I want to write because I am in love with storytelling. I said that in my rant. If I didn't write novels, I would make movies. If I didn't make movies, I would paint. Any form will do, I just chose writing.
Realistically, I just want to be published, somewhere. I can't even do that. Hence...this rant.
First, any form will not do. You may have the talent to do all these things, or none of them. But you must not only choose just one, but master it before thinking about the others. I'ma storyteller, but my form of storytelling is writing. This is a specific think, requires specific skills and talent. Both take a while to master, if you can master them at all.
If you choose writing, it needs to be because you love writing more than anything else, and have more talent for it than anything else.
Seconds, "I just want to be published somewhere" is often the same thing as saying "I don't want to be published at all". It's an all too common mistake.
Realistically, six months to a year from now,
where do you want to be published?
If it's in a magazine, which magazine. Pick one or two or three, read at least a year's worth of issues, and write stories that
fit those magazines.
You have to write what readers want to read, not just whatever strikes your fancy. This should mean also writing what you most love to read, which is how you pick the magazines to write for.
The same is true of novels. Where do you want to have a novel published? It should be at the publisher or three that buys and releases the novels you most love to read. Here, too, you have to write what readers want to read. You write the kind of novel you most love to read, not just the kind you most want to write.
Outside of this, how much reading, and how much writing, are you doing day in and day out? Writing for publication is a business, and you have to treat it like one. You have to put in the hours, you have to give the public what it wants, and in the way it wants it. Do it right, and it will also be what you want to write, and what you want to read, but it must always be what the public wants to read.
There's nothing wrong with dreaming big. The bigger, the better. You may not reach your goal, but the bigger you dream, and the harder you work, the closer you'll probably come.
You do need some talent, you do need some skill, but this is no where most fail. Most fail because they don't understand the business, they don't put in the hours, and they make excuses for both. They are their own worst enemies.
It is not about getting critiques. It is not about beta readers. Darned near every story that arrives at a magazine, or in a an agent or editor's slush, has had both in spades, and they almost all stink on ice. It's about being good, about being original (And beta reader/critiquers are wonderful at destroying both, turning everything into same old, same old), and about reading and writing almost every last day, but with an eye toward what the reader wants.
You may lack the talent, you may lack the self-discipline, yu may lack the work ethic, and you may lack the common sense needed to succeed. Time will tell.
But you're only twenty-one, and very darned few writers accomplish anything until they're well past this age.
Forget "storyteller". That's a catchall phrase that will work against you. If you really want to be a
writer, then read every darned day, write every darned day, and give readers what they want, which should also be what you most love to read. Do this often enough, for long enough, and if you have any talent, you will succeed.
On the other side of this coin, don't be a damned fool about it. Give it another five years. If you work as much and as hard as you should, five years is more than enough time to show some serious signs that you have what it takes. You may not be rich and famous by then, but if you aren't published in a fair number of places, odds are high that you never will be.
