She clicked 'Submit' to the monthly competition on writetheworld.com at 9:58 PM, just before the library went dark.
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. 8teensworld barely
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. She clicked 'Submit' to the monthly competition on
The fluorescent lights of the library hummed, a stark contrast to the quiet panic rising in Maya’s chest. The deadline for the Write the World writetheworld.com competition was tonight, and she had nothing but a blank page, or rather, a half-finished story that felt entirely too thin. She was 17, and in her world, "barely" was the theme of the week. She wiped her palms on her jeans and
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.
It was only 300 words, but when she reached the final sentence, the panic had vanished. She hadn't written a masterpiece, but she’d written her story. She wasn't just a 17-year-old girl "barely" surviving her to-do list anymore. She was a writer, and she had something to say.