Don’t get yourself in a rut.
Always seek to make progress.
Get more work out there, not less.
It pays to cast your net wide. It gets you writing more (the more you do, the better you become as you’re exercising your imagination more) and you have something always out there, hopefully in the fray for publication or a prize. By seeking out where you can send your stories, you’re researching the market. You can then tailor your work to fit specific requirements. And it all helps you develop.
One marvellous thing about writing is that
Age, old or young, need not get in your way
You use life experience as your main bat
To propel your tales, your something to say.
I’m always cheered by stories of new authors who break through in middle age or beyond. It’s all the encouragement I need to keep going. Younger writers have the advantage of having something fresh to say from another generation’s viewpoint. Older ones have life experience to draw on. And it makes a great press release to say so-and-so, aged 76 or whatever, is bringing a book out. There’s an instant curiosity value. Mind if society weren’t so age obsessed (and not with the older ones!) this wouldn’t be an issue, would it?