Forum: Author Hangout

Unconfirmed rumor is that he retired from writing.

It's unusual for someone to simply 'retire from writing' without saying farewell to their readers. Also, most don't simply retire at 60, instead there's typically a precipitating event (new girlfriend, newfound religion or persistent health crisis).

I checked the source and I must correct "retired from writing" to just "retired".

But surely that's a good thing - retirement means more time for writing!

Actually I suspect he did mean retiring from writing - that's standard usage for story sites.

AJ

Some years ago, I and some friends were discussing retirement. We had observed that many of the people we knew who retired had died within 3-5 years of retiring. They basically just sat on their porches and vegetated.

We decided that if we retired without having something to replace our day-to-day grind, our systems couldn't stand the shock. The result would be our just wasting away until we died like our friends, and not long after we retired.

It's my perception that the problem is worst for manual labourers who've put in a hard shift all their lives.

Politicians, bankers and others who do minimal work for their ill-gotten gains carry on as they left off - on the golf course.

AJ

We had observed that many of the people we knew who retired had died within 3-5 years of retiring.

That's fairly common, unfortunately. People decide that they don't have to do anything, then just sit in their recliner and die.

I'm still a decade away from being able to collect full social security. When that happens, I plan to quit working my 60 hour work weeks, but I don't plan to quit working. I already have the hobby of woodworking, and I simply plan to spend more time doing that, having time to actually write as well, and put in the garden and work in that. My next door neighbor is 94, his wife is 91. He's out in his garden every day, still runs his tiller, and keeps on going.

We decided that if we retired without having something to replace our day-to-day grind, our systems couldn't stand the shock. The result would be our just wasting away until we died like our friends, and not long after we retired.

That is a significant problem for many (though the death of a spouse, or someone you've been caring for, is much more likely to trigger an early death), a significant amount of SOL authors are older, and no longer have careers, and have taken up writing later in life just so they'll have something to occupy their time and give their lives a purpose.

In cases like RealLifeDragon's, it's not that they're 'retiring' in the traditional sense, but because some significant event in their life changes (new spouse, new job or health issues impeding their ability to continue) which causes them to quit (i.e. they're no longer able to write, for whatever reason).