Honestly? Shoutout to those of you who are completely fucking lost in life. Those who don鈥檛 know what they want to do with life. Those who are stuck in a certain part of life and can鈥檛 get out. Those who are reaching for dreams they feel are impossible to reach. Those who feel like they鈥檙e accomplishments are being overlooked. Those who feel like their enough just isn鈥檛 enough. It is. You can make it. You will make it. There is an opening at the end of the tunnel.
I know your ask box is probably full, so I totally get it if you don't get to this anytime soon, but I need some help.
I'm a sixteen year old aspiring writer with ADHD and anxiety. My writing patterns are horrible. I go months without writing then spit out a hundred pages. I've been writing since I was eight and I've never finished a story longer than a few thousand words because I physically cannot force myself to write in order, though I can eventually fill in the gaps (if I'm given a few months).
I'm trying my best, but it feels like my best isn't good enough for the world. Do you (or any other successful writers you know) have similar problems? Or is this something you overcome with time? Basically wondering if there's hope of me being successful despite these traits. Thanks!
You're sixteen. The reason why the world isn't filled with successful sixteen year old novelists is we were all (or most of us) trying to figure out how to do the writing thing in bursts and spurts and with dozens of beginnings and not a lot of endings, and we have some characters over here and some story over there and we can't work out how to make them align and work together. And so on and so forth.
You are not a failure if you haven't published a Hugo-award winning trilogy by the time you're twenty. You're an egg that hasn't even finished hatching.
Write. Read everything you can. Write more. Finish some short stories. Read more. Write more. Experience some life. Finish longer things. You'll get there. It's not a race. It's a way to learn.