Whether online or in person, your tactic should always be the same: work to your strengths. Will it sometimes feel a little uncomfortable? Maybe. But there’s a big difference between momentarily stepping out of your comfort zone and “no way in hell am I ever doing that.” It may take time to learn.

Regardless of how true this phenomenon is or not, the concept of the junior novel nonetheless has a strong message: That a career in writing requires that you keep writing. Instant or overnight success is not an appropriate dream to chase, neither for reality nor for our own wellbeing.

I used to read too fast so I could earn as many free personal pan pizzas from Pizza Hut as I could. But as soon as I’d aged out of free pizza—the cruelest rite of passage ever—I calmed my cheese-drunk ass down and returned to reading like a human.