Hi Megan! Welcome :)

As a singer/songwriter, poetry and fiction writer, and sometime visual artist (love your style BTW) here on Steemit I have nothing but good things to say about this platform. The work people post is inspiring and often brilliant, the contests are fun, and the community is so supportive and interesting. I hope you find this place as much fun as I do. I think it tends to expand creative horizons. I'd always written poetry and songs, but I began writing fiction (without really meaning to at first) because of Steemit, and now it's one of my favorite creative outlets.

Currently my two favorite events are the weekly Open Mic and the Daily Freewrite, but there are many others to choose from. Definitely check out the contests and other initiatives and see what strikes your fancy.

And BTW you can still do Freewrites even if it takes you longer than 5 minutes to write something. Some of us don't time ourselves at all... I used to (briefly), but now I sometimes spend hours on one freewrite, and I know there are others who do the same thing. I just like the prompts, and the community, so I do it my way and everyone seems to be ok with it ;)