I would read. I would explore

A short story is the ultimate close-up magic trick -- a couple of thousand words to take you around the universe or break your heart.

The only advice I can give you is what you're telling yourself. Only, maybe you're too scared to listen.

There are only two worlds - your world, which is the real world, and other worlds, the fantasy. Worlds like this are worlds of the human imagination: their reality, or lack of reality, is not important. What is important is that they are there. these worlds provide an alternative. Provide an escape. Provide a threat. Provide a dream, and power; provide refuge, and pain. They give your world meaning. They do not exist; and thus they are all that matters.

People kill what they fear. They burned, and drowned, and hanged those they saw as witches, the devil's servants: the wise women and the cunning men, the unfortunate, the lost and the strange

A book is a dream that you hold in your hands.

Writing imaginative tales for the young is like sending coals to Newcastle. For coals.