. You'll make more money like that and you cannot get rejected like that. There are sites for self publishes.
In many countries there would be no legal minimum age. If you have written a book, at whatever age, go find a publisher, see if they will publish it! Or, with modern IT, you can print it yourself and try to get local bookshops to stock it. Or publish on the internet.
The answer is any age. I knew a girl that was 8 when her book was published.
As an example, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes' first book was published when she was 14.
You can write a book at any age. It's just difficult knowing where to start. You could start by making a mindmap of ideas. Thinking of characters, plots and places. This would help because you have a basic plan of what it's about and what's going to happen, making it easier to write the story. I attempted to write a story but I found it very difficult as I didn't plan it first. Plan your story in parts. Not too many, maybe three or four. Plan each part individually. I'm also thirteen and also attempting to write a book. It isn't going very well, I'm still at the planning stage.
There is no specific age at which you must be able to publish a book. However, most writers publish books when they are older than younger. This is because older writers usually have more knowledge of English (meaning better grammar and spelling usage, and having a higher level of writing) as well as more experiences to counter upon. This doesn't mean that writers at a younger age are not as good of writers as those who are older. Some young writers are born with natural writing ability and creativity and can be much better writers than someone who is much older than them! So no, there is no age limit for publishing a book. But keep in mind, getting a book published is extremely difficult and one must have a lot of imagination, diligence, and creativity to do so.
You can write at any age! I started writing short stories when I was around six and then at ten I wrote my first book and I'm working on another right now. It's very important to start writing at a young age. When you get older, if you wish to pursue it, your career will be very sturdy because you wrote when you were so young.
There are several authors who published books while they were teenagers. A lot of it is fantastic stuff.
There are places which offer printing on demand. So a writer of any age can use such services, even when they cannot find a traditional publisher. The way that works is that you have to have an account online. If the writer is under 13 or there are legal details required, the account can be in a parent's name. Then you would upload your material to the site, select the printing options, and if others want it, they would pay the publisher to print individual copies for them on demand. So the publisher doesn't have to put out a lot of money upfront. The commissions might not be as high, but it is good for new writers who want to break into the field. If you want advanced options or professional help like editing, then you would have to pay them to provide that. If you cannot afford editing, you could always let friends, family and teachers read some of it. If you are young, and you let an adult read it, they will likely make unsolicited corrections for you.

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