Like Morrison, she did some of her best work late, receiving a second Pulitzer Prize at age 60 (the first writer to ever receive a second Pulitzer Prize in the category of General Nonfiction) and a National Book Award at age 68. Both Morrison and Tuchman faced a “success cliff”; this is the type of cliff where a person achieves a level of success and recognitions that could impede further creative work.

Yet both sustained the cycle of creative work, Morrison pumping out five major books after receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature (at age 62) and Tuchman producing four major books after the second Pulitzer Prize. Both writers produced more than 40% of their major books after the age of 60.

Recall how Toni Morrison began writing her first books not with a huge external audience in mind but so that she herself could read them. That her work eventually had a huge impact, both artistically and socially, flowed principally from keeping herself in frame, focused (alongside raising her children) on One Big Thing: books. When an interviewer asked her how she saw her public/social responsibility, how she knew she was “doing the write thing” with herself, Morrison responded, “You make it sound complicated, but it is really just about books. I edit books, I teach books, I write books.” Morrison believed that a great book can both be true to its historical/political context and be an imaginative creation, connected to what’s happening in the world while also being timeless, universal, and stunningly beautiful. In another interview, when asked whether she might take on a more political or public role if she didn’t write books, Morrison responded, “All I can do is read books and write books and edit books and critique books. . . . There are people who can organize other people and I cannot. I’d just get bored.” Morrison felt a strong sense of responsibility to give back, but she did not let that knock her out of frame. Toni Morrison did give back, absolutely and in the most profoundly powerful way: She gave of her encodings.

7. Fog

Micheal J. Fox and Maurice White emerged on the other side of the fog in very different places because they were very different people with different encodings and different answers to the question of what fed the inner fire. White would have likely been both unhappy and ineffective if he’d tried to do what Fox did, just as Fox would have been unhappy and ineffective trying to do what White did. On the last day of his life, not long after his 74th birthday, White and the writer Herb Powell talked, as they did often while collaborating on White’s compelling and revealing memoir, My Life with Earth, Wind & Fire.

Part 3: Feeding the Inner Fire Long and Late

10. Extend Out/Circle Back

Consider this simple statistic: Streep earned more Oscar nominations after age 40 than any other actor in history (male or female) had achieved across the entirety of their careers.

In fact, Streep earned just as many Oscar nominations in her 60s as she did during her hyperproductive 30s. As of 2024, she’d earned 21 nominations, 75% more than any other actor in history, and I would not be surprised to see her land another one in her late 70s or even her 80s.

How did she work through the “witch offer” phase of her 40s, regain full stride in her 50s, and then accelerate? How did she keep the fire fully fed long and late.