8teensworld Barely <99% Premium>

She thought about the advice she’d read on a writing blog — If you’re stuck, stop trying to write a 'good' story. Write the story you need to hear.

She wiped her palms on her jeans and deleted the paragraph she’d spent an hour on. She stopped trying to use complex words and started typing the raw thoughts she’d been holding in.

Barely sleeping. Barely passing AP Physics. Barely keeping her thoughts from crashing into a mess of anxiety. She stared at the prompt: Insurmountable Obstacles . "Maya, library closes in ten," Mrs. Gable said softly.

Maya sighed, her eyes resting on her screen. She hadn't even started writing a story; she was trying to live one. She had spent the last three days working on a piece for a competition writetheworld.com that just didn’t feel right. She wanted to win, but her story felt, well, barely there.