That is an interesting thread you started here
(Also, don't worry, my first love was also quite the mess qwq
If I could give any advice, it would be not to rush into things and rather go with the flow.)
I think every story has a little self-indulgence in it; and though I am only in the middle of prep-work for the 2nd chapter of my comic Sky Diver, without spoiling way too much, my project is basically full of it. Things I like, sometimes things I've experienced and wanted to reflect on, but also trying to tell a typical shonen-anime/jrpg-esque story through it. Romance, here and there, sure, mainly because I started to ship some characters in the project and even build entire plot-lines on that (cough or an entire saga cough)...
Yeah, so tldr "everything's in there", good times, but also bad times, since life also has its ups and downs xD (just like stocks)
I started writing all of that when I was twelve and even came up with a concept way earlier during elementary school, "What if me and my friends could travel through all these worlds where our favorite shows/games take place and have adventures with them?", which started to evolve into "what would be the consequences, if me and my friends travelled those worlds?" around 2015 - three years later. The plot-line of the story - the first of four sagas at least - is entirely based on those 2 questions that I started building upon, which is heavily reflected on the main character, of course, since she was a self-insert character when I created her, but evolved into something completely different.
I'm pretty much proud of that concept, since it really shows that not only your characters evolve, but you also evolve with them, as you grow up and learn new things. She basically grew up with me.
I also tried making a comic once before, around 2015/2016, but gave up on it, since I was still laying out the fundament of the whole storyline, which ended in the fourth saga. Then I started rewriting everything and, one day, started to tell myself "Hey, 2021 is gonna be my year" and now here we are. ^^