I joined a book club a few months back. Admittedly, I’ve only been to one meeting so far, but that’s going to change! Tonight we have a meeting and we had to read Divergent. I’d already ready the book before so I knew what to anticipate, but it was helpful to re-read because I’d forgotten a lot.
I haven’t gotten through the whole trilogy yet, but I know we’ll have to read Insurgent and Allegiant eventually – probably within the next two months. Something I didn’t realize about the author of these books (Veronica Roth) was that she was only in college when she wrote Divergent. That really makes me question my own life choices, now that I’m 27 and haven’t written a novel to completion that I’d ever consider trying to get published.
John Green used to work a full-time job and write at nights when he was in his 20’s while he was finishing up his debut novel. Some 25-year-old girl on WattPad got a multi-book deal for her One Direction fanfic that is being turned into a real series. Maya Van Wagenen, who is only 15, managed to pen a memoir about popularity that has catapulted her into a movie deal.
It’s easy to get discouraged knowing there are so many other authors out there who are younger, more talented, more driven, more everything. I guess knowing that these kinds of people are out there should be some kind of kick in the butt for me to write more. To actually finish what I start. But that’s easier said than done.
Anyone else out there have a dozen or so short stories, novel-starts, idea scraps or fully fleshed out fan-fiction epics that you’ll never let see the light of day? Are those words locked up on your computers like mine are? Do you have notebooks with idea scribbles that you don’t fully know how to piece together to make a formed something?
Me too, y’all. Me too.
creedreads 
Other writers have their own path. You have yours. Trying to walk theirs will only lead to frustration.
Sometimes I feel like I’ve wasted years of my life on nothing, but maybe I wasn’t wasting anything at all. Maybe I just needed that extra time before I was ready.
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I like the idea of having your own path! I definitely hear what you’re saying about feeling like you’ve wasted years of your life on nothing potentially… it’s all about how you look at it.
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