I'm 17 years old and I want to start creating music to go with my short films and other projects, I don't have much experience except for some off and on piano playing over the years and then that is just memorized, I never learned to read music. Where do I get started? What software/tools do I need and do you think it's too late for me to be any good at it? How long will it take me to learn to read music and write my own songs?

there is a post called software once and for all in this forum, look through that there are some pretty strong views on some software. as for reading music get the a/b guide tio music theory

I started writing my own serious songs about 8 years ago, and I'd like to think I don't entirely suck at it now. I learned to read music, and it's taken me awhile to learn to play by ear (I still don't entirely have it down). It's a good talent to have if you want to compose. Since you never learned to read music, you might want to consider getting a synthesizer, so you can directly transfer your songs to the computer via MIDI or regular audio input/output without having to worry about reading notes, although what you learn is really up to you. You might find you have a knack for tracked music, for example.

As mentioned, check the music software thread. Cakewalk and Sound Forge are pretty good.