Hey, @SoAnn. I am sorry you are struggling with this. There can be a lot of pressure with school writing assignments. But you can do it!

I had written a few books before in my area of professional expertise. Those were easy, because I was proficient in the field and I liked the subject matter. It was fun to me. Plus, the publishers always came to me. They wanted me to write these books. So, there really was no pressure. It was stuff I enjoyed and the "teacher" (publishers and editors) had already told me they liked my work.

Scroll ahead to now. I've written two new books--one on my illness and a very long hospitalization at a notorious and very famous hospital, and the second, a novel about a superhero with special powers and a mental illness, a thriller. No publisher knows about these. I don't even have an agent. I wrote them because I thought they should be written. And, again, the subject matter is stuff I know and am interested in.

I tell you all this because I used to have terror about writing. I just couldn't get going or started. I was critical of every word before I had any words on the paper. Then, I met a successful novelist. I told her I was having trouble getting going on this novel. She listened and then, she said: "Writers write. If you want to be a writer, then be a writer. write. Don't worry about agents or teachers or critics or grades. Just write from your heart. That is how to become a writer."

It seems so simple and silly, but she was dead-right. So, I just started writing. I left the self-criticism and comparisons to great authors aside and I wrote. That's when I realized I enjoy writing these books--it's fun. So, that's what I do. I don't worry about publishing them. It'll happen when it happens.

So, I would say, try to put the self-critiquing and grade-freaking to the side and just try writing for writing's sake. Stop being hard on yourself and just do it. You may be surprised at what you produce.

Wishing you all the best--