Noticing Newbies

Figured I should introduce myself. Social anxiety keeps me from saying too much, but that's also been leading me to write stories. I've always loved reading fiction; especially fantasy novels. I've attempted to write my own before, but they ended up abandoned. I'm currently working on a new story, and I'm hoping to actually finish this one. My writing has improved over the years, but it's a struggle. One of the biggest challenges I face is dealing with a neurological disability due to a traumatic brain injury. Memory issues aren't fun. Writing anything while struggling against anomic aphasia makes it difficult to recall the correct word. Despite that, I've still managed to crank out over 50k words on my recent novel over the past few months.

Of course, like most of us, I worry that it's just a waste of time; that everything I've written is a load of nonsense. Really though, I'm sort of stuck. I know what needs to happen in the story, but I can't seem to get the characters to travel along their arcs in a satisfying way—yet. I remain hopeful, but ya... kinda rough at times. Plus I'm trying to avoid making the book ridiculously long. Anything over 120k words in my genre is going to be a tough sell. Not that I expect to sell it. More that I'm hoping my friends would read the book, and a more concise story would be easier for them.

Anyway, thanks for letting me rant a bit. And thank you for having this awesome community. I look forward to getting to know you, reading your shorts and novels, and improving my own writing.