JLRose – welcome to Medium! (and also Australia.) Thanks for sharing your story. I’m sorry you had such a bad time with FB writers groups – they’re not all like that, promise! Some are very supportive, and also leave you the freedom and space to explore whatever it is you want to write. It’s not for me to give you advice, so I’ll say instead – I’ve come back to writing after a break of about 20 years, working in a high pressure day job – and publishing on Medium, with the support and interaction you can find from other writers here, has been a wonderful way to re-find my groove. I discovered it initially through a FB writers group last year where a challenge was set to blog every day for the month of May. I didn’t take up the challenge, as I felt blogging wasn’t my speed – but then in early June, just before returning to the day job, I published a piece of flash fiction, to almost instant response. Then I published a poem, that also had positive response – including a comment from one of the best known poets on Medium – and from then on I kept going. (Did I mention the wonderful and supportive writing communities you can find on Medium?) So, write away, discover your voice, when you’re ready, put something out in the world – but also keep reading, wide and deep, both online and on printed page, and reflect on what you read. And who knows where it will all lead?

Happy writing!